TARGET: MANHATTAN

A potentially good idea--about a ""kook in a thirty-year-old bomber"" who circles over Manhattan threatening to drop a full load of bombs unless he's paid five million dollars--which soon nosedives way off target. Regrettably, the caper is flashbacked to us via a board of inquiry convened after the ""disaster."" The various officials interviewed--the Asst. Deputy Mayor, the Deputy Police Commissioner, the FBI District Director, an Air Force general, assorted bank presidents and cops--slowly piece together what happened (something does happen here if you can wait that long). Suffice it to say that two disgruntled middle-aged mechanics, Harold Craycroft, the aircraft-designing ""nut"" piloting the B-17 Flying Fortress, and his dupe of a brother-in-law Charlie, who's programmed to collect the ransom, have decided to get even after losing control of their backward (pro-propeller) aviation company. Flutters like a butterfly but fails to sting like a bee--a gyrocompass would've helped.