I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I suppose you could call "SOS Pacific" an early British attempt at a disaster movie as a motley crew of lower division 'stars', (Richard Attenborough, John Gregson, Pier Angeli, Eddie Constantine, Eva Bartok), find themselves stranded on a desert island after their plane crashes and if that wasn't bad enough, the island is about to become target practice for the Atom Bomb. Leaving aside the laughably clichéd script and the hackneyed acting, this is reasonably entertaining. It has one of Attenborough's rare bad performances and one of Constantine's rare good ones. Shot, very nicely in black and white, by Wilkie Cooper though now currently available in a very poorly desaturated colour version.

SOS Pacific is directed by Guy Green and adapted to screenplay by Robert Westerby from a story by Gilbert Travers Thomas and Bryan Forbes inputs additional dialogue and scenes. It stars Richard Attenborough, Pier Angeli, Eddie Constantine, John Gregson, Eva Bartok, Gunnar Möller, Clifford Evans, Jean Anderson, Harold Kasket and Cec Linder. Music is by Georges Auric and cinematography by Wilkie Cooper.When a flying boat encounters mid-air troubles it has to emergency land near an island in the Pacific. Apparently uninhabited, the island, as the survivors are soon to find out, has something shocking in store for all.A little British cracker, SOS Pacific might be out dated now with its big reveal of theme, but it's a perfect example of how to make a tight thriller on a modest budget. It's very much a film of two halves. The first half plays out as a disaster movie, here we are introduced to the folk who will ultimately make up the survivors on the island. It's a roll call of stock formula characters; a tough copper and his cheeky but hero-in-waiting prisoner, a good time girl, the weasel loose cannon who is also an informer, a prim and proper lady, a German physicist, the stoic and beautiful stewardess and the pilot with a drink problem! Familiar characters to a degree, but well blended and fleshed out by the astute Guy Green (A Patch of Blue) who deftly piles tension on top of tension with each passage of story.After the back stories involve us we then get the mid-air dramatics and the surprise that's awaiting us all on the island. Once there the characters shift in tone, they have to for various reasons, and then we are treated to heroics, suspicions, sacrifices, fights, hysteria and a thrilling "ticking clock" type finale. Wilkie Cooper's (I See A Dark Stranger/Green For Danger) black and white photography accentuates the sweaty atmospheric mood, and Auric (The Innocents) scores it in 2 x 2 thriller/drama fashion. Cast performances are uniformly good, with the stand outs being Constantine who makes for a good Bondian type alpha male, Attenborough a telling slime-ball and the gorgeous Angeli as the pivotal lady of the piece.Some of the dialogue is twee and the model work is not high grade stuff, while unlikely coincidences are evident throughout, but this is definitely worth seeking out by anyone interested in tight and taut British thrillers. 7.5/10

I saw this when I was about seven years old from the back of our car at a drive in movie. I thought it was a very exciting movie at the time but that was the only time I saw it, and would like to find a copy of it. I have not been able to find it in DVD or VHS yet, if anyone knows where it is available, please let me know. This movie has an Alfred Hitchcock feel to it, the suspense slowly builds to a climactic ending. I am surprised that it is not more well known as I have found few references to it on the internet. Most of the actors are not familiar to me except for Richard Attenborough whom I also enjoyed in "The Great Escape".

I give this film 10 stars because it deserves 10 stars. Pier Angeli was charming and showed that she was very much like her character. Her character was the heart of the survivors of a plane crash that are left to try to survive on an island that could be set to blow up. Richard Attenborough was very convincing as the character who will stop at nothing to get off the island. His tenacity was evident in that role.My favorite scene is when Pier Angeli's character goes into the water to save one survivor from drowning. This shows her character's heart and strength. She couldn't have played this role any better.I wanted others to see it so I sold it on Ebay. I hope the person I sold it to sells it to someone else and so on and so on.