SOS Pacific (1959) User Reviews (20)

Enjoyable twisty-turny adventure story

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 29 May 2016]

SOS PACIFIC is a relatively low budget adventure film that takes place in the Pacific but was actually filmed in the Canary Islands. After a rather lengthy and complex set up, the viewer is introduced to a disparate group of characters whose light aircraft ditches in the sea leaving them in a battle for survival against the odds.

This is a film that's enlivened by a decent cast and an anything-goes plot which keeps twisting and turning all over the place. At first it feels like your usual crime thriller with smugglers, cops, and traitors thrown into the mix, and then it becomes your typical disaster film with survivors of a plane crash coming together. The final plot I won't spoil, but I wasn't expecting it and it's handled very well with a maximum of tension.

The film's protagonist is none other than the likable Eddie Constantine (The Long Good Friday), immensely charismatic throughout. Richard Attenborough has a really delicious part as a small-time crook and low life and he runs away with the mannerisms of his character. Pier Angeli and Eva Bartok supply the glamour, John Gregson is the pilot, and Hammer actor Clifford Evans the detective. None of them put a foot wrong. Director Guy Green had an interesting run of films ranging from the Hammer thriller THE SNORKEL to the Attenborough classic THE ANGRY SILENCE, and this is certainly a feather in his cap. The copy I saw on the Talking Pictures TV channel was badly colourised, and I think the black and white version would have been more effective.

May Day at sea

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 31 December 2019]

Eddie Constantine, American expatriate actor who was a star in French cinema is the hero of SOS Pacific. He's a prisoner in the custody of Clifford Evans when the plane they are on goes down in the Pacific.

The survivors make it to an island but the island is the site of an atomic test. And none of these people would even know how to stop a test if they could. Which is the main weakness of the plot.

Stlll this is an exciting adventure saga and it boasts a really good performance by Richard Attenborough as the sniveling rat coward who puts them all in danger. He also ratted out Constantine on a smuggling rap so Constantine has a personal score to settle.

The whole cast is excellent, but pay close attention to Attenborough. One of the sleaziest most cowardly performances you'll ever see.

Hell in the Pacific

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 22 February 2019]

A small seaplane encounters trouble when it hits bad weather when it flies off from a small island in the pacific. The cockpit catches fire with faulty electrics, the radio does not work properly, the navigator dies because of the fumes emitted from the wrong type of fire extinguisher.

Running low on fuel the plane lands near a small deserted island. The passengers swim ashore only to realise they are in imminent danger as the island is a testing site for a nuclear bomb.

SOS Pacific is a British B disaster film with a motley flying crew of owner-pilot Jack Bennett (John Gregson) who unravels because he has cut corners. The disgruntled navigator Willy (Cec Linder) who hates his job. Pretty flight attendant Teresa (Pier Angeli.)

The six passengers include an old policeman who gets air sick, Petersen (Clifford Evans) carrying a prisoner Mark (Eddie Constantine) a tough sailor who is charged with smuggling. Whitey (Richard Attenborough) a small time snivelling crook who has snitched against Mark. Dr Strauss, a German scientist on his way to a teaching job, snooty Miss Shaw and Maria, a good time party girl.

It is all rather formulaic, we just know Petersen will be the only one to man up under pressure and the pretty ladies will fall for him. Whitey will buckle under pressure and become villainous. Not sure why the policeman put him and Mark on the same plane.

Idea re-used for TV show.

[tjm199 · 6/10 · 6 September 2018]

I haven't seen this movie but would like to, if I can find a copy. I feel I have seen it since I remember an episode of "77 Sunset Strip" that used the same plot. In the hip for it's time tv show, Stu Bailey (Ephram Zimbalist, Jr.) is escorting a prisoner back to Los Angeles from someplace in Asia when the plane is brought down in bad weather. The cast of characters is a bit different than the movie. There's the pilot, of course, a man who is divorcing his wife for his secretary. Of course, both secretary, wife and their teenaged daughter are on the same flight. The disaster naturally brings the divorcing couple back together and the secretary goes with the Pilot, I believe. Jacques Bergerac was the criminal in the tv show and did a decent job. Of course Ephram Zimbalist and Jacques save the day and the bomb does not explode. Another example of just how much Hollywood can recycle anything.

They were "lead" there.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 1 May 2021]

It's a real potential blast when a group of completely incompatible people end up on a island in the Pacific, one not so deserted, and in danger of being blown sky high. You've got the typical criminals, seemingly loose women, a high society snob, a bookworm and the surviving flight crew, and when their plane goes down, they managed to make it to shore, but it's not exactly the sanctuary that gives hope for survival.

