Dean Martin
Jean Seberg
Jacqueline Bisset
George Kennedy
Helen Hayes
Van Heflin
Airport is a 1970 drama film starring Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin, directed and written by George Seaton, and based on Arthur Hailey's 1968 novel of the same name.
The film originated the 1970s disaster film genre, establishing the convention of "microcosmic melodrama combined with catastrophe-oriented adventure".
Synopsis[]
Melodrama about a bomber on board an airplane, an airport almost closed by snow, and various personal problems of the people involved.
Plot[]
This film was based on the novel by Arthur Hailey. With attention to the detail of day-to-day airport and airline operations, the plot concerns the response to a paralyzing snowstorm, environmental concerns over noise pollution, and an attempt to blow up an airliner.
Demolition expert D.O. Guerrero (Van Heflin), down on his luck and with a history of mental illness, buys life insurance with the intent of committing suicide by blowing up Trans Global Airlines Flight 2, known as The Golden Argosy, a Rome-bound Boeing 707 intercontinental jet, from a snowbound Chicago-area airport. He plans to set off a bomb in an attaché case while over the Atlantic with the intent that his wife, Inez (Maureen Stapleton), will collect the insurance money of $225,000.
When the Golden Argosy crew is made aware of Guerrero's presence and possible intentions, Captain Vernon Demerest (Dean Martin), acting as a check pilot to evaluate Captain Anson Harris (Barry Nelson), goes back into the passenger cabin and tries to persuade Guerrero not to trigger the bomb, informing him that his insurance policy had been cancelled. Meanwhile, airport manager Mel Bakersfeld (Burt Lancaster) deals with personal, weather, runway and stowaway problems from the ground.
When confronted by Captain Demerest, Guerrero briefly considers giving the attaché containing the bomb until a male passenger yells out to a passenger exiting the lavatory that Guerrero has a bomb. Guerrero, holding the case close to him, runs into the lavatory at the rear of the aircraft and triggers the bomb. The detonation blows a hole in the wall of the lavatory and Guerrero with it. Chief Stewardess Gwen Meighen (Jacqueline Bisset), who is having an affair with the married Demerest and is pregnant with Demerest's child, is injured in the explosion and subsequent rapid decompression. With all airports east of Chicago unusable due to bad weather, the plane returns to Lincoln International for an emergency landing, even though another airliner stuck in snow has closed the primary runway. TWA (Trans World Airlines, an actual airline of the time) chief mechanic at Lincoln, Joe Patroni (George Kennedy) is enlisted by Bakersfeld to lead the efforts to move the stuck aircraft, another Boeing 707, even though it belongs to a different airline, TGA (Trans Global Airlines, a fictional airline and the parent company of the film's Golden Argosy jet) Patroni, who is "taxi-qualified" on Boeing 707s, is trying to move the stuck aircraft in time for Demerest's damaged aircraft to land. By exceeding the Boeing 707 flight manual's engine operating parameters, Patroni frees the stuck jet, allowing Lincoln International's primary runway to be reopened just in time to permit the crippled Golden Argosy to land.
The film is characterized by personal stories intertwining while decisions are made minute-by-minute by the airport and airline staffs, operations and maintenance crews, flight crews, and Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers.
List of Disasters[]
- Snowstorm
- Airline bombing
Cast[]
- Burt Lancaster as Mel Bakersfeld, airport manager at Lincoln International Airport in nearby Chicago, Illinois
- Dean Martin as Vernon Demerest, checkride captain (only for Flight Two) for Trans Global Airlines (TGA)
- Jean Seberg as Tanya Livingston, customer relations agent for TGA
- Jacqueline Bisset as Gwen Meighen, chief stewardess for TGA's "Golden Argosy"
- George Kennedy as Joe Patroni, chief mechanic for Trans World Airlines at Lincoln International, on loan to TGA
- Helen Hayes as Mrs. Ada Quonsett, stowaway
- Van Heflin as D. O. Guerrero, failed contractor, and bomber of The Golden Argosy; Heflin's final film role
- Maureen Stapleton as Inez Guerrero, wife of D.O. Guerrero
- Barry Nelson as Anson Harris, TGA line captain
- Dana Wynter as Cindy Bakersfeld, wife of Mel Bakersfeld
- Lloyd Nolan as Standish, head of the U.S. Customs Service at the airport
- Barbara Hale as Sarah Demerest (sister of Mel Bakersfeld, wife of Vern Demerest)
- Gary Collins as Cy Jordan, second officer/flight engineer
- Dort Clark as Dr. Henry Bron (Bron, M.D. - passenger)
- Eve McVeagh as Mrs. Henry Bron (wife of Bron, M.D. - passenger)
- Jodean Russo as Marie Patroni, wife of Joe Patroni
- Larry Gates as Commissioner Ackerman
Production[]
Most of the filming was at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport. A display in the terminal, with stills from the field and the film, says: "Minnesota's legendary winters attracted Hollywood here in 1969, when portions of the film Airport were shot in the terminal and on the field. The weather remained stubbornly clear, however, forcing the director to use plastic 'snow' to create the appropriate effect."
Only one Boeing 707 was used: N324F, a 707-349C leased from Flying Tiger Line. It sported an El Al cheatline over its bare metal finish, with the fictional Trans Global Airlines (TGA) titles and tail. This aircraft later crashed during a landing while in service with Transbrasil, killing three crew members and 22 persons on the ground.
Music[]
Airport Soundtrack redirects here.
Reception[]
Box Office[]
The film was released on March 5, 1970. It made $100,489,151, and adjusted for inflation this was equivalent to $558 million in 2010, the 42nd highest-grossing film of all time.
Reception[]
Variety magazine wrote: "Based on the novel by Arthur Hailey, over-produced by Ross Hunter with a cast of stars as long as a jet runway, and adapted and directed by George Seaton in a glossy, slick style, Airport is a handsome, often dramatically involving $10 million epitaph to a bygone brand of filmmaking" but added that the film "does not create suspense because the audience knows how it's going to end."
Modern critics have mostly panned it, with the most generous reviews complimenting the film's influence on the disaster genre and its "camp value."
Burt Lancaster himself dismissed the film as "the biggest piece of junk ever made".
Sequels[]
- Airport 1975
- Airport '77
- The Concorde ... Airport '79
Trivia[]
- Dean Martin received 10% of the film's gross, which added an additional $7,000,000 to his salary.
- Trans Global Airlines was the name of the fictional airline for the film. For many years it was not unusual to see props from the movie (with the fictional TGA logo) in other Universal films where airliner interior scenes were shot.
- Airport was the final film for Van Heflin, Jessie Royce Landis and Thomas Browne Henry.
- At the request of Dean Martin, Petula Clark was originally offered the role of Gwen Meighen.