FLIGHT TO TANGIER

US, 1953, 90 minutes, Colour.
Joan Fontaine, Jack Palance, Corinne Calvet, Robert Douglas, Marcel Dalio, Jeff Morrow, Murray Matheson, John Doucette.
Directed by Charles Marquis Warren.

Flight to Tangier is a routine Paramount thriller of the early '50s. It was written and directed by Charles Marquis Warren who later specialised in small-budget westerns. The film has a surprisingly strong cast for its routine story. It was filmed in California standing in for Africa and in 3-D.

1. Enjoyable but routine thriller? Popular elements of the 1950s?

2. Californian locations for Africa? The atmosphere? Action? The stars?

3. The background of the war, the 150s and international gun-running, politics? Tangiers as a centre?

4. The opening and the flight, the group waiting at the airport, the complexities, the mixed motives, the truth, the arms deals, the violence?

5. Jack Palance as Walker, waiting, his friend, the war, Nicky and her love for him, the encounters with Susan, the killing and his eluding the police, the devices to escape, the gun-runners, getting out of the city, the quiet wait, finding the plane, his partner, Nicky's death, the truth?

6. Susan and her waiting, her story, involved in the action, her relationship with the agent, her being an agent?

7. Nicky and her contact with the arms dealers, love for Walker, sharing the adventures, her death?

8. The sketch of international arms dealers, criminal conspiracies, doublecrossing and murder?

9. The resolution in a routine way? the correct people dying? surviving?