Airport 1975

 Airport 1975 (which actually came out in 1974)

Runtime: 107 minutes

Directed by: Jack Smight

Starring: Charlton Heston, Karen Black and many others I’ll list below

From: Universal

Barring any major deaths in the film world, the plan is for me to watch the other two sequels in the Airport franchise during the weekend. After all, I watched the first one back in late February and since August of 2020 I’ve had all four in a DVD set I bought used.

As you’ll see why in a moment, it was sometimes rather difficult to take this seriously. An all-star cast is in a plane heading from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles. A mid-air collision occurs and in something I found to be less than credible, it doesn’t crash immediately but instead is able to stay in air with a giant hole in the cockpit and all the pilots dead or incapacitated. Flight attendant Karen Black now has to fly the plane with assistance from her beau Charlton Heston via radio; also, the passengers include a nun that plays the guitar and Linda Blair needs a kidney transplant… of course people will naturally be reminded of Airplane!

It is silly cheeseball entertainment which is easy to laugh at. Yet I was entertained enough to say this was fine. At least there was drama and Black did a nice job when most of the focus turned towards her. After the first half not a lot of time is spent with the rest of the cast on the airliner but alas… the impressive lineup includes a returning George Kennedy, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Helen Reddy, Dana Andrews, Roy Thinnes, Myrna Loy as an apparent alcoholic who loves drinking boilermakers, Larry Storch, Jerry Stiller, Norman Fell, Erik Estrada, Beverly Garland, Irene Tsu, Alice Nunn-best known as Large Marge from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure-and even Gloria Swanson as herself. It was nice to see all those familiar faces even if most of them just gathered a paycheck rather than delivering a must-see performance.

In addition, of interest to me is shaking my head at all the rampant sexism, the 70’s fashion, the pink and purple décor that was emblazoned all over first class, and all the smoking done by the pilots. I’ll presume more of the same for the other two sequels.