Assassinato no Voo 502

What a cast that has been assembled as only Aaron Spelling can do! the dialogue is so corny and played so seriously, you'll be howling. The best exchanges are between a drunk Polly Bergen and a very sober Fernando Lamas. The sets are really almost "Plan 9 From Outer Space" level. The "VIP lounge" at the airport was probably a baggage office at LAX and the plane, well, the budget was only enough to show the first class section, so all you see are big blankets/curtains covering the entrances to the rest of the plane and several references by Captain Stack to the "hundreds of people back there."

The upstairs lounge of the plane is decorated in what appears to be outdoor patio furniture and during the course of the film, the scariest looking cheese and crackers fester along the back of the wall uneaten by these high-falutin' jet-setters who spout inane dialogue as the viewer tries to wade through the red herrings and Farrah's cocktail service.

The whodunnit wraps up quickly, of course. Suprises? No. Laughs? Yes!

The $5.00 DVD I got of this in the Best Buy junk pile is covered in Farrah's photos and the DVD even includes a "Farrah Quiz" at the end that even your mother could not flunk. Thanks to Barry Diller and Spelling/Goldberg for making these tacky ABC "Movies of the Week" in the 70's and for someone actually mastering these DVD coasters that provide some of us with a hilarious flashback to our youth.

This is well worth watching for its all star cast. It's like "Airport" and other 70s disaster films but on a tight budget. Aaron Spelling was one of the executive producers, and he once again proved that he knew how to give the public what it wanted. No one will confuse this film with art, but it's good for what it is - an entertaining, fun TV movie.

MURDER ON FLIGHT 502 shows just how dangerous it was to fly on a jumbo jet in the 1970's. Within 90 minutes, two people are strangled to death, another is shot, and one poor schmuck is attacked by a maniac wielding a meat fork!

This should come as no surprise, since the passenger list includes: A bank robber, a fake priest, an alcoholic crime novelist, and Danny Bonaduce!

The "stewardesses" (Farrah Fawcett and Brooke Adams) are far too busy smiling to notice the mayhem! Thank God that Robert Stack is at the helm or this plane would go straight into the Atlantic ocean!

Adding to the madness, what sort of airline allows Sonny Bono on board one of its aircraft? With a guitar!

On a personal note, the next time the TSA has me spread eagled next to the baggage carousel I'll be thanking my lucky stars that I'm not back in those dark days of air travel chaos!...

... I am referring to something Sonny Bono's agent says as they head towards his flight to board. And he says it very loud. And nobody even stops and stares. What a time capsule this is.

If you are under 40 I'm not sure you will really appreciate this. But if you remember the 1970s at all this is terrific and hilarious for reasons never intended. It is about an international flight headed for London. After take-off a smoke bomb goes off in the first class lounge. As a result of this, an airline executive gets a note a day earlier than he normally would have, and it apologizes for the murders on flight 502, the flight that just took off. So now it is a race to figure out who is the murderer before he can kill.

There are all kinds of furtive glances and obvious grudges between the first class passengers to stir the pot. There are some married couples on the flight, but there are also lots of people flying alone, and they strike up conversations with whoever is sitting next to them. It reminded me of Love Boat, and that should be no surprise since Aaron Spelling, who produced Love Boat, also produced this film. Of course, today, bothering a stranger next to you with conversation would get you rebuffed because you would be interrupting their game of Candy Crush on their phone. But in 1975 people were OK with casual conversation and were accustomed to occasionally being bored.

What's funny about it? Robert Stack as the pilot five years before Airplane, playing it straight. That setting a smoke bomb off in an airport doesn't get you shackled by the TSA upon arrival and sentenced to 40 years in the basement of a federal prison. That the killer on the plane just ASSUMES certain movements of passengers whom he targets. Farrah Fawcett as a stewardess (that is what they called flight attendents then) who at this point in her career has very limited acting talent. That changes a lot over time.

What's great for classic film buffs? Larraine Day, Dane Clarke, Walter Pidgeon, and Ralph Bellamy making appearances as passengers.

I had a hard time rating this film. I'm rating it as a time capsule that is certainly not boring. Thus my rating will probably be higher than those of other folks.

Back in the 70's all the major networks would put out these made-for-TV movies, usually featuring a collection of unknowns and a good number of well known actors and actresses and for the most part they were always enjoyable, even though they were't as sophisticated or as big budget as a major motion picture. This movie was no exception. I stumbled across it on a DVD and for $2 figured it was worth a look see. I can't remember if I ever watched in on TV in the 70's, but it brought back memories of enjoyable enough nights in the living room watching the set.

This is probably most notable for a pre-Charlie's Angels performance from a very lovely Farrah Fawcett as a stewardess on a flight from New York to London that has a murderer on board. In some ways it's rather preposterous. There are far too many coincidences - far too many people in the First Class section who just happened to know each other and have grievances with each other. The intent was obviously to give a large stable of possible suspects to keep the viewer guessing. In some ways it didn't work. I had the murderer figured out pretty early, and if you didn't figure it out well before it was revealed then you missed something pretty obvious. Mind you, the same could be said for the plot twist involving Fawcett's character at the end, and that took me off guard. I also couldn't figure out why the man who tried to kill singer Jack Marshall (played by Sonny Bono) is never restrained, but ends up back in First Class with his wife as if nothing had happened - he just tried to kill a guy with a knife!

This was clearly made by Aaron Spelling as lightly entertaining TV mystery to keep people occupied for a couple of hours in front of their TV screens. With folks like Robert Stack, Walter Pidgeon, Danny Bonaduce, etc., it's pretty good fun. 6/10