Airport 1975 (1974)

A 747 in flight collides with a small plane, and is rendered pilotless. Somehow the control tower must get a pilot aboard so the jet can land.

Director:

Jack Smight

Writers:

Arthur Hailey (novel), Don Ingalls

Stars:

Charlton Heston, Karen Black, George Kennedy

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Charlton Heston	...	Alan Murdock
Karen Black	...	Nancy Pryor
George Kennedy	...	Joe Patroni
Efrem Zimbalist Jr.	...	Captain Stacy
Susan Clark	...	Helen Patroni
Helen Reddy	...	Sister Ruth
Linda Blair	...	Janice Abbott
Dana Andrews	...	Scott Freeman
Roy Thinnes	...	Urias
Sid Caesar	...	Barney
Myrna Loy	...	Mrs. Devaney
Ed Nelson	...	Major John Alexander
Nancy Olson	...	Mrs. Abbott
Larry Storch	...	Glenn Purcell
Martha Scott	...	Sister Beatrice

Storyline

When the pilot of a small aircraft has a heart attack and crashes his plane into the cockpit of a Boeing 747, several members of the flight crew are killed and the pilot is blinded. Miraculously, the 747 stays in the air on auto-pilot with flight attendant Nancy Prior at the controls. Ground controllers, including her boyfriend Alan Murdock, try to teach her the basics but they soon realize they will have to get a trained pilot into the cockpit. Their first attempt fails and Murdock realizes he will have to do it. Meanwhile, various passengers have their own problems including a young girl who is destined to a life saving operation.

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Plot Keywords:

pilot | cockpit | boeing 747 | stewardess | heart attack | 

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Taglines:

Star-studded cast trapped in a plunging airplane... And only a death-defying rescue mission can save them!

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 October 1974 (USA)

Also Known As:

Airport '75

Filming Locations:

Edwards Air Force Base, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

SEK 3,006,752 (Sweden)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Gloria Swanson was given her own private bungalow when filming commenced at Universal Studios. Her arrival and the residence were included as part of the studio tour for tourists.

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Goofs

Obvious stunt double when Gloria Swanson jumps down the emergency chute.

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Quotes

Urias: Checklist.
Julio: Windshield heat?
Urias: A-ok. Safe from all kinds of flying birdies.
Julio: [In reference to Bette] Except young flying quale...
Bette: You're a disgrace to your race, do you know that?

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Connections

Referenced in Saturday Night Live: Carrie Fisher/The Blues Brothers (1978)

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Soundtracks

"Best Friend"
Lyrics and Music by Helen Reddy and Ray Burton (as R. Burton)
Sung by Helen Reddy

User Reviews

The inspiration for all the clichés and spoofs to follow

I have read many of the viewer comments on this film and I can say that most were right on target so there isn't much point in my repeating what they've already said.

My main comment would be: Save yourself the time and expense to see this film and rent "Airplane!" instead. They are essentially the same film with the only real distinction being that "Airplane!" actually was intended to be a comedy.... and a damned good one at that. In fact, as I recall, "Airplane!" was named the best comedy ever made by the American Film Institute. This is quite phenomenal when you consider that it was nothing but a spoof of "Airport 1975". And this may be the one and only truly distinctive aspect of "Airport 1975". That is, it did inspire a truly great film. Otherwise, it had very few redeeming qualities.

The film is nothing but a haphazardly thrown together collection of all the film clichés that could be squeezed into the allotted run time. I recently watched it for the first time since its original release mostly out of sheer curiosity. I remembered it being bad.... as all the sequels to "Airport" were. They were all presumably made as serious films but they were all so sloppily made with such terrible scripts that you couldn't help wonder why they weren't just released as comedies in the first place. For example, as has been well documented in other viewer comments, how could anyone take Linda Blair's and Helen Reddy's roles seriously? I mean, how could they keep straight faces with the scenario and dialogue they were supposed to work with? All that was missing was a laugh track.

I am glad I read some of the IMDb comments as I was viewing "Airport 1975" on AMC because they really added to my enjoyment of the comic aspects of the film.

As I said, this was the first time I had watched it in about 30 years and in the meantime I had of course seen "Airplane!" But until rewatching "Airport 1975" I did not realize the degree to which "Airplane!" was inspired by "Airport 1975". At times, I was dumbstruck at how scene after scene were all spoofs of actual scenes from "Airport 1975". And this made the film very entertaining to me when otherwise I may have just hit the channel button on the remote after the first 10 minutes of so of the drivel that "Airport 1975" actually is.