Rent The Night My Number Came Up (1955)

Excellent, Tense, Exciting Premonition Airline Drama Set in Post-war Hong Kong - The Night My Number Came Up review by PV

I loved this. Of course, with its so-called national stereotypes it would never be made now BUT the white British army officers and working class businessman are NO less stereotyped than any Chinese characters.

Lots of fun stuff about precognition/premonition and superstition, beliefs, cultures etc. and the difference between the West and East. Really great to see Hong Kong again, before the Chinese 'invasion' after 1999. Sad to see it happen.

The scenes on the aeroplane, whether the dream at the start or the real events later (which I could sort of predict) are genuinely nail-bitingly tense. Compare to the airline section of 1980s movie THE TWILIGHT ZONE.

Made me giggle when the hungover passengers were trying to get a hit of oxygen to ease their headaches and pain! Probably illegal now. Anyway, the lack of oxygen on the plane is because there is no need for it for an aircraft that does not go over 10,000 feet - a crucial part of the plot later (NO SPOILERS)

A superb cast including a very young and plummy Denholm Elliot (watch him over 30 years later in ROOM WITH A VIEW)

4 stars, almost 5. A great solid old-fashioned British film that some will hate and sneer down at - but I loved it! A hidden gem.

Supernatural thriller. - The Night My Number Came Up review by Steve

High tension disaster-thriller with a twist, which grips in the opening scene and won't let go. At a dinner party in Hong Kong, a visiting brass hat (Michael Hordern) tells a gathering of military officers and colonial staff his nightmare about a plane of 13 passengers and crew who crash in hazardous conditions on a remote coastline in Japan.

When it emerges that most of the people in the room are travelling the next day to Tokyo on a light aircraft, a germ of unease is sown. And then some minor details begin to come true. The key character is an administrator (Alexander Knox) who is so superstitious that he has published a book denying the existence of fate or premonitions!

And it's his growing panic that drives the suspense. Until the plane is circling a small island through a snowstorm in the dark with the fuel tank empty... There's an engaging crew of British stalwarts filling out the cast, led by Michael Redgrave as a rational RAF officer. It's mostly one for the chaps, with Sylvia Sim peripheral in her last film.

There's some informative chat about the psychology of superstition and fatalism. Today this wouldn't survive the edit, but it adds to the richness of the tale. The inspired premise is brilliantly realised on both sides of the camera. It's among the most suspenseful action films ever made, and afterwards, it feels a bit like a dream.