Linda Blair Movie:

		List Price: $9.95		Label: Good Times Video Salesrank: 78320 Released: May 1, 2001
		Our Price: $69.00
		Used Price: $8.00
		MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Media: DVD

Airport 1975 Reviews:
"You mean the stewardess is flying the plane???!!!"
2009-01-24 - It wasn't until the 70s disaster movie craze was well under way that Universal got round to a sequel to its 1970 blockbuster Airport - largely because the lucrative profits deals Lancaster and Martin secured on the first film made reassembling the original cast impractical (though George Kennedy did return to provide a vague fig leaf of continuity). It wasn't until producer Jennings Lang came across a script intended as a TV movie that some bright spark thought of slapping the Airport brand on it, adding 1975 to the title and abandoning the actual Airport aspect to concentrate on the planes in jeopardy instead.

The result, Airport 1975 (actually released in 1974) is the other movie that Airplane! lampooned mercilessly, what with sick transplant patients, Hare Krishnas and singing nuns among the passengers, not to mention Charlton Heston in safari suit and shades providing the blueprint for Robert Stack's Rex Kramer and Gloria Swanson in the kind of comeback role that could have been written by Joe Gillis for Norma Desmond (although it was supposedly intended for Garbo). In fact, Swanson wrote her own anecdote-filled dialogue, and boy does it show - this isn't a part, it's a chat show appearance.

Swanson isn't the only star of yesteryear bulking up the cast, with Myrna Loy knocking back several boilermakers, Sid Caesar providing the odd wisecrack while Dana Andrews, every drink he ever took etched onto his face, gets his own back for Effrem Zimbalist crashing into his plane in The Crowded Sky by crashing into Zimbalist's 747 this time round, leaving stewardess Karen Black to fly the plane until Chucky baby comes to the rescue, taking off his shades for a midair transfer that's a mixture of daring stuntwork and pitiful backprojection. Yet it's surprisingly entertaining, superbly photographed by veteran Philip Lathrop, much better directed by Jack Smight than it has any right to be and, as the shortest entry in the series at 107 minutes, keeps things tight enough not to leave too much room to dwell on the absurdities. Well, almost: if ever there was a moment where Linda Blair projectile vomiting on a member of the cloth was not just absolutely justifiable but positively mandatory it's when Helen Reddy sings about her best friend being herself, but sadly Linda doesn't deliver the pea soup on this occasion. But while we may scoff today, Jennings Lang knew what he was doing - no singing nun movie has ever lost money at the box-office, and the film was a big enough hit to guarantee two more sequels with considerably bigger budgets, though not before, in one of those nasty ironies the series is prone to, Dana Andrews' light aircraft in the film really was destroyed in a mid-air collision in 1975. Oh, and if the midair footage looks familiar, that's because Universal recycled it for years, most memorably in the 747 episode of The Incredible Hulk TV series.


Airport '75
2008-11-02 - This sequel to the original "Airport" is much better written and acted. Unlike the first "Airport" this film actually has suspense and a plot. A small place crashes into a 747 (right into the cockpit, wouldn't you know) and either kills or severely injures the flight crew. A stewardess is left to bring the jumbo jet safely back to earth.

Charlton Heston gives a pretty good performance as the boyfriend of the pilot/stewardess and other cast members like George Kennedy (how did he get so lucky to be in all of these movies?) and Karen Black portray believeable, if not a bit predictable, characters. I will say the guys in the Salt Lake City air traffic control tower leave a lot to be desired, but they are the weakest of the film's cast.

In the end all is well and things work out. While this is not a great movie, it is far superior to the extremely boring original.

MORE TENSE THAN THE ORIGINAL, BUT...........
2008-07-21 - Watching 'Airport 75' after all these years, I didn't remember very much of it. It's cast reminded me of a predecessor to the 'Love Boat' even more than the first film! Like most of these films the first three quarters of an hour or so is just meeting the cast and setting up the inevitable disaster that will unfold, but once this one gets going it has some tension....just don't think about the credibility of it too long! It's available on a box set with the other 3 Airport films at a bargain price so it your a fan of the series.......

Good Stuff
2008-05-03 - Today's sequels stink. Karen Black and Charlton Heston (R.I.P.) make this one work. John Cacavas wrote a good score as well.

Too Much Fun to Watch
2008-04-19 - The best of the 1970s disaster films was undoubtedly 1972's THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE. It spawned a series of other disaster movies, giving jobs to all kinds of special effects people and half of Hollywood throughout that decade. People loved the mayhem back then.

AIRPORT 1975 didn't have as many Oscar winners or the symbolic storyline that grabbed so many people as POSEIDON did, but it is filled with enough stars to make it worthwhile. Charlton Heston is in a Charlton Heston role. You have two actresses from the classic SUNSET BOULEVARD, Nancy Olson as the mother of the sick girl (Linda Blair!) and Gloria Swanson as Gloria Swanson (that's Linda Harrison, the incredibly hot Nova from the original PLANET OF THE APES as Gloria's assistant--but it's stewardess Karen Black who gets Charlton Heston in this movie). Normal Fell (Mr. Roper from TV's "Three Company") and Jerry Stiller (from "Seinfeld" and "King of Queens") as loud tipsy passengers. Erik Estrada is the navigator and Roy Thinnes ends up literally in "The Outer Limits" as the doomed co-pilot. Dana Andrews, Myrna Loy, Larry Storch, Syd Cesear, not to mention George Kennedy, Susan Clark and Efrem Zimbalist Jr.

But even if you're not a movie buff this particular disaster is fun to watch: you'll recognize many scenes that would end up in the 1980 spoof, AIRPLANE! (I'm laughing right now as I watch it as I see scenes taken directly from the movie).

There are also some great shots of a Boeing 747 flying THROUGH the Rocky Mountains.