zardoz-13 The respected Brothers Boulting John and Roy depict London on the brink of certain annihilation in their suspenseful, spine-tingling, black & white, disaster thriller "Seven Days to Noon," a taut white-knuckled parable about unreasonable professor gone mad who plans to destroy London with a stolen nuclear weapon that fits into a suitcase. This lunatic is no idiot, but he is suffering from fatigue of creating one of the deadliest weapons on Earth and he himself will detonate it if the British Prime Minister refuses to halt a program designed to develop weapons of mass destruction. Co-director and scenarist Roy Boulting of "Run for the Sun" and "The 39 Steps" remake writer Frank Harvey have fashioned a gripping melodrama based on a provocative story written by Paul Dehn (later to pen "Goldfinger" as well as several sequels for the original "Planet of the Apes" movies) and James Bernard. Unlike Dehn with whom he shared story credit, Bernard became better known for the orchestral scores that he wrote for Hammer horror epics. Incidentally, Dehn and Bernard received the Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story during the 1952 Academy Awards. The Boulting Brothers were nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1950, and "Seven Days to Noon" was nominated to the BAFTA Film Award in 1951. Mind you, this 94-minute melodrama still holds up in terms of tension and suspense right up to the end. The Boultings have managed a marvelous feat in capturing the hysteria when the government decides to evacuate the area that the bomb will obliterate before the titular deadline. Professor Willingdon (Barry Jones of "The Bad Lord Byron") mails a letter with an ultimatum to the British Prime Minister (Ronald Adam) that seven days from then, he will trigger a devastating UR12 bomb developed at a secret British scientific research laboratory. Scotland Yard Superintendent Folland (André Morell of "The Bridge on the River Kwai") heads up the investigation while all of London prepares to meet their maker. Gradually, the Boulting generate suspense until you're ready to gnaw off your fingernails. The authorities play a game of cat and mouse to run down the mad scientist but he stays a step ahead of them. Although he changes his appearance by shaving off his mustache, the desperate Willingdon finds it difficult to avoid not only detection or capture because his photograph has been posted all over London. This is one British thriller that takes itself seriously and gains momentum right up to the very last second. A must-see for film historians that are studying the development of anti-nuclear bombs cinema in the early 1950s. Incidentally, the cinematographer who lensed "Seven Days to Noon" was none other than "Star Wars" lenser Gilbert Taylor. James Bond fans will spot Geoffrey Keen in a small role in a scene at a bar where Willingdon goes to have a brandy and soda. André Morell is terrific as the level-headed Scotland Yard Superintend who leads the manhunt for Willingdon. Several times throughout the narrative, our conscientious scientist eludes the authorities just when they are about to pounce on him. The shots of desolate London locations evacuated look thoroughly convincing, and the Boultings forge the atmosphere of paranoid. Altogether, "Seven Days to Noon" ranks as top-flight entertainment.

Michael Neumann "London can take it!" was the rallying cry in 1940, and a decade later the same, stoic answer to the Blitz might have summed up this tense speculation about the efforts taken to defuse an impending atomic holocaust. The film reflected many real fears of the embryonic nuclear age, but managed to embrace both ends of its argument, with the rogue scientist threatening to explode a bomb in downtown London (unless the government disarms its atomic arsenal) acting as both a voice of conscience and an agent of madness: the message is sane; his method is not. Meeting the crisis with clear heads and stiff upper lips are the real heroes of the film: the civilian and military forces who organize a heroic evacuation not unlike the victorious retreat from Dunkirk. The script benefits from some near-documentary realism and a swift, clockwork plot, earning co-writers Frank Harvey and Frank Boulting (who also co-directed the film with his brother John) an Oscar for their efforts.

anthony_retford I was a child in Chelsea, London in 1950 so the scenes of this movie are somewhat familiar to me. I have always liked older British thrillers because they were all made with no nonsense or fat. This movie is another example of that. My complaint with modern British thrillers is that they are full of coarse language, as though this is the common currency in the UK. We don't hear one such word in this fine movie. I would show this to my young son when he gets to be 10.It is wonder to me that the makers were able to show many scenes of London, including a portion of Trafalgar Square as unoccupied by anyone. The characterizations were very good and the movie had a lot of suspense. I thought the professor was very agile to climb out of a back window, and then over walls. I know I would have a hard time doing that. I watch a lot of movies so I am trying to understand how I missed this one. If you want a sensible, suspense-filled, well-thought out film you would do well by watching this movie.

mail-2978 In this day and age when atomic weapons are everybody's bow and arrows the plot of this film has never been more up to date. The setting of the film in London with the devastation left by the bombing in World War II made a great back drop for the story. I can remember when London really looked like that. Both the plot and the characterisation are believable and the acting more than adequate. But star status must go to the people of London who back in 1950 still had the camaraderie and spirit forged by six years of war. This was a time when people still looked out for each other and this come over well as the story unfolds. With our video making mobile telephones and instant access to news this film may seem tame and dated but don't let the black and white format fool you this is a good story, well told and well worth seeing. Oh, and by the way, we really did talk like that back in 1950.