Airport '77
Tags: suspenseful, murder

Plot synopsis:
A privately owned luxury Boeing 747-100, Stevens' Flight 23, flies invited guests to an estate in Palm Beach, Florida, owned by wealthy philanthropist Philip Stevens, who also owns the jetliner. Valuable artwork from Stevens's private collection is also on board the jetliner, to be eventually displayed in his new museum. Such a collection motivates a group of thieves led by co-pilot Bob Chambers to hijack the aircraft.
Once Captain Don Gallagher leaves the cockpit and is knocked unconscious, the hijackers' plans go into action. A sleeping gas, which one of the hijackers secretly installed before the flight, is released into the cabin and the passengers lose consciousness. Knocking out the flight engineer, Chambers moves forward with the hijacking, and Stevens' Flight 23 "disappears" into the Bermuda Triangle. Descending to virtual wave-top altitude, Flight 23 heads into a fog bank, reducing visibility to less than a mile. Minutes later, a large offshore drilling platform emerges from the haze, Flight 23 heading straight for it at nearly 600 knots.
Chambers pulls back on the yoke in a banking left turn, but an engine clips the derrick and catches fire. Chambers immediately hits the fire extinguishing button, and the flames are momentarily extinguished. Because the aircraft is at such a low altitude, the sudden loss of airspeed threatens to stall the airplane. As the engine reignites, Chambers is forced to use another fire suppression bottle. But by this time, the aircraft stall alarm is activated and the aircraft's tail hits the water. All the passengers wake up, and realizing what is happening, most panic. Chambers is able to pull up, but the plane's right wing hits the water again. The plane lifts into the air for a moment, then hits the water. Because of the hard impact, the plane becomes grounded in the ocean and begins to sink.
The ocean floor is above the crush depth of the fuselage. Many of the passengers are injured, some seriously. Two of the would-be thieves die in the initial crash. Banker is in the hold securing the art for the transfer when a cargo container causes a breach of the outer skin, crushing and drowning him. Wilson dies when he slams into the flight panel on impact. Since the aircraft was off course, search and rescue efforts are focused in the wrong area. Involved in these efforts are Phillip Stevens and Joe Patroni. The only way to signal rescue efforts to the proper region is to get a signal buoy to the surface in a small dinghy. Captain Gallagher and diver Martin Wallace enter the main cargo, but Wallace is crushed by the hatch. Gallagher, out of oxygen, swims to the surface and activates the beacon after he climbs into the dinghy. Getting a fix on the new signal, an S-3 Viking overflies the crash site, confirming the location of Flight 23.
The Navy dispatches a sub-recovery ship, the USS Cayuga (LST-1186), the destroyer USS Agerholm (DD-826), and a flotilla of other vessels. The aircraft is ringed with balloons, and once inflated, the aircraft rises from the bottom of the seafloor. Just before the plane breaks surface, one of the balloons breaks loose, prompting the Navy captain to reduce the air pressure of the remaining balloons, thus keeping the plane just beneath the waves. One of the doors in the cargo hold bursts open, causing the plane to flood. The cascade of sea water sweeps through the passengers; First Officer Chambers dies when he is pinned under a sofa. Wallace's widow drowns as the Navy captain orders more air pressure into the balloons, finally raising the plane successfully. Once on the surface, the remaining passengers are evacuated. With the survivors on their way to waiting ships, Captain Gallagher and Stevens' assistant, Eve, are evacuated from the aircraft after escaping through the 747's upper deck. The 747 then slips under the waves for the last time.

Review: Featuring Oscar-winning and nominated stars like Lemmon, Grant, de Havilland, Quinlan, Kennedy and Stewart, it also offers one of the best caliber casts of the '70's disaster cycle.
Of course all good plans go awry and they go down in the Bermuda Triangle into some relatively shallow area of the Atlantic.Hey they could have gone down and been lost for decades like the Titanic was.That's essentially the plot here and in true Seventies disaster film tradition you load the screen with big names, dress them fashionably and put them in harm's way.
Almost twenty years before he supported James Stewart in Bell, Book,and Candle and now the billing is most definitely reversed.My favorites in the film are Joseph Cotten and Olivia DeHavilland, a classy and elegant pair of passengers who so typify the glamor of old Hollywood.Christopher Lee also performs against type, he's not the villain here in fact he turns out quite the hero among the passengers.
