The Disappearance of Flight 412 (1974)
Overview
Colonel Pete Moore (Glenn Ford) is commander of the Whitney Radar Test Group, which has been experiencing electrical difficulties aboard its aircraft. To ferret out the problem, he sends a four-man crew on Flight 412. Shortly into the test, the jet picks up three blips on radar, and subsequently, two fighters scramble and mysteriously disappear. At this point, Flight 412 is monitored and forced to land by Digger Control, a top-level, military intelligence group that debunks UFO information. The intrepid colonel, kept in the dark about his crew, decides to investigate the matter himself.
Cast
Glenn Ford
Colonel Pete Moore
Bradford Dillman
Maj. Mike Dunning
David Soul
Capt. Roy Bishop
Robert F. Lyons
Capt. Cliff Riggs
Guy Stockwell
Lt. Col. Trottman
Greg Mullavey
Lt. Tony Podryski
Jack Ging
Green
Ken Kercheval
White
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- Reviews
This was a decent TV-movie about US government reaction to the question of air force personnel coming across UFOs during routine flight tests. It is well-acted and constructed, and at 71 minutes, doesn't overstay its welcome. Though I haven't been the biggest Glenn Ford fan over the years, through seeing more of his work, my appreciation and fondness had been slowly but steadily climbing, and it was a decent, fun look at pre-'Starsky and Hutch' and pop-music-success David Soul and pre-'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman' Greg Mullavey, as well as other decent, recognizable talent from the 70's American crime/police shows and TV-movies I watched growing up here in Canada.
Former actor and later Directors Guild of America vice president and president director Taylor, a mainstay of American TV-movies and shows from 1965-2004 (whom I know most from his work on the original 'Star Trek' series) utilizes a documentary-style approach for the film, complete with military words and times appearing on the screen and narration. It's a serviceable method, though at the very end he undermines it, showing the usual 'All characters and events are fictitious...' blurb...had he not, I would have given it 7/10. It's a decent watch and makes you wonder just how governments around the world have reacted to abnormal events such as those that are talked about here. It's definitely worth a watch if you're interested at all in 'close encounters', like any of the three actors I mentioned, and can appreciate and enjoy the 70's style of television making. My copy was in my infamous Mill Creek 50-pack 'Nightmare Worlds'.
