''24 Hours to Kill'' (aka ''Twenty-Four Hours to Kill'' and ''In Beirut sind die Nächte lang'') is a 1965 British/German

international co-production A co-production is a joint venture between two or more different production companies for the purpose of film production, television production, video game development, and so on. In the case of an international co-production, production companie ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

shot in

Techniscope Techniscope or 2-perf is a 35 mm motion picture camera film format introduced by Technicolor Italia in 1960. The Techniscope format uses a two film-perforation negative pulldown per frame, instead of the standard four-perforation frame us ...

and

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

that was filmed in the

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

, then a

tax haven A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...

. It was produced by

Harry Alan Towers Harry Alan Towers (19 October 1920 – 31 July 2009) was a British radio and independent film producer and screenwriter. He wrote numerous screenplays for the films he produced, often under the pseudonym Peter Welbeck. He produced over 80 f ...

, directed by

Peter Bezencenet Peter Bezencenet (1914–2003) was a British film editor and film director. He co-scripted the 1936 film ''Conquest of the Air''.Morley p.84 He was employed by the Rank Organisation on a number of films during the 1950s, including several for Eal ...

, and stars

Lex Barker Alexander Crichlow Barker Jr. (May 8, 1919 – May 11, 1973), known as Lex Barker, was an American actor. He was known for playing Tarzan for RKO Pictures between 1949 and 1953, and portraying leading characters from Karl May's novels, notably a ...

, Mickey Rooney and

Walter Slezak Walter Slezak (; 3 May 1902 – 21 April 1983) was an Austrian-born film and stage actor active between 1922 and 1976. He mainly appeared in German films before migrating to the United States in 1930 and performing in numerous Hollywood producti ...

Plot

A Transcontinental Airlines airliner on an international flight develops engine trouble en route to Athens. Pilot Jamie Faulkner (

) is forced to land in Beirut, where the aircraft is to layover for 24 hours. Although the crew look forward to rest and relaxation in the then glamorous tourist hot spot, one of the crew members is in fear of his life due to his being a target of a criminal organisation based in the city. Purser Norman Jones ( Mickey Rooney ), on the run from a gang of gold smugglers headed by Malouf (

), a smuggler, gains the sympathy of the flight's captain and other members of the crew who believe that Jones has been wrongly associated with the syndicate. The gang twice attempts to kill Jones and tries to kidnap air hostess Louise Braganza (Helga Sommerfeld), the captain's girl friend. Jamie learns that Jones is a member of Malouf's gang and has actually stolen £40,000 worth of bullion from the syndicate. Although the gangsters kidnap air hostess Françoise Bertram (

France Anglade Marie France Anglade (17 July 1942 in Constantine, Algeria, Constantine, Algeria – 28 August 2014 in La Verrière, les Yvelines, La Verrière, Île-de-France), was a French Algerian film actress. Selected filmography * 1991 : ''Toubab Bi'' ...

) to propose an exchange. Françoise, however, after a fight, is rescued by the airline crew. Jones is captured by Malouf but saved by Jamie and the crew, but just as the airliner takes off, Jones is killed by one of Malouf's men.

Cast

as Captain Jamie Faulkner * Mickey Rooney as Norman Jones *

Michael Medwin Michael Hugh Medwin, OBE (18 July 1923 – 26 February 2020) was an English actor and film producer. Life and career Medwin was born in London. He was educated at Canford School, Dorset, and the Institute Fischer, Montreux, Switzerland. He ...

as Tommy Gaskell *

Wolfgang Lukschy Wolfgang Lukschy (19 October 1905 – 10 July 1983 in Berlin) was a German actor and dubber. He performed in theater, film and television. He made over 75 film and television appearances between 1940 and 1979. Possibly his most noted performanc ...

as Kurt Hoffner * Helga Sommerfeld as Louise Braganza *

as Françoise Bertram * Helga Lehner as Marianne *

as Malouf * Hans Clarin as Elias * Shakib Khouri as Andronicus * Issam Chenawi as Assistant * Giancarlo Bastianoni as Killer *

Maria Rohm Maria Rohm (13 August 1945 – 18 June 2018) was an Austrian actress and producer. Born Helga Grohmann in Vienna, she started her acting career at the very young age, working at the famous Viennese Burgtheatre as a child actor from ages 4 throug ...

as Claudine

Production

''24 Hours to Kill'' was written by

Peter Yeldham Peter Alan Yeldham (25 April 1927 – 20 September 2022) was an Australian screenwriter for motion pictures and television, playwright and novelist. Biography Peter Yeldham was born in Gladstone, near Smithtown, New South Wales, in 1927. L ...

who travelled to

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

to research the film's plot. According to German reviewer, Oliver Nöding, casting Lex barker and Mickey Rooney and using an exotic setting was standard procedure for the low-budget Towers of London production team. The aircraft in ''24 Hours to Kill'' included: *

Antonov An-24 The Antonov An-24 (Russian/Ukrainian: Антонов Ан-24) ( NATO reporting name: Coke) is a 44-seat twin turboprop transport/passenger aircraft designed in 1957 in the Soviet Union by the Antonov Design Bureau and manufactured by Kyiv, Ir ...

B * Convair 880-22M * de Havilland DH-106 Comet 4C, c/n 6446, OD-ADQ *

Douglas DC-4 The Douglas DC-4 is an American four-engined (piston), propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Military versions of the plane, the C-54 and R5D, served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1 ...

Douglas DC-8 The Douglas DC-8 (sometimes McDonnell Douglas DC-8) is a long-range narrow-body airliner built by the American Douglas Aircraft Company. After losing the May 1954 US Air Force tanker competition to the Boeing KC-135, Douglas announced in July ...

-33 * Ilyushin Il-18 *

Lockheed Constellation The Lockheed Constellation ("Connie") is a propeller-driven, four-engined airliner built by Lockheed Corporation starting in 1943. The Constellation series was the first pressurized-cabin civil airliner series to go into widespread use. Its press ...

* Sud-Aviation SA316B Alouette III, c/n 1118 * Sud-Aviation SE-210 Caravelle VI-N, c/n 174, OD-AEO

Reception

Andy Webb, writing in ''The Movie Scene'' noted the beauty of Beirut before mideast strife destroyed the once glamorous capital. Webb considered ''24 Hours to Kill'' "quite entertaining and has a touch of 60s spy movie about it with a few moments of action, drinks laced with drugs, shady people following Norman around and of course some danger."Webb, Andy
"Review: '24 Hours to Kill': Rooney's nervy Norman."
''The Movie Scene'', 2019. Retrieved: 5 August 2019.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Maltin, Leonard. ''Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia''. New York: Penquin Books, 1994. . * Mann, Dave. ''Harry Alan Towers: The Transnational Career of a Cinematic Contrarian''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2014. . * Taylor, Tadhg. "Peter Yeldham Interview" in ''Masters of the Shoot-'Em-Up: Conversations with Directors, Actors and Writers of Vintage Action Movies and Television Shows''. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2015. .

External links

* * * {{Harry Alan Towers 1965 films British aviation films 1960s English-language films British thriller drama films Films set in Lebanon Films shot in Lebanon 1960s thriller drama films 1965 drama films Films directed by Peter Bezencenet 1960s British films