The island that they end up on is actually a nuclear testing site which sets up the possibility of disaster within hours. Not only do they need to try to contact aircraft and other boats in the area but they need to try to dismantle the device which is set to go off shortly. They don't have time to create washing machines and vehicles out of bamboo or build huts. They just need to get off the island.

Richard Attenborough is deliciously sleazy here, completely grizzled, and totally unrecognizable as the creator of Jurassic Park. The beautiful Pier Angeli may be fragile looking but she's a survivor, and Eddie Constantine is a Great hero as the surviving pilot. John Gregson, Eva Bartok (the "easy" girl), Gunnar Möller, Clifford Evans, Jean Anderson (the snob who changes her tune when it comes to survival), Harold Kasket and Cec Linder offer strong performances.

At first Anderson wants to make you throw her overboard, but in spite of her many complaints, when push comes to shove, she's the one that I'd want to be stranded with because even though she's the type that debates over the right time for tea, in a real storm, she knows exactly the right thing to do. Very intense and well written, this is one of several similar theme films of the late 50's, yet is unique enough to be worthy of finding on its own merits.

A nice drama and harrowing adventure in the Pacific

[SimonJack · 6/10 · 29 April 2021]

Richard Attenborough is the big-name star of "SOS Pacific," and got the top billing for the film. And, which his character is particularly important for the plot, his role is about fourth or fifth in screen time. The main character and "hero" of this film is Mark Reisner, played by Eddie Constantine. And the female lead is Pier Angeli as Teresa.

This is an interesting film set somewhere in the Pacific Ocean but away from the Southern vacation and tourism islands. It's an interesting plot, and the only film I can think of that was made that had an aspect of the nuclear tests in the ocean. That's the best part of the film that take a considerable time to get to that point. But the buildup is necessary to give the audience the background on the characters. Unfortunately, that also seems quite slow after a while, and the early part doesn't have the better acting.

To say more about the plot would be to dampen the effect and enjoyment of this movie. It's worth seeing.

Watchable, nothing more.

[MOscarbradley · 5/10 · 31 May 2015]

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.

Great Unknown Suspense Story

[dbborroughs · 8/10 · 25 April 2004]

A plane full of people encounters trouble in flight and is forced down in the Pacific. Thankfully they are near an island or not, since the island is due to have an atom bomb test go off in a very short time and they have no way of letting anyone know that they are there.

It may sound corny and contrived but this film just works from start to finish. Once the film is underway you just are happy to have a film this involving to drag you along for the 90 minutes that this film takes to get to the conclusion.Why this film isn't better known is mystery since it has everything that a mystery should in spades and then some.

The cast is great, including Richard Attenborough who plays one of the screens great slime balls.Eddie Constantine makes great hero and makes you wonder why he never became a bigger star here in the United States.

Search this film out, you will enjoy it.

Did we see the same movie?

[mcvouty78 · 2/10 · 31 July 2008]

I'm a little surprised at the positive comments posted about this film. Anti-climax after anti-climax is what I remember from seeing it as a 12-year-old in 1964. When the the actual climax came along, my buddy and I laughed out loud. Sure, Pier Angeli was good-looking and her character good-hearted. But Eddie Constantine was much better playing his Lemmy Caution character than he was in this picture. I've certainly seen worse films, but SOS Pacific is memorable to me only because of how lousy I thought it was at the time. Far-fetched plot, low-budget set, B-list cast, predictable directing... not much to recommend. (It was on a double bill with the original McHale's Navy movie, which wasn't very good, either, but Captain Binghamton was a dead ringer for my junior high school principal.)

Nothing disastrous about this blend of disaster thrills and survivalist drama.

[hitchcockthelegend · 8/10 · 17 July 2013]

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

Bored now.

[bombersflyup · 2/10 · 11 August 2021]

SOS Pacific is rather dull, with an unrealistic and odd story.

Daytime television stuff. Passengers of different types, many forgettable and one who coincidentally studies nuclear physics. Neither Angeli or Attenborough could keep this thing above water, the latter in an unusual role, odd end pairing for Angeli.

Enjoyable and obscure Atomic Age thriller

[chris_gaskin123 · 9/10 · 13 January 2006]

SOS Pacific is one those good movies that is rather hold to get hold of and have to rely it coming on the telly as it isn't available on video or DVD anywhere. I taped this in about 2001 when BBC2 screened it one afternoon and I'm pleased I kept it.

