The disaster movies of the 1970s cover all of the bases that cult movie fans have come to love. There are big special effects, impressive stunts, and all-star casts that were fun then but are even more fun now as you try to spot all the familiar faces. Airport 1975 was released at the peak of this subgenre and came out in the same year as both Earthquake and The Towering Inferno. Although it has somewhat of a reputation as a "bad" movie, I thoroughly enjoyed it as the plot devices that come off as silly and unrealistic are part of what make movies like this fun for me. Fans of the movie Airplane! will get a kick out of this as many elements were borrowed for the Zucker/Abrahams classic including the sick kid, the guitar, and the stewardess at the controls.

Karen Black stars as Nancy, a flight attendant who is in a relationship with a confident pilot with commitment issues named Alan Murdock (Charlton Heston). They have an argument at the airport and then Nancy boards a 747 to Los Angeles that is filled with a variety of characters that usually populate this type of flick. The plane takes off and things are pretty much the status quo aside from the fact that there is a teenager (Linda Blair) onboard who is travelling across the country to receive an emergency kidney transplant. Helen Reddy is also onboard in a nun outfit but that doesn't stop her from strapping on the teenager's guitar in a scene that amps up the cheese factor considerably. After a period of getting to know the characters, things take a bad turn when the pilot of a small plane has a heart attack and his plane crashes into the 747 tearing a chunk out of the cockpit and rendering the pilots useless. Nancy steps up and tries to take control of situation by attempting to fly the plane herself with the help of mission control. When Murdock gets wind of the situation, he feels that Nancy cannot handle the job alone so he springs into action to flaunt his masculinity. With Joe Patroni (George Kennedy) at his side, Murdock jumps on a helicopter and attempts to get a pilot on board the 747 by using a crazy method of having a man be lowered by a cable as both aircraft are flying and climb into the damaged cockpit from the outside. Ridiculous? Yes. Entertaining? Absolutely.

Most disaster movies follow a formula where a number of characters are set up for the first half and then they have to deal with a bad situation for the second half. Although the special effects in disaster movies are often used as a selling point, it is the characters who are really going to make or break a movie like this. Even more modern disaster flicks like Deep Impact and The Day After Tomorrow follow this formula and there will be more in the future as it is tried and true. Airport 1975 is a sequel to Airport, a movie that established many of the elements of the genre but did not have the spectacle of some of the later flicks. What I love about the genre is the fact that everything is exaggerated to a silly degree from the characters to the effects. It is unlikely that anyone is going to be on an airplane that has a midair collision, even less likely that the plane will contain this batch of characters, and virtually impossible that a new pilot will be dropped in from a helicopter. If you are looking for a realistic situation, you have come to the wrong place but if you are looking for a eclectic group of people dealing with a crazy situation, this will be right up your alley.

There are many cast members to keep your eye out for in this flick. Erik Estrada ("CHiPs") plays the horny navigator. Screen legend Gloria Swanson plays herself (in her final film role). George Kennedy is his usual self chewing up the scenery and reprising his role from the first Airport movie. Linda Blair is an odd choice as a character who plays most of her scenes with a nun as she had shot to stardom the previous year as the possessed Regan in The Exorcist. I kept expecting her to barf. Norman Fell ("Three's Company") and Jerry Stiller ("Seinfeld") play obnoxious drunk businessmen. Sid Caesar plays a pathetic actor desperately seeking attention from Myrna Loy and pestering her to watch his non-existent bit part in American Graffiti (the in-flight movie). Linda Harrison (Nova from Planet of the Apes) shows up as Swanson's assistant and unfortunately does not share any scenes with Heston. Tim Burton fans may recognize the woman with the dog as Large Marge from Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Overall, this is a big movie where everything is overdone. If you enjoy old cheesy disaster movies like I do, then you will appreciate this. If not, you will probably agree with the many critics who include this one their "worst movies of all time" list. Director Jack Smight followed this up with Midway and then Damnation Alley. (Josh Pasnak, 12/15/13)

Directed By: Jack Smight.
Written By: Don Ingalls.

Starring: Charlton Heston, Karen Black, George Kennedy, Efrem Zimbalist Jr.