Airport 1975
October. 18,1974 PGWhen an in-flight collision incapacitates the pilots of an airplane bound for Los Angeles, stewardess Nancy Pryor is forced to take over the controls. From the ground, her boyfriend Alan Murdock, a retired test pilot, tries to talk her through piloting and landing the 747 aircraft. Worse yet, the anxious passengers — among which are a noisy nun and a cranky man — are aggravating the already tense atmosphere.
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The cast is nearly as stellar, and this time we are treated to some good aerial photography, but the dialogue is very corny. That said, the story is rather a good one. Although Karen Black played several characters with angst or anxiety and innocent charm during that the 70s there's no reason to think she couldn't land the damn plane herself like the flight attendant does in the 1997 film, Turbulence.
When you sit down to watch an "Airport" movie, you do so in the full understanding that you're going to have to get through at least half of the runtime dealing with the inevitable melodrama - the soapish background to the story, telling more than we ever needed or wanted to know about the vast multitude of unnecessary characters that are populating the screen in front of us. "Airport 1975" - the first sequel to 1970's "Airport" - does not disappoint in that regard. Did I really care all that much that Alan and Nancy (Charlton Heston and Karen Black) were in a troubled relationship, and that she wanted to "talk." (Every man knows that when a woman wants to "talk" there 's trouble a-brewin'.) No, I didn't. Nor did I care all that much about any of the other soapy plotlines. You watch a disaster movie to get to the disaster, and then you hope that the disaster is enough to overcome the unnecessary melodrama you waded through to get there.The disaster here is a mid-air collision between a 747 and a small prop-plane. The collision rips a hole in the cockpit of the 747 and kills the crew, except for the captain, who's too badly injured to fly the plane. So the afore-mentioned Nancy (the head stewardess) has to take the controls. Karen Black makes Nancy look appropriately frightened - but somehow this disaster didn't hit home. To be honest, there wasn't enough panic among the passengers. Even once they found out that their intrepid but totally untrained stewardess was piloting the plane - well, there was concern, but not real panic. It all seemed to go reasonably well. Nancy was able to take instructions from the ground and fly the plane - even through some mountains. True - they needed a pilot aboard, so in a totally expected twist, her beloved Alan (with whom she has to have a "talk") manages to board the plane via a tether line from a military helicopter, easing himself through the hole, and guiding the big jet to a safe landing at Salt Lake City. Somehow, I just never had the sense that it could be otherwise. The tension was lacking.It had a cast of fairly well known names (Heston and Black being the biggest probably.) George Kennedy was back as Joe Patroni from the first movie, and there were people like Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Helen Reddy, Linda Blair, Gloria Swanson and Sid Caesar included. But for all the cast and all the melodrama and the disaster itself, what I found myself thinking about mostly as I watched this was the fact that it was obviously the basis for the 1980 spoof movie "Airplane" - which I would highly recommend you watch over this. (2/10)
I seen this movie in the theatre upon its initial release. And though I was only 9 years old at the time, I found it to very intense and exhilarating. But if you're going to compare this movie to the high quality production of the 90's and beyond...imo you're not being honestly fair towards it. It's a 70's disaster movie...and should be assessed as such. Besides, without this movie, the comedy classic "Airplane" wouldn't have resulted.The movie starts out with an introduction of the hotshot pilots and free spirited stewardesses. And we also get a glimpse of the troubled romantic relationship between the two main characters (Heston and Black). Some of the cameo performances were a bit hokey and overacted imo, but there were so many familiar faces that they help to retain the viewers interest. Norman Fell, Sid Caesar, Jerry Stiller, Efrim Zimbalest Jr, George Kennedy, Erik Estrada, Helen Reddy, Linda Blair...to name a few. With that being said, the story probably could have done without the bumbling news reporter (played by Larry Storch).As far as the main body of the movie, the story (for the most part) is believable and suspenseful...with a pretty decent performance by Karen Black. The movie also contains some very cool footage of a 747 flying over mountainous terrain. Despite some of the 70's hokiness, I still found it to be a fairly enjoyable watch (42 years later).
Unintentionally funny sequel to "Airport" is set(as the helpful subtitle tells us!) in 1975, where a Boeing 747 is disabled when a private airplane crashes into the cockpit(the pilot had a stroke), killing the flight crew and blinding one pilot, forcing a stewardess(Karen Black) to fly the plane, though her boyfriend(also a pilot, played by Charlton Heston) who is helicoptered into the cockpit, and tries desperately to resume control of the plane, before it crashes.Cast also includes returning character Joe Patroni(George Kennedy) along with Susan Clark, Gloria Swanson, Sid Caesar, Myrna Loy, Linda Blair, and Helen Reddy as a singing nun. Unlike the first film, which does hold up, this doesn't, crippled by a contrived plot and laughable scenes(whole film was effectively spoofed later on) that make it an unworthy entry, though there would be more...