One of the best films of Robert Aldrich’s middle period (1966). Aldrich takes a fairly standard adventure-plot departure pointa plane crash in the desert, and the survivors struggle to rebuild itand has a field day with all the character tensions that ensue. The movie is unusually long (147 minutes), but it keeps moving and stays suspenseful thanks to an able all-star cast: James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Hardy Kruger, Ernest Borgnine, Ian Bannen, Ronald Fraser, Christian Marquand, Dan Duryea, and George Kennedy. (JR)