Richard Widmark is always reliable for a rewarding performance, but here he is unusually impressing, as he actually develops a character that from the start seems rather despicable, bogged down as he is in ruined relationships that keep reminding him of his own mistakes, married to Veronica Lake whom he neglects and brushes off, and obsessed with his lost love Linda Darnell who reappears as his best friend's wife, and he can't let her alone - but gradually you learn what he is really in for. He seems the maddest daredevil to take an airplane up in the middle of a hurricane, you cannot understand why, but gradually the whole story appears, and you will have to change your mind about him. It is actually a psychological film, Richard desperately trying to come to terms with himself as he faces the perfect storm, and he actually passes through hell in this nightmare ride of his own personal chaos, and at the same time it is a very exciting thriller, although no one gets killed. It's a virtuoso performance for all hands, Gary Merrill as the commander trying to reach the desperate pilot to get him down, the two ladies on the ground both loving him and trying to understand him and make him understand, and the director Andre de Toth, husband of Veronica Lake, actually being the one in control of the whole situation. All films of airplane adventures have their moments of screwed up excitement, but this one constantly hovers over the top.
Review of Slattery's Hurricane
