Airport 1975

Customer Reviews:

Karen Black is flying the plane!!! Cross your eyes and hope to die........2007-09-07

Two nuns watch as silent screen diva Gloria Swanson makes her way through an airport, surrounded by the press. "I believe it's one of those Hollywood persons," observes Sister Martha Scott. "You mean an actress?" asks Sister Helen Reddy. Scott shudders, rolls her eyes and replies, "Or worse." Airport 1975 is proof that nothing's worse than "those Hollywood persons" who grace the bonanza of Bad Movies We Love known as "disaster films," of which this is the funniest example. As the parade of passengers continues--Myrna Loy, Susan Clark, Sid Caesar, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Roy Thinnes, Erik Estrada and Karen Black, just for starters--you keep thinking, it can't get any more cut-rate than this. Then Linda Blair rolls on in a wheelchair!

Once the big bird takes off, the laughs soar too: Sister Reddy takes guitar in hand to serenade the ailing Blair in a high camp sing-along that's even hootier than the scene in Airplane! which was meant to spoof it.

Though Airport 1975 makes a hopeless attempt to appear updated--when a man calls a novice stewardess "a teenager," she shoots back, "It's Ms. Teenager, please. I'm emancipated and highly skilled in kung fu"--it's really just Arthur Hailey's old chestnut about the plane that must be piloted back to earth by--you guessed it--Someone Who Doesn't Know How to Fly! Clearly desperate to give the tired old plot device some added suspense, the geniuses here decided to turn the controls over to Karen Black, who not only has no clue about piloting a jet, she's also cross-eyed. (In a delirious in-joke, it's Dana Andrews who turns up as the pilot of the tiny plane that crashes into our heroine's 747 to set this plot into motion. In The Crowded Sky, Andrews played the pilot whose jet was struck; then, in Zero Hour, he played Black's role.)

When the passengers hear that Black's flying the plane, they prepare to die. Swanson tosses diamonds out of her jewelry case and stuffs the taped notes for her autobiography into it instead, explaining, "It's bomb-proofed, the insurance people insisted upon it." (It's the only "bomb-proof" thing in this movie.) As Black's troubles mount, her boyfriend back on earth, pilot Charlton Heston, knows that someone's gotta go up there and bring that plane down. "You mean to tell me you're going to try to transfer a pilot into a 747 in flight?" asks an incredulous extra. "It's going to be like trying to put a raw egg back into its shell!" Heston, however, seems to know that he's nothing if not a raw egg.

When Heston helicopters by and prepares to, literally, drop in, Black acts and acts as she reaches out her arms to help pull him aboard--and then makes one of those actor's choices that distinguishes her from all the others who've played this part: She sticks out her tongue! Then she tops even that by taking a bullhorn to run amok in the aisles shouting, "There's nothing to be alarmed about, nothing!" You think, it can't get any goofier than this, but it can, and it does. The grand finale? The sight of 69-year-old Myrna Loy hurtling down the emergency slide exit, a high point of unintentional hilarity. Too good to be true, it's exceeded by 77-year-old Gloria Swanson shooting down at warp speed, her dress hiking up high enough to show a tantalizing flash of white undies.

Gloria Swanson's final film.......2007-07-07

I saw this movie first run in 1974 and never get tired of watching it. Karen Black is amazing and very believable as the stewardess that is left to fly the plane. It is rare in disaster films to see such a strong female character that is not nasty or demanding. She really carries the film. Charlton Heston, plays his normal stoic self. The disaster itself and the photpgraphy is very good. Most of the all star cast are passengers; Gloria Swanson looks fabulous in her last film. She's very classy playing herself, Susan Clark, Linda Blair, Sid Caesar, Augusta Summerland (who was Heston's co-star in Planet of the Apes billed as Linda Harrison), Nancy Olson (Miss Swanson co star in Sunset Blvd), Martha Scott, Myrna Loy and Helen Reddy. Also stars George Kennedy (who starred in all 4 Airport films), Dana Andrews, Beverly Garland, Roy Thinnes and Erik Estrada. It is ashame they do not make films with such stellar casts any more.

Best Ariport Film .......2007-06-08

Somepeople say airport '77 was beter then airport '75 but airport '75 has beter acting beter sotry and the whole story and movie was the BEST. If you are planing on seeing airport '77 it's fine as it self but i'd see airport '75 if i were you. Both are fine but '75 is beter by a lot.

Info on the VHS version.......2007-05-16

You might want to know that the out of print VHS (I happen to own one) is recorded at LP speed instead of SP. It has a mono soundtrack & is not recorded in VHS HiFi. Also it's pan & scan instead of widescreen like the DVD. You want widescreen? Then go get the DVD. Otherwise save a few bucks (if you have a VHS machine or a DVD/VHS combo) and get the tape.

The movie is still very enjoyable even in this version....

THE SECOND OF 4 IN THE GREAT AIRPORT MOVIE COLLECTION.......2007-01-30

This was the second of four Airport movies and it was as good as the
first one. Charlton Heston plays the role of Alan Murdock, Karen Black
plays the role of Nancy Pryor and George Kennedy plays his second
straight role Joe Patroni. Nancy Pryor has A disagreement with Alan
Murdock before she boards Columbia Airlines, flight 409, a Boeing 747
flying from Washington to Los Angeles. On this same flight is Joe
Patroni wife and son. While in flight the plane is hit head on by a
small, plane that goes down some where over the state of Iowa. Injured
on the plane is the pilot and co pilot and there's no one to fly the
plane. Now the first flight attendant Nancy Pryor is forced into flying
the plane with the help of Captain Murdock and Joe Patroni. Now Joe
Patroni is left with only one problem and that's who's going to land
the plane in Salt Lake City.

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