cult film freak: JACK NICHOLSON & FAY SPAIN IN MONTE HELLMAN'S 'FLIGHT TO FURY'

Jack Nicholson in FLIGHT TO FURY Year: 1964 Rating: **

In the early years — from the late 1950's throughout most of the 1960's — before EASY RIDER turned Jack Nicholson into a charming scoundrel-playing superstar, he frequently collaborated with two low-budget directors: the multi-genre exploitation icon Roger Corman and b-action auteur Monte Hellman...

But in the case of FLIGHT TO FURY, Hellman, shooting the first of two movies in the Philippines along with the war drama BACK DOOR TO HELL, is following Corman's footsteps...

Jack Nicholson in FLIGHT TO FURY with Dewey Martin

Or perhaps it's the other way around since the 1970's had more girls-with-guns/women-in-prison Corman productions, while Hellman's FURY is a bag-of-stolen-diamonds SIERRA MADRE inspired thriller where Jack... manipulating regular guy Dewey Martin... provides devilish-grin glimpse into his own cinematic future...

Only this younger Jack has very little intoxicating charm: from a cabana tavern town where he sets Martin up with a hot local girl that gets him into hot water, igniting a Wrong Man Noir that soon derails into a slow-moving airplane ride to an even slower crash and aftermath...

Jack Nicholson in FLIGHT TO FURY with Vic Diaz

All while introducing assorted passengers such as femme fatale Fay Spain, who had starred in THUNDER ISLAND, also written by Nicholson... and she's somehow linked with both crooked Filipino Vic Diaz and affable American pilot John Hackett, who, the same year and location, wrote and appeared in Nicholson and Hellman's BACK DOOR TO HELL...

And yet, despite the pulpy potential, every twist and turn moves only forward, lethargically — a shame this FLIGHT didn't remain grounded in that sleazy town, before Jack became a dull boy.