A boat-plane with a motley collection of passengers on board is forced to crash land into the sea near a remote island after going through a thunderstorm, an on-board fire and then running out of fuel. The passengers include two crooks, a copper, a posh lady and a nuclear physicist. They reach the island by dingy and once on it, start to explore. They discover derelict ships and lead bunkers and then learn that this island is an atomic bomb test site and only have around 5 hours before it goes off. Luckily, a way is come up to stop the bomb from exploding and one of the crooks heads for a smaller island where there is a transmitter which will set the bomb off when a remote control plane passes. The crook needs to divert the radio wave to stop it... He also falls in love with the stewardess, even though she is with the pilot who gets eaten by sharks.

SOS Pacific was made during the Atomic Age and gives you an idea on what could happen if in this situation yourself, a rather frightening one I would imagine.

Now to the excellent cast which includes Dickie Attenborough (Brighton Rock, Jurassic Park), John Gregson (The Titfield Thunderbolt, Genevieve), Pier Angeli, Eva Bartok and Eddie Constantine.

If SOS Pacific ever comes on telly again, tape it as it is certainly worth watching and hard to get hold of. A treat.

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.

Very under-rated movie.

[ronevickers · 10/10 · 25 January 2010]

This is a very under-rated film which sets off at a good pace, and gathers momentum as the story progresses. As suspense thrillers go, it's hard to beat, and is helped in no small way by terrific playing from a top class ensemble cast. Special mention must go to Richard Attenborough as the oily, sly grass. Attenborough simply oozes slime in the role, and demonstrates yet again what a very fine actor he is. Pier Angeli, Eddie Constantine and John Gregson are all uniformly excellent as well. It's a film that never seems to receive regular airings, which is a pity as it is well worth seeing and is highly recommended. The location scenes are good, and the direction and cinematography are first rate too. The film really is a long lost gem!

I saw this as a child in a theater. 50+ years later

[rossgbaker2 · 9/10 · 17 January 2019]

I saw this in a theater as a child. It was extremely memorable to the point that my brother and I would frequently bring it up and wonder what the name was. 50+ years later Google came to the rescue. I found a DVD available and snapped it up. YES! It was much as I remembered.

A better quality version would be much better since this was a grainy full frame affair. The story held up however.

Very enjoyable

[jjr007 · 8/10 · 24 July 2006]

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".

first-class, underrated film

[[e-mail] · 10/10 · 14 January 2007]

I most certainly agree with the reviewer who awarded the film a "10". It does, indeed, well deserve it.

It is one of the most underrated pictures around with good, strong performances, very taut direction by Guy Green, excellent photography by Wilkie Cooper and interesting locations in the Canary Islands. Also worthy of note is the music score which was by the great French composer, Georges Auric.

Just as good, of course, is the story. I wont, of course, give away its great plot but just simply advise people to see it whenever it turns up. I envy the person who bought it on ebay! I, too, hope he enjoys it. It's a must-see thriller of the first order.

Memorable

[hawksports2 · 10/10 · 5 October 2010]

I have seen this movie when it premiered in Germany (in 1959 or 1960) at the age of 11 or 12. Despite my young age, I had already become an action movie addict and I remember to this day having been totally fascinated by Attenborough and Constantine's acting. (Must have been too young to notice Ms Angeli). Contrary to another reviewer I believe that Eddie Constantine's "Mark" character in this movie is definitely on the same acting level as his more famous "Lemmy Caution". SOS Pacific had an impact on me which had not diminished even when I saw that film many years later on TV. Let us hope, somebody will finally decide to release this excellent piece of action nostalgia on DVD.

Pier Angeli was charming and Richard Attenborough was wonderful in this film!

[sandibiaso · 10/10 · 15 March 2006]

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.

atomic thriller

[CaptainG · 10/10 · 30 March 1999]

I saw this movie 20 years ago and can't shake it. It was 5 stores in one. Great cast,good angles,explosive drama..Hey,I just liked it..Ok..a must see..IF you can find it...

Very good!

[RodrigAndrisan · 10/10 · 26 August 2022]

I love Eddie Constantine! Before James Bond, there was Lemmy Caution. And Lemmy Caution was Eddie Constantine, the actor with a unique sense of humor and a presence that fills the screen. All the films with him, even the ones with a not so great script, are worth seeing. Pier Angeli is a beauty. Richard Attenborough makes an excellent villain. And the other actors are very good. An excellent movie!