User reviews

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

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.

My husband bought a copy of this movie from a bargain bin for $2.00 so I wasn't expecting much. Actually, it was so campy it was fun. And in today's world, very naive. Danny Bonaduce, one of the passengers, leaves a package in the boarding area and after he gets on the flight the package starts to smoke. Security rushes in, takes a casual look, and pronounces it a practical joke. Times sure have changed ! Bonaduce is in a number of scenes at the beginning of the movie, but although he is in the same section as the rest of the passengers on the plane, he is not seen anymore during the second half of the film. I guess they had to cut the budget.

This film is not about a "terrorist" as we think of them today. It was about one man, planning to kill another man, just a vendetta thing. The acting was awful, for the most part, but like I said, if you don't mind that-- the movie was worth $2.00. Obviously made for TV-- every twenty minutes there was a blackout for commercial insertion. And it was strange that the plane was carrying hundreds of passengers (according to the pilot), but we only saw about a dozen. From scene to scene, the number of extras would change. The cabin would be almost empty in one scene, then the next scene, there would be someone in every seat. Oh, well. It was fun. Not funny--- just fun.

If you've seen Airplane!, enjoyed Airplane! and perhaps wondered where Airplane! got some of its inspiration from, check out Murder on Flight 502. My brother found it for the astounding price of one dollar American, and for that single bill you get Robert Stack, Farrah Fawcett, Sonny Bono, and...Danny Bonaduce? Oh, but yes. And there's more.

As the film tepidly moves along, begging you to find the murderer among the passengers before anyone is actually murdered, you'll be treated to outrageous mid-70's fashion (brown is IN!), bizarre character backgrounds, and the hottest burgeoning romance this side of Harold and Maude, an elderly Jewish woman and an elderly Methodist known only as Uncle Charlie. "Ah...I know half the story already!" says the elderly woman slyly after Uncle Charlie introduces himself, and believe me, you will know every sundry detail of Uncle Charlie's hard knock life, even though it's probably better that you didn't.

You will see Sonny Bono sing, and you will realize why Cher was much better on her own. Robert Stack will make Bruce Willis in Die Hard look bad with his endless barrage of hard-boiled, sarcastic one-liners. But most of all, you will figure out who the murderer is, and you will be satisfied when they get their comeuppance.

No, there is no singing stewardess, no jive-talkers, no inflatable auto-pilot, no Leslie Neilsen. But unless you are unable to mock the earnest, but futile work of many to make a taut murder mystery shot almost entirely on a plane full of large, orange seats, you will like Murder on Flight 502. I promise.

... 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.

Cheesy and common to the times, still there's a nostalgia to watching these old flicks from the 70's, it was worth the watch for that alone. A little snapshot of the bad/campy/predictable TV of the day, but somehow fun anyway.

As for holes and errors in the scenes, one could pick apart all the discrepancies, and most been done here. I'd add that I've never been on a flight, nor seen one from those days where all the seats are oriented backwards to the nose of the plane, not to mention the rest of the seat layout, fanning in towards the aisle as they do. Maybe they did, but first class, flying backwards the whole way? Might make some people more ill if they're prone to that.

Some mention the variation in quantity of passengers in some scenes (coming and going of passengers), but there's the bathrooms, and not staying in your seat would be normal back in the good old days when a lounge was available, though they showed the lounge mostly empty when shown at all. (I'm all for bringing the lounge back, especially for long flights). "Skyjackings", as they were called, were in the news a fair bit in those days, yet dogs seemed to do just fine in deterring trouble, no need for today's excess. If only people could watch the news these days with as discerning an eye for discrepancies as they do with films, they may notice a few things. At any rate, a good little film if you want the flavor of how that genre of TV was back then....

In the 1970s, airplane disaster films were a dime a dozen. So, the fact that they'd make a film like this one isn't a surprise. It has the usual star-studded cast, it has the allure of death and mayhem and it has some very nice acting (at times). What it doesn't have is a decent script!

