Flight to Tangier (1953)

I always think Jack Palance would have made for a super "Skeletor"; his angular features just as recognisable as Robert Douglas' voice in this cold war thriller. A plane is expected to arrive at Tangiers airport carrying a lucrative cargo. When it crashes, burns out with no trace of any bodies the search begins. Who has the missing $3m? We have no shortage of suspects, nor of searchers. First amongst them is Palance "Walker", a decorated soldier who now dabbles in the black market then "Susan" (Joan Fontaine) who was the fiancée of the plane's pilot. Also on the hunt is the intended recipient - "Danzer" (Douglas) who intends to find his money and use it finance a transaction to ship warplanes back behind the Iron Curtain. "Walker" and "Susan" team up, with some idea where the treasure and the pilot are, and off they trek with both thugs and police in hot pursuit. When it is in adventure mode, this is quite well put together; the story is robust enough and the dialogue sparing (always a benefit for the usually wooden-as-planks Douglas and Palance), but all too frequently there are dreary romantic double plays involved - not least at the hands of Corrine Calvet's ("Nicole"). It can't quite make up it's mind who it is for, this film - and though the ending is quite exciting, for the most part it just seems to rumble along in second gear.