24 Hours to Kill

Mickey Rooney was TCM's Star of the Month back in December 2024, and as I've mentioned I recorded several of his movies. One that I failed to record, or else I would have recorded it then and written up a post for a subsequent airing that I did in fact record, was 24 Hours to Kill. At any rate, having watched what I'd recorded from the Star of the Month tribute, I eventually got around to watching this one to to write up this review.

Mickey Rooney plays Norman Jones, who works as part of the crew for an airline that flies between Europe and Asia, although notably not having any flights to Beirut for reasons that will become clear not too far into the movie. The current flight is piloted by Jamie Faulker (Lex Barker), who has a back story of his own in that he's got a wife, is carrying on an affair with one of the stewardesses, and the stewardess isn't certain whether the relationship should continue.

One of the engines in the plane goes out, which sucks, but airplanes in the jet era have been designed to work with one of the engines going out. However, a second engine goes out as well, which is going to necessitate an emergency landing. This landing is in... Beirut, and is also going to require a 24-hour stopover so that the plane can be repaired and the flight can continue. Remember, the airline doesn't fly to Beirut so it's not as if they've got another plane there that can take off instead and require less flight juggling.

Now here is one of the first plot holes: the bad guys seem to figure out almost immediately that Jones is on the flight as they start following him to the hotel. Malouf (Walter Slezak) has sent them to the airport to figure out where the crew is going to be staying during the stopover. As you might well guess, Jones and Malouf have a past together, one that Jones has been trying to escape. You'd think he should just hole up in the hotel room, but no. Worse, he's dishonest with Jamie as to what that past entailed.

Jones had worked for a different airline in the past that did in fact fly to and from Beirut, and he worked with Malouf to smuggle stuff into and out of Lebanon. Norman claims that Malouf tried to double cross him, which is why he quit the airline and started working for one that expressly didn't fly to Beirut. (Another plot hole: couldn't Malouf have someone go after Norman outside of Lebanon?) In fact, Norman is the one who double-crossed Malouf. So Malouf wants his henchmen to force Norman to pay up. They're also willing to go after other members of the crew in order to put pressure on Norman, leading to an abduction and the climax....

The big drawing card for 24 Hours to Kill is that it was filmed mostly on location in Beirut as it was back in the mid-1960s when it was a relative oasis in a dreary Arab world, before the civil war that started in 1975 destroyed the country. The locations are relatively nice, except that the film used the Techniscope process that isn't quite as crisp as some other formats. Much worse, however, is the plot which is slow and full of plot holes, making 24 Hours to Kill rather a disappointment.