The film plays almost like an old B-mystery film like one from the Charlie Chan series--but without the Chan! A 747 bound for the UK is the setting and it's full of Hollywood greats of the past--folks who by the time this was filmed were all but forgotten (including the likes of Walter Pidgeon, Ralph Bellamy, Dane Clark and Polly Bergen) or who were on Hollywood's B-list (including Sonny Bono and Farrah Fawcett--- just before she became famous). The Captain (Robert Stack) learns that someone issued a death threat--saying that they planned on killing someone during the flight! Who that could be and their intended victim or victims are unknown and apart from some incompetent folks on the ground, the Captain is assisted by an off-duty detective (Hugh O'Brian). Soon, you learn that LOTS of folks had reasons to kill people on this flight and there are at least three folks aboard who might commit murder!! One actually attempts to kill one of the other passengers--and after being subdued, isn't arrested nor is he handcuffed or tied up. In fact, he just goes back to his seat and everyone seems to forget that he just tried to stab someone! However, the real murderer is afoot and soon bodies start piling up--and it's amazing just how easy this all is! And, it's amazing that somehow the Captain knows that one of his crew members is a criminal--even though there is no evidence to support this! The bottom line is that despite some occasionally nice acting (such as that done by Ralph Bellamy), the film is 100% stupid. It NEVER makes sense and seems as if no one cared whether the script was written by a chimp or not....and I can only assume it was! A total waste of talent but perhaps worth watching because it IS so bad!

From the maker of Love Boat, Melrose Place, and T.J. Hooker comes the made for TV movie, Murder on Flight 502! I love made for TV movies like this because it portrays a special blend of mindless cheesiness found only in 70s and early 80s TV plots that are pretty much extinct today. Have no doubts, this show sucks, but its entertaining because it's so corny and unbelievably minimal in content. There's a comforting sort of charm in realizing that TV creations like this were big hits in popular TV viewing of the time. All the characters are campy, cookie cutter stereotypes that over react and over explain everything so that we the viewers will not be confused due to misfortunes caused by subtlety finess. But its the lame plot that brings it all home. I can just imagine the TV execs of the day sitting around smoking pot and "brainstorming", when suddenly one them stands from his seat and announces, "Let's make a show about a bunch of people on an airplane!", and that was it, that was the plot and history was made. Long gone are the days when idiot proof plots and acting like this would engross a nation wide TV viewing audience. I won't ruin it for anyone (even though there's nothing to really ruin), but you pretty much know how the story is going play out within the first five minutes. The whole show is basically like watching a game of Clue (the board game) where the viewer tries to figure out who has the bomb on the plane. There's lot's of insipid comedy relief that's not really funny, and drama that has no depth. But don't get me wrong, it's white bread, mindless entertainment all the way. Truly a prime example of a lost art that produced this piece of 70s TV crap. Enjoy!

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!...

When watching this movie, don't watch it for suspense, or character development, or even for the mystery. This is a "make your own fun" movie. You can watch it in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 style, making fun of it as you go. You can watch it to spot all of the stars (at the time). Or you could watch it to find out what Airplane! was making fun of so much; this movie seems to have provided most of it. The pure dated-ness of this film makes it so easy to make fun of. Can you remember a time when a smoking box in an airport lounge was treated fairly lightly?

But don't hate this movie because it's, well, bad; praise it for its badness. This is one of those movies that is good to watch because it's horribly done. The acting is horrible, the script is horrible, the story is horrible. The only thing that was done right was the casting, but, as we're seeing so much these days, a good cast can't save a movie. But a good sense of humor can. Which is why I give this movie a fairly high grade: if you enjoy pretending to be a sillouette in front of a giant movie screen, you'll like this movie.

747 en-route to London from New York is discovered to have a psychopath on board. Spelling-Goldberg TV-movie apes the theatrical plane-disaster films which were all the rage throughout the 1970s. The cast is a bizarre mixture of old and new faces, with Farrah Fawcett-Majors and Brooke Adams as stewardesses, Sonny Bono as a has-been musician, Polly Bergen as a flirtatious, drunken writer, Molly Picon and Walter Pidgeon as chummy oldsters, Hugh O'Brian (looking like Hugh Hefner) as a police detective, Danny Bonaduce as a 13-year-old prankster, and Robert Stack in the Charlton Heston role of the no-nonsense pilot (there are two other Stacks listed in the credits, perhaps making this a family affair). The low-budget doesn't allow the performers much to room to emote, with most of the in-flight action confined to First Class and the cockpit. There's also some hideous stock footage of emergency vehicles on the ground, as well as tiresome sidebars to George Maharis playing a security chief at Kennedy Airport with a toothache. The mystery surrounding stolen money gets muddled up alongside chatter about a bank robbery and a cop who was murdered, and a plot twist involving Farrah's character is just shucked off at the end. There's dumb-fun in watching this thing play out--if you're not too demanding--though one persistent question remains: why was the priest wearing fingernail polish?

