JohnHowardReid A tiresome "tribute" to the Air/Sea Rescue Service with all the expected platitudes dutifully delivered. The script construction is rather odd. As might be expected, there's a framing story about an Air/Sea rescue. This story runs far too long for the limited amount of interest it generates. One of the problems is that we don't know the people who are being rescued at all. Although the screenplay tries to work up a bit of interest and sympathy per medium of a young Japanese boy, this is so transparent a device (and it is too clumsily handled in dialogue, acting and direction) that it just doesn't work. Within this framing story are set three long flashbacks: Widmark has one about his lost love, and Brynner has one about his lost love. Between these two, there's another which starts off with Widmark, then diverts to Chakiris and his first encounter with Widmark! At least he lovely Daniele Gaubert prevents the film from generating total torpor – despite its moderately sized budget, location lensing and fair special effects. The movie has also two distinct photographic styles which provide some technical interest in deciding whether the atmospheric lighting is the work of Burnett Guffey and the bland material is Joseph MacDonald's contribution – or vice versa!

gunnellis There are at least 4 instances of Paul Frees stepping in as the voice actor overlaying the on screen performance of a minor character. It was a lot of fun for a fan of Paul Frees. It made it seem like an Orson Welles movie. With all the lips not quite matching the dialog and the rich voice of Welles replacing the original actor. I wonder if it was just a gun and shoot issue for this movie. Knowing that sound would have to be cleaned up later and that Frees just got handed a copious load. He's also the narrator. It's interesting that this is an aircraft lover movie and that I'm writing about Paul frees being used so much. The Steve Canyon TV series, out on DVD, also has Frees popping up everywhere. And Steve Canyon is aircraft porno.

bkoganbing In 1964 at Ashiya Air Force Rescue station in Japan, another Flight From Ashiya is launched when word of survivors on a raft in the North China Sea is heard. Two planes are given the mission.While on the way in flashback we see the lives of three of the men on the rescue mission with various incidents from their past. The three are Colonel Richard Widmark, Lieutenant George Chakiris, and Sergeant Yul Brynner. You're supposed to take only essentials, but in this situation all three men are taking a lot of baggage along. Both Widmark and Brynner met and lost their true loves during World War II and Chakiris blames himself for the deaths of several people during another mission ten years earlier that both Widmark and Brynner were on.There are some very nice flying and rescue sequences in Flight From Ashiya, aviation buffs will love this film.Best performance in the film has to be Yul Brynner the half Japanese half Polish American sergeant who decided to make a career of the Armed Services even after World War II. My guess is that Brynner probably served in the 443rd Division of Nisei and served in Italy as well as North Africa where his flashback takes place.Widmark was a civilian pilot who ran an airline in the Phillipines before World War II where he met Shirley Knight. What happens to both of them after Pearl Harbor and the invasion of the Phillipines shapes Widmark's attitudes. Last year Dennis Quaid and Ashton Kutcher did a film about the Coast Guard Rescue Force called Swimmer. A lot of Flight From Ashiya was incorporated into that film. That was a worthy successor to Flight From Ashiya.

Poseidon-3 This is, despite a fairly epic attempt at storytelling and a heavyweight cast, a snoozefest. The pacing is very dry and ultimately predictable and the storyline is trite, contrived and pat. Widmark, Chakiris and Brynner are on a rescue mission and as their plane approaches it's destination, each of them has a flashback to another dramatic time for them. Chakiris' is the most believable as he recalls a tragic rescue attempt of some villagers caught in an icy mountain range. Widmark recalls meeting a photojournalist (Knight) and falling in love against a war-torn backdrop. Brynner remembers meeting a foreign girl (Gaubert) who he can only communicate with visually since they don't speak each others' language. Parker gets the film's most pointless & thankless role as a woman who pines for Brynner back at the base. The film ranges from stodgy to overwrought with many unintentionally amusing moments and some really ripe dialogue. Made at a time when studios were still getting used to a little more freedom with immorality, it wants desperately to be cutting edge and racy, yet is hopelessly old-fashioned and silly. There is NO attempt at period flavor. Knight's story is set in 1941, yet her hair and clothing are early sixties (she even wears a skirt almost identical to Parker's, whose story takes place in 1964!) Her awesome mane of hair could easily have been styled into a neato '40's 'do, but alas, no one did. Widmark and Knight's story tries to cram a two-hour-movie's worth of clichés and dramatics into about 20 minutes. They literally fall hopelessly in love after one plane ride! The same can be said of Brynner's affair. He gives his seat to a girl on a bus and then can't live without her. This whole section of the film is ludicrous, but Gaubert is quite lovely. The ending of this sequence is surreal and jaw-dropping! It must be seen to be believed and is almost worth sitting through the film for. There are worse ways to spend two hours, but this is hardly rewarding entertainment. There is also a hilarious before and after narration by a man who sounds like he did voice-over for army recruitment shorts.