A group sets out on a charter plane from Windhoek to Johannesburg, but circumstances leave them stranded in the Kalahari Desert, far from civilization. The question becomes whether anyone will survive. "Sands of the Kalahari” (1965) arrived in theaters just three weeks prior to “Flight of the Phoenix," and it’s possible to see it as a British counterpart. While they are adapted from distinct books with entirely di…

Cy Endfield directs and adapts Sands of the Kalahari from William Mulvihill’s novel, bringing together Stuart Whitman, Stanley Baker, Susannah York, Harry Andrews, Theodore Bikel, and Nigel Davenport for the cast. John Dankworth provides the score, with Erwin Hillier on cinematography. The film plunges viewers into a gritty survival story about individuals who find themselves stranded after a plane crash in Africa…