Airport 1975 (1974) Universal/Drama-Thriller RT: 107 minutes Rated PG (language, violence, mature themes) Director: Jack Smight Screenplay: Don Ingalls Music: John Cacavas Cinematography: Philip H. Lathrop Release date: October 18, 1974 (US) Cast: Charlton Heston, Karen Black, George Kennedy, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Gloria Swanson, Susan Clark, Helen Reddy, Linda Blair, Dana Andrews, Roy Thinnes, Sid Caesar, Myrna Loy, Ed Nelson, Nancy Olson, Larry Storch, Martha Scott, Jerry Stiller, Norman Fell, Conrad Janis, Beverly Garland, Augusta Summerland (Linda Harrison), Guy Stockwell, Erik Estrada, Kip Niven, Brian Morrison, Charles White, Amy Farrell, Irene Tsu, Ken Sansom, Alan Fudge, Christopher Norris, Austin Stoker, John Lupton, Gene Dynarski, Aldine King, Sharon Gless, Laurette Spang. Box Office: $47M (US)
Rating: ***
This is where the fun really begins in the Airport series. I’m sure most movie geeks worth their weight in film stock realize that a lot of the gags in the classic 1980 disaster spoof Airplane came from Airport 1975, the first sequel to the 1970 blockbuster that gave rise to the disaster movie cycle of the 70s. It ditches all attempts at seriousness and goes right for the thrills of another airplane at risk of crashing if not for the valiant efforts of a brave crew. Only this time the crew is removed from the equation leaving only cross-eyed stewardess Nancy (Black, Five Easy Pieces) to safely land the plane after it’s damaged in a mid-air collision with a private aircraft. Yep, this one’s pretty silly.
Directed by Jack Smight (The Illustrated Man), Airport 1975 opens by introducing the crew and passengers of Flight 409 from Washington D.C. (Dulles Airport) to L.A. (LAX). We first meet head stewardess Nancy whose relationship with Capt. Al Murdock (Heston, The Ten Commandments) is currently “on the rocks”. Your pilot this trip is Captain Stacy (Zimbalist, The F.B.I.). Roy Thinnes (The Invaders) and Erik Estrada (CHiPs) play the co-pilot and flight engineer respectively. The passenger manifest includes the following: Sister Beatrice (Scott, Ben-Hur) and novice nun Sister Ruth (singer Reddy), teenage kidney transplant patient Janice (Blair, The Exorcist), a trio of obnoxious drunken conventioneers (Fell, Stiller and Janis), bit part actor Barney (Caesar, Your Show of Shows), sophisticated lush Mrs. Devaney (Loy, The Thin Man) and aging actress Gloria Swanson (as herself) writing her memoirs.
Bad weather necessitates all flights being diverted to Salt Lake City. This includes the private plane being flown by businessman Scott Freeman (Andrews, Laura) who suffers a mid-air heart attack causing him to crash into the side of the 747. It leaves a big hole just above the co-pilot’s seat (he gets sucked out immediately). It also kills the engineer and blinds the pilot with debris. With the entire flight crew out of commission, the fate of the panicking passengers is in the hands of Nancy who’s never flown an airplane in her life. She receives instructions via radio from ground control which allows her to safely navigate the treacherous Wasatch Mountains.
Our old friend Joe Petroni (Kennedy, Cool Hand Luke), now the VP of operations, is called in to assess the situation. It’s personal for him as his wife (Clark, Coogan’s Bluff) and son (Morrison, Maude) are on board. He calls in Murdock to help. It’s decided the best way to deal with the crisis is to lower an experienced pilot into the cockpit from a helicopter. This gives Heston an opportunity to play the hero. And you just know he’s loving this s***.
I’ve been going over the dippy dialogue and have come to the conclusion that the best line(s) is the exchange between the two nuns when they see Ms. Swanson at the airport:
Sister Ruth: “Who is she, Sister Beatrice? Do you recognize her?”
Sister Beatrice: “I believe it’s one of those Hollywood persons.”
Sister Ruth: “Oh, you mean an actress?”
Sister Beatrice: “Or worse.”
Other choice lines include one of passengers yelling in a panicked tone, “YOU MEAN THE STEWARDESS IS FLYING THE PLANE?”, Petroni expressing his annoyance at the press with “Y’know, sometimes the public’s right to know is a huge pain in the ass.” and Black on the radio with the SLC control tower, “It’s Nancy Pryor…. stewardess. Something hit us! All the flight crew is dead or badly injured! There’s no one left to fly the plane! Help us! Oh my God, help us!” There’s so much overacting in Airport 1975, one wonders if it’s a spoof.
I find it near impossible to knock Airport 1975. It’s a prototypical disaster flick. It has a cast list filled with popular stars, has-beens and whoever else the producers could talk into signing on. I have to admit I like Reddy’s singing nun. For whatever reason, Janice has a guitar with her. Sister Ruth commandeers it to sing a happy little ditty called “Best Friend”. HOWEVER, one of the movie’s biggest plot holes lies with Blair’s character. She’s awful perky for somebody who’s supposed to be gravely ill. You’d think that the stress of impending death would worsen her condition but it doesn’t. Eh, whatever. I didn’t watch Airport 1975 expecting realism on any level. I’ll refrain from asking questions about the method of rescue. As for the rest of the cast, Heston is his usual hammy self while Black doesn’t exactly convince us she’s flying a plane. Kennedy is just enjoying himself playing the heroic guy whose knowledge of all things related to aviation comes in handy.
The special effects, despite all the rear (and front) projection shots, are pretty good. I tried putting myself in the mind frame of 11YO Movie Guy watching it on TV on a Saturday or Sunday night. I’d probably have loved it. I wouldn’t care if it looked real or fake or real fake. Airport 1975 is a fun movie that’s occasionally (unintentionally) funny. It’s reasonably thrilling albeit totally predictable. I like the characters and the actors playing them. It’s great to see Ms. Swanson goofing on her glamorous Old Hollywood star image. What a good sport! In some ways, I like Airport 1975 more than Airport. It knows exactly what it is and doesn’t aspire to be anything more.
