747 en péril

Ahhh, this is delightfully undiluted Hollywood dreck of the most charming and enjoyable kind. Everything.. the dialog, the music, the look has that soap opera look.

It's been said that this project started out as a TV movie but got bumped up to a feature film along the way. The script still sounds like a TV movie and the special effects are very uneven. The large scale airplane shots are great and very cinematic. Some cockpit scenes use badly matched rear projection while others cockpit rear projection scenes look fantastic.

Cliques' abound everywhere, as in the portrayal of Gloria Swanson by... Gloria Swanson. Most of her lines are so delightfully stereotypical it makes Ginger from "Gilligan's Island" look complex. "Of course, I never did anything I was expected to do..."

Then there is Linda Blair who seems to be on a mission with her role as a hopeful kidney transplant patient. That mission is to tell the world "You see, I'm not I'm not a Demon monster, like I played in The Exorcist. I *really am* nice." At the time, the "Hollywood Press" was paranoid with the effect making "The Exorcist" had on Linda Blair.

So, in response to this, Linda plays the Kidney patient with a nose scruntching, smiling sweetness that makes you think she is possessed once again... by a Von Trapp kid.

Still, I thought Linda Blair would end up launching pea soup at Sister Helen Ready as she sang that... song.

Charlton Heston is his ultra macho self and whenever he's in a movie, I'm usually loving it. This is no exception.

I was a kid when this came out and there was this glamourous, sleek mystique to airplanes and airports for me. Flying was a much more exclusive and expensive thing back then, before deregulation. Also, seeing these giant pieces of metal leave the ground was almost like magic and yes, it would be a thrill to be in it but... what if something went wrong?

So, it was with these feelings that I went to see this movie with in early 1976. I really was wanting to see "JAWS" and it was just a happy accident that "JAWS" was double featured with this movie. Seeing one movie in a theater was a special deal for me. Seeing two was practically an event.

I came out of the theater thrilled with both movies, thinking they were cut from the same cloth. Of course, as we come to now, "JAWS" is still an indisputable classic and one of the best movies of it's type ever.

"Airport 1975"... well... provided 90% of the inspiration for one of the best comedies ever: "Airplane!". "Airport 1975" itself is a campy, fun, escapist thriller/adventure. It's cinematic junk food that tastes terrific. It's nostalga to me doesn't hurt it a bit either.

"Airport 1975" has a kinship with "Earthquake", in that both had Charlton Heston and George Kennedy. Both provided Universal television shows (The Incredible Hulk, Battlestar Galactica, etc.)with opportunities to build shows around the stock footage they could use from both films (The Hulk gets stuck on an airplane that is Columibia 409, A simulation of a cylon attack uses Earthquake's scenes of destruction, The Hulk gets stuck in an Earthquake's earthquake too).

Both became "events" when they came to network TV, adding (or even filming) additional scenes to make a full evening (or even a 2 evening) television event.

Both had those 1 sheet posters with several little "mug shots" of all the stars in the movie.

Both are sometimes laughable in terms of characters and story but are remarkably lovable none the less.

Just about every 1970s disaster cliché and typical cast member is present in this ludicrous, yet entertaining movie. The first of a long line of sequels to the original Airport from 1970, this film raises the bar in terms of ridiculous situations and casting of washed-up actors. One cannot however ignore the interesting scenario of an untrained person having to fly a jumbo jet if the entire crew somehow would become incapacitated.

Karen Black (an underrated talent) plays the lead stewardess on a 747 flight who has to take over the flying duties after a Cessna crashes into the cockpit and either kills or severely wounds the pilots. Luckily the script only calls for her having to make adjustments to the plane's course instead of actually bringing it safely into the gate! Instead, the plan is to lower a trained pilot from a jet helicopter into the 747 cockpit so he can make the landing. Of course there are complications involving sick passengers, fuel leaks, mountains, and finding a good rug for Charleton Heston to wear. Can this motley crew of actors bring the plane down safely?? I wonder.

You gotta love the casts of these kind of movies. I can take Cid Ceasar, Myrna Loy, Gloria Swanson, and Linda Blair as passengers. I can hold my nose and accept Helen Reddy as a singing nun. The welcome sight of George Kennedy in some sort of administrative role certainly helps. But what in the world was former NFL quarterback Jim Plunkett doing on board? And sitting in coach, yet?? I guess he hadn't won a superbowl yet, so he didn't rate first class! 6 of 10 stars.

