To start off with the title for Jet Over The Atlantic is completely a wrong one. The airliner that our passengers are taking from Madrid to New York is one of those old propeller type jobs. That's a harbinger for things to come with this film. A pity because if the producer, Benedict Bogeaus hadn't been so sloppy, he could have had a classic film on his hands.
George MacReady at his sinister best in this film is an English lord who is upset with his wife Anna Lee and decides to kill her. He puts a bomb in his luggage as the two of them are embarking on a transatlantic flight. Not an exploding bomb mind you, but a device that's an incendiary that sets the baggage section on fire and causes a noxious poison to seep through the plane's ventilation systems. Some on the plane seem to be more susceptible than others for no discernible reason.
Traveling on the plane is Guy Madison being extradited from Spain by FBI man George Raft. Guy's girlfriend Virginia Mayo is also on board as are a host of other passengers from all walks of life. Guy's a former pilot from the Korean War who was convicted wrongly of two murders and we see in the flashback he didn't do it. He's facing the death penalty with his return. But in an emergency, he's the only one on the plane who can help.
I don't think I have to tell you how this ends, but this was a sloppy B film with a lot of holes in the story and in the execution. It's a poor man's The High And The Mighty and it's harbinger of those Airport films to come.
The cast performs well enough and there certainly is a lot of tension in the air. Jet Over The Atlantic could have stood a lot of improvement though, starting with the title.
