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.
