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Fate Is the Hunter

Fate Is the Hunter (1964)

November. 08,1964
|
6.8
|
NR
| Drama

A man refuses to believe that pilot error caused a fatal crash, and persists in looking for another reason. Airliner crashes near Los Angeles due to unusual string of coincidences. Stewardess, who is sole survivor, joins airline executives in discovering the causes of the crash.

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Reviews

TinsHeadline
1964/11/08

Touches You

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BootDigest
1964/11/09

Such a frustrating disappointment

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Deanna
1964/11/10

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

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Zandra
1964/11/11

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

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flarepilot
1964/11/12

First off, I am one of the rare pilots who loves this movie. I'm a 737 captain for a major airline in the USA. Also a flight instructor, an instrument instructor and multi engine instructor.I've read the book and am glad the book and movie are so different. IN this way I get two amazing stories, but with that special flavor expressed in the title.I won't describe the movie, others have done that. But if you are a pilot and don't "GET" this movie, you better take some more flying lessons.I mean it. If you don't like the fictional airliner, well that' s fine.Get over that part of it.Here is a movie that actually talks about a rudder power switch!I can also say that the cinematography is wonderful and the opening 12 minutes and last 10 minutes is the most amazing stuff I've seen. (short of reality).So, see this movie. And shut off the damn bell.

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d-millhoff
1964/11/13

Imperfect, and not even remotely true to Gann's aviation classic upon which it is purportedly based, Fate is the Hunter is nonetheless a fine and compelling film.Essentially a character study and technological "whodunnit", an airline executive strives to exonerate the pilot after a deadly airliner crash. While some minor spoiler to this review, I will not give away the big surprise behind the cause of the accident.But there is some interesting speculation about the peculiar-looking airliner central to the movie. A modern jetliner (of its time) that resembled nothing in aviation. Why did they take a DC-6 and replace the wings, modify the nose and tail and stick on prosthetic jet engines - when they could have just as readily used off-the-shelf models and real aircraft, at lesser cost?The answer lies in the accident and nature of its cause. No aircraft company - Boeing, Douglas, Lockheed, BAC, etc, wold put up with having their aircraft associated with such a story. The airliner had to be completely fictional.

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poway_mojo
1964/11/14

The acting is good but, the look on Suzanne's face, during the re-enactment when the second fire alarm goes off is priceless. Never have seen an actress pull off a white-as-a-sheet as well she does. OMG!!!!!!!!!!The whole premise is so real you feel like you are on board the plane. Glenn Ford is so loyal to his friend that he will risk his life to prove the accident is NOT 'pilot error'.Even the angle of the pier demo project being delayed lends an important element to the plot. It would have been a perfect landing, until that damn pier looms out of nowhere, up the beach.Accident reconstruction was not as well known as it is today so; an excellent case study.

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bkoganbing
1964/11/15

Fate Is The Hunter casts Glenn Ford as an airline executive and former pilot who is investigating the crash of an airline at his airport where a former Korean war buddy Rod Taylor was the pilot. Most on the flight were killed, one of the survivors was stewardess Susanne Pleshette.Ford has a vested interest both professional and personal, he hired Taylor as a pilot and his judgment is called in question as well. And Taylor was a roguish sort of guy who bent the rules considerably. But Ford knew Taylor as a man cool in combat and we see Taylor after the initial crash in all sides of his character in flashback.The film is based on an Ernest K. Gann novel who also gave us Island In The Sky and The High And The Mighty. The film keeps the attention throughout with its documentary like approach. Ford is a man with a disagreeable task and he's praying his faith in Taylor will not be in vain.The airline is more interested in covering itself in case of potential lawsuits than at getting at the truth. Pilot error is the easiest explanation all around and Taylor's past doesn't help any.There are a couple of noteworthy supporting performances first being Dorothy Malone who was not billed oddly enough as a party girl who Taylor was involved with and dumped. It's a chip off the performance Malone gave as Marilee Hadley in Written On The Wind. Also noteworthy is Wally Cox who was a fellow crewman on Taylor and Ford's ship in Korea who provides an insight into an incident in Korea that Ford does not remember fondly.What does cause the crash? It's something quite trivial, but Taylor's posthumous reputation owes a debt of gratitude to Susanne Pleshette surviving the crash and to the black box recording even then, standard on commercial flights. It was kind of quaint seeing the airline investigators playing the black box recording on those old fashioned reel to reel tapes.For aviation fans and fans of the principal players and many others. A really good piece of work that all the cast could take pride in.

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