Seven Days to Noon

Star Review

Professor Willingdon has had enough. Britain’s most eminent atomic scientist has gone into hiding, having first written to inform the prime minister of his demands. Unless research into The Bomb is swiftly abandoned, the professor will use the nuclear device he has stolen to blow London off the map.
Seven Days... was among the first films to directly address the subject of nuclear weapons and does so in a way that remains uncomfortable. Willingdon is not some b-movie nutter: he’s a good man driven mad by the consequences of his work. The film creates a tension between our desire to see him caught and our sympathy for his cause.
Not that it’s heavy-handed: it stands up as a solid ticking-clock thriller. And, as you’d expect from the directors of Brighton Rock, it’s a film that revels in the seedy side of the capital, the squalid B&B’s and brassy ‘theatricals’. While these external trappings may date the film, the central questions remain regrettably pertinent.

James Oliver on 7th February 2008

View all 33 of James Oliver’s reviews

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Film Description

An English scientist steals an atomic bomb from a research centre then writes to the Prime Minister threatening to blow up the centre of London if the Government refuses to end its research into atomic weapons. Won an Oscar for Best Writing, by Paul Dehn and James Bernard.

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Film Details

Cast

Andre Morell, Joan Hickson, Barry Jones, Hugh Cross, Sheila Manahan, Olive Sloane

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