Airport 1975 (1974)

The 2nd Airport film (after the 1970 one) - this was the one about a small single-engine flyer striking the cockpit of a large 747 and wiping out the flight crew. The doomed pilot of the small plane is played by Dana Andrews (one of his last roles); the big plane's crew are played by Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (the captain), Roy Thinnes and Erik Estrada. Zimbalist's character isn't killed outright, just blinded. The head stewardess (Karen Black) has to take over flying the 747, with help from the ground crew. Her boyfriend is an experienced pilot played by Heston; he's going to do everything he can to get on the 747, as unlikely as it seems - that's probably the one plot element which veers towards sci-fi, that and the fact that the title suggests it takes place a year in the future - a minor case of futurism. George Kennedy returns from the 1st Airport film as Patroni; he teams up with Heston in much the same way they were teamed in Earthquake, filmed & released at virtually the same time.


The clever cute bit in this one is that Gloria Swanson, one of the passengers, plays herself. Other passengers are played by Susan Clark, Linda Blair as an ill girl, Helen Reddy as a singing nun, Sid Caesar, Myrna Loy, Norman Fell, Larry Storch and Jerry Stiller. These latter three are like comic relief and aren't very cute, just lopsided. Also, Reddy singing to the sick Blair has been parodied to great effect in Airplane! (1980). There is some tension generated at some points - the one nerve-wracking moment for me, even watching it  a 2nd or 3rd time - is when the first attempt is made to transfer a pilot (Ed Nelson) into the damaged 747; it's a case study of surefire Murphy's Law and sudden death. In the end, it's just a matter of Heston landing the airplane, with some minor tension about whether the landing gear will work and whether he can slow the plane down well enough. BoG's Score: 6 out of 10