The Hound.

This is the second of four movies in the "Airport" series . It's exciting and amusing but full clichés and stereotypes with mediocre performance by all-star-cast . The movie is another jetliner epic with hero Heston . A commercial airline of the American Airlines 747 Boeing (piloted by Efrem Zimbalist Jr. , Roy Thinnes , Erik Estrada) is crashed to another smaller plane (piloted by Dana Andrews) . Then the flight attendant (Karen Black who brings conviction to her character as dedicated stewardess turned pilot ) taking on control of the dangerous travel and forcing daring rescue attempt (by Ed Flanders and Heston) . The film is detailing hectic flighty piloted by a stewardess and the relationship among passengers . All clichéd and stock roles with regurgitation of all usual stereotypical situations from disaster films , the nuns ( Helen Reddy as singing nun and Martha Scott ), an aging alcoholic woman (Myrna Loy , but Joan Crawford was firstly approached to play the character who turned down), nervous passengers , an old actress (Gloria Swanson) . Taking place on freeze skies and Rocky Mountains as background , the airplane heading to Salt Lake City . If you've seen the original ¨Airport¨ ( by George Seaton ) based on the Arthur Hailey's novel 'the daddy of them all' , you have seen them all .

The picture contains thriller, suspense , drama , moderate tension and is quite entertaining although with some flaws and gaps . Filmed at the height of the disaster genre in the 7os , this entry in the spectacular series benefits from a strong acting by Charlton Heston who spent time on a simulator in preparation for the role , bringing life to character , he also starred a similar role at ¨ Skyjacked (1972)¨ by John Guillermin . Gloria Swanson performs herself in her ending movie . Look quickly to Nancy Olson , Linda Blair , Sid Caesar, Beverly Garland , Norman Fell and Jerry Stiller , Ben Stiller's father , among others . And , of course, appears the classic character Patroni played by usual George Kennedy . The motion picture was regularly directed by Jack Smight , habitual TV director and occasionally for big screen (Midway , Harper , No way to treat a lady) . It's an inoffensive diversion but is sometimes tediously unspooled and it was parodied heavily in Airplane! (1980) by Jim Abrahams and David Zucker . The film will appeal to Charlton Heston fans and disaster genre enthusiasts .

This film is laughingly bad. Gloria Swanson looks like she's wearing a makeup factory. Charlton Heston wears some frightening looking outfits. Karen Black, the best actress of the cast, is trying to take it all seriously but you know she's thinking "Just think about the money! Just think about the money!" The effects look like they were shot in someone's garage. George Kennedy says lines like "He dropped his old fashioned wrench," which are apparently supposed to bring down the house. Dana Andrews looks like he's incredibly bored. And Larry Storch in a serious role? Larry Storch? A mistake has been made here. Granted, the shots of the full plane in action are pretty good. But for all of this, I watch it, I am drawn to it like a moth to a flame every time it's on. I even bought the video tape. You know why? Because it's so bad it's good. Gloria Swanson's last line in the movie is the best. Why did they wait until her last line to have a good line in the movie? Myrna Loy is good - actually, she really shines with this crowd.

Airport '75 was definitely the funniest of that series. It was not as soap opera-esque as the original, nor was it as cheerless as '77.

Humorous elements abounded: The lewd young navigator (Erik Estrada, who at that point could not speak a word of Spanish, despite his seeming mastery of it here). The three obnoxious business passengers (Conrad Janis, Norman Fell, and Jerry Stiller; who would all later, as we know, go on to co-star in highly successful TV comedies) The hapless Cid Ceasar character, who only attended this flight to see the in-flight movie, which promptly broke right before his favorite scene.

The passenger areas look surprisingly comfortable, with ample space for individual passengers. Much better, it seems, than what we are subjected to today (the mid-seventies decor notwithstanding).

The mirthful subtones aside, this is a serious movie. The pivotal point happens when a small private plane goes astray, hitting the 747 right above the windshield. The navigator is killed, the co-pilot is sucked out through the hole (in a manner reminiscent of the commander of the imperial walker being pulled out by Chewbacca in "Return of the Jedi"; and the captain is incapacitated. Poor Nancy the Stewardess (Karen Black) must seize the controls!

It is up to Charlton Heston (before he became a conservative) and George Kennedy, with some help from friends in the U.S. Air Force, to save the day.

Verdict, hardly a brain challenger (If you want your brain challenged, read a book, I always say!) but worth seeing.