When you watch this movie, you wonder if the guy who wrote the script has ever taken a flight in his whole life, if he knows what are flying regulations for take of and landing; what happens for passengers after a shock of this magnitude when arriving at a national or international airport.

How can any sensible producer accept to finance such a stupid, unbelievable story and how can a director accept to have his name attached to such a nonsense of a production.

Even a debutant in the film industry would be ashamed of committing himself in such a project.

Yes the only thing you should do is to cancel your booking on this flight!

George McCowan ("Frogs") directed this obvious "Airport" & "Murder On The Orient Express" clone that stars Robert Stack as pilot Captain Larkin, who is flying a passenger jet airliner to Great Britain that is plagued by an unknown murderer who had warned the airport about the intended crime, but is discovered too early. After two murders and at least two false leads(everyone on board has issues of course!) can the no-nonsense captain find the murderer before he or she strikes again? Ralph Bellamy, Hugh O'Brian, Farrah Fawcett, Brooke Adams, and Sonny Bono costar. Woefully inept and tiresome film is clichéd and contrived beyond belief, though may well have inspired later spoof "Airplane!".

You know why I gave this a 10? Because I watched it two nights ago with a friend and we laughed the whole way through. It is so deadpan that you could never accuse the cast of taking it seriously. The production values are bottom of the barrel, at the beginning of the film the cast congregate in the TOA first class lounge that is supposed to be at JFK airport in New York, however the 'Theme Building' at LAX is clearly visible out the window as well as several palm trees. I am an airplane buff so I notice when things don't match up in films involving airplanes, but anyone can see that the different shots of the plane in this film are clearly of several different airlines, and the shot of the plane taking off is actually a plane landing. I remember watching it on TV when I was younger and thinking it reminded me of an Agatha Christie story on an airplane, and that's basically what it is. the story is good, the set is so so, an earlier review mentions the lawn furniture and cheese display in the planes upper deck, that got a good laugh from us as well. On an interesting note, the stewardess uniforms that Brooke Adams and Farrah Fawcett are wearing were actual uniforms for TWA and can also be seen in 'Catch Me if You Can' at the end when Leonardo DiCaprio climbs out of the plane through the toilet. This movie deserves audience participation, or at least a drinking game.

People like to make fun of 70's entertainment now and say that everything was "ridiculous" and "silly" and "cheesy", but they just don't get it. Personally, I think modern TV shows and movies take themselves way too seriously and they look ridiculous to me. So it all depends on your personal perspective.

I had a lot of fun watching this. Did I see it back in 1975? I can't remember. That was the year I graduated from high school and that's about all I can remember from 1975.

There are so many delicious nuggets in this movie. The stars, the stars, the stars. The stars alone make this worth watching. And there are dozens of quotable lines. This must have been a very fun script to write.

But the most fun for me was that it took me back to the 70's, the decade that launched me into puberty. And Farrah Fawcett launched me into pubescent orbit! It was a thrill ride all through the 70's.

Just a side note about Farrah Fawcett, when she made a guest appearance on a TV show before she was famous, the next day in school the entire class was buzzing about her, even the teacher! She was a revelation. And such a sweet, sweet person.

Movies like this help keep the 70's alive even if everybody doesn't get it. I got it then and I still get it now. Long live the 70's!

This film is really bad. However, it is so bad that you can actually enjoy it by treating it like the farce it is. Farah Farce-cet shows her tremendous acting skills in this film, as well as Sonny Bono, who flashes that infectious smile. There are legitimate actors in the film as well; Walter Pidgeon collecting a well-earned paycheck, Polly Bergen doing the same, and Dane Clark making one of his final appearances on film.

Hugh O'Brian, on the other hand shows us his fun side as a crazy cop. This film would hard to top for stereotypes, and it sets a very high standard in that area. Take the film tongue and cheek, and you will enjoy it; if you take it seriously, you will need one of those bags they provide in the seats for regurgitation.