Concorde Affaire '79 (1979)

A reporter tries to stop the crash of an aircraft after uncovering an airline's plot to save their business by sabotaging Concorde flights and have them decommissioned.

Director:

Ruggero Deodato (as Roger Deodato)

Writers:

Alberto Fioretti (story), Renzo Genta (adaptation)

Stars:

James Franciscus, Mimsy Farmer, Venantino Venantini

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
James Franciscus	...	Moses Brody
Mimsy Farmer	...	Jean Beneyton
Venantino Venantini	...	Forsythe
Fiamma Maglione	...	Nicole Brody (as Mag Fleming)
Edmund Purdom	...	Danker
Francisco Charles	...	George (as 'Francisco' Charles)
Francesco Carnelutti	...	Co-Pilot - 2nd Concorde
Ottaviano Dell'Acqua	...	John - Forsythe's Henchman
Aldo Barberito	...	Priest - 2nd Concorde
Roberto Santi	...	Navigator - Second Concorde
Maria D'Incoronato	...	Woman Passenger with Bearded Father - 2nd Concorde
Renzo Marignano	...	Martinez - Milland's Advisor
Renato Cortesi	...	Journalist
Giovanni Battista Felici
Maria D'Alessandro	...	Hostess

Storyline

Reporter Moses Brody receives a phone-call from his ex-wife, a fellow reporter, who says he has a big story in the Antilles. When he arrives, she has been killed. While investigating her death, he comes across the case she was working on: a crashed Concorde airliner, sabotaged by an airline company whose South American business is jeopardized by the new Concorde airplanes. He digs deeper and finds that the stewardess survived the crash into the ocean, but she is being held by criminals who are blackmailing the company responsible for the crash. The crash site is kept hidden, however, and the authorities don't believe his story without the proper evidence. On his own, Brody attempts to rescue the stewardess from her captors, and while doing so, he discovers that another Concorde flight out of London has been sabotaged to crash in the same way. The two race against the clock to get the information to London and prevent the crash.

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Plot Keywords:

terrorism | concorde | reporter | airplane | scuba diver | 

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Thriller

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Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

23 March 1979 (Italy)

Also Known As:

The Concorde Affair

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dania Film, National Cinematografica

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Two years later, following this ripoff of Concorde: Airport '79, James Franciscus would star in the infamous Jaws ripoff, The Last Shark: both were Italian productions, and the Jaws and Airport films were both franchises.

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Quotes

Danker: Operation? The flight from Rio will have 100 persons on board. And you call this an operation? Why don't you call it by its real name?
Milland: You wanna hear its real name? Okay, Danker, I'll spell it for you: W-A-R, war.
Milland: Since time immemorial, nations have been sacrificing hundreds of millions of human lives to protect their "interests". Well, we too, are a nation; a multi-national state. Our citizens? Our workers, employees, technicians and shareholders. The shareholders, gentlemen! And it is our ...
[...]

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Connections

Referenced in The Dark Side of Porn: Debbie Does Dallas Uncovered (2005)

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Soundtracks

Nydia
Written by Charles Denis Frantz
Arranged by Marius Cultier

User Reviews

Better Than the Film It's Ripping On

Concorde Affaire '79 (1979)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Entertaining non-sense from director Ruggero Deodato is an Italian rip-off of the American film THE CONCORDE....AIRPORT '79 but this here is actually much, much better. The wild plot deals with a crazy businessman (Joseph Cotten) who plans to take down every Concorde plane that he can so that it keeps him in business. The first plane goes down but a woman (Mimsy Farmer) survives the crash and then gets held captive so that no one finds out. Thankfully a reporter (James Franciscus) finds out about the plot and tries to get to the bottom of it. CONCORDE AFFAIRE '79 is one crazy little film that pretty much has everything you could possibly think of in regards to just downright silliness. The plot is all over the place but it's so wild and crazy that you really can't call it anything other than original. I went into this movie expecting something really bad but I must admit that I was surprised by how entertaining it was. It's certainly not going to make you forget CITIZEN KANE but it's still a fun little movie. There are some really crazy scenes and sequences here and one of the strangest has to be when the reporter is at the bottom of the ocean checking out the wrecked plane and he must battle people on the surface who are trying to kill him. This sequence runs a very long time but it keeps you drawn up in its action and the underwater photography is actually excellent. We've also got some other crazy scenes, mostly dealing with the surviving woman who is constantly coming under attack. This includes a couple scenes where she tries to break free and there's a real crazy sequence towards the end inside a bank. Director Deodato pretty much throws everything in the picture and for the most part it's fun no matter how dumb it is. This includes the really campy music score, some poor dubbing and a hilarious performance from the lead. I found Franciscus to be extremely entertaining in the lead and he certainly kept you interested in what was going on. This is especially true because he was playing the part like Charlton Heston and the (I believe) dubbed job makes him sound like Heston. Farmer doesn't offer a "good" performance but the over-the-top nature of her breakdown towards the end is priceless. Both Van Johnson and Cotten are obviously just picking up paychecks but it was fun seeing them. Fans of serious cinema will want to skip this but those just looking for a good time should get some entertainment value.