In typical "Airport" fashion, a routine plane ride, this time carrying various celebrities and other high-profile people, gets into some trouble when it crashes into the ocean in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle....Though the decor of the flash plane filled with VIP's is dreary compared to the fabulous colours of the chairs in "Airport 1975", the characters are a major improvement, along with the actual danger that the passengers and crew are placed in.In typical Disaster Movie style, the cast is large, and many of them are forgettable, however, stand-out performances in "Airport '77" include Jack Lemmon in a serious role as the likable Captain Gallagher, Lee Grant is Karen Wallace a VIP guest of the nasty variety, the underrated Pamela Bellwood as a young mother, the lovely Kathleen Quinlann is as usual outstanding, but unfortunately under-used here, but the stand-out star of the film is of course Brenda Vaccaro as Captain Gallagher's girlfriend Even Clayton.
Nevertheless, she is fantastic, it is a shame she is not more recognized for her work.Overall, "Airport '77" is a terrific, and often overlooked addition to the genre, with a super cast, great direction, and a very interesting scene in which the plane is raised from the ocean, according to the credits, this is the actual method used by the Navy, which is a nice addition to the film..
would make fun of Edith Head being credited for '77 like that, by crediting their own costumer, but 27 years later, the wardrobe makes the cast of '77 appear tremendously dashing, giving the tragedy that greater a feel as well.Jack Lemmon was an incredible standout as the hero of the piece, in comparison to Paul Newman's sexism in Towering Inferno (he never speaks to Jennifer Jones as a human during their entire ordeal with the children) or Heston's stiffness or McQueen's inexpressiveness.
Airport '77 is the second sequel in the Airport franchise.Boeing 747 is carrying some valuable art of wealthy philanthropist Philip Stevens.A group of art thieves hijack the plane and soon they crash it to the Bermuda triangle.The passengers survive but for how long?
Jerry Jameson's disaster movie from 1977 is a mighty entertaining movie.It's packed with the brightest stars.James Stewart is Philip Stevens.Jack Lemmon is Captain Don Gallagher.That's two of my favorite actors.The real lady Olivia de Havilland plays Emily Livingston.Joseph Cotten plays Nicholas St. Downs III.George Kennedy is Joe Patroni.Christopher Lee is Martin Wallace.Lee Grant is Karen Wallace.M.Emmett Walsh plays Dr.Williams.So there are many great stars in a great jam.Airport '77 offers many intense moments under the water.Everybody not suffering from claustrophobia should see this..
Filmed at the height of the disaster genre from the 7os , this entry in the spectacular series profits of an enjoyable acting by Jack Lemmon , bringing life to character , in fact , to prepare for his role, Jack attended both diving school and flight training school , as he wanted to know what all the knobs and dials were for .
This sagas belongs the following films : the first was ¨Airport¨ (1970) , unanimously deemed the best , it paved the way for many lesser flicks including its many sequels , being directed by George Seaton with Burt Lancaster , Jean Seberg , Dean Martin , Van Heflin ; ¨Airport 75¨ (1974) by Jack Smight with Charlton Heston , Karen Black and Gloria Swanson , ¨Airport 77¨ (1977) considered one of the best of the series , leading to the last of the tired ones , ¨Airport 79¨ , (1979) by David Lowell Rich with Alain Delon , Robert Wagner , Silvia Kristel .
It has perhaps the best cast of names of any disaster film, including Jack Lemmon (curiously cast as a pilot), Lee Grant and Robert Foxworth (who would both appear a year later in 'Damien: Omen II' (1978)), Christopher Lee, Brenda Vaccaro, George Kennedy, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten AND James Stewart, to mention just some of the biggest names.Also, as the poster suggests, most of the action takes place underwater.
Don't worry about it being a plane - just buy into the possibility that James Stewart's character was so stinking rich and so concerned about his passengers and his art treasures that he bothered to make it the equivalent of a flying submarine (but a fragile one)!This is an outrageous film - there are no two ways about it - but it certainly beats the cartoon-ish sequel featuring the Concorde, which stinks to high heaven in comparison!It also possibly provided some vital training work for director Jerry Jameson before he went on to helm the doomed 'Raise The Titanic' (1980).
And, perhaps, Brenda Vaccaro was comforted for suffering pneumonia after filming this flick by the thought that all those innocent theme park tourists were suffering a similar fate!Anyway, aside from the Concorde sequel, this is the most outrageous of the 'Airport' films - if any of them could actually be considered realistic viewing, then that's one on me!Watching Lee Grant acting her co-stars in circles is a great pleasure to be gained from this entry into the franchise and the special effects, although dated now, of course, are still a lot of fun to watch!
James Stewart, plays an Ageing Millionaire who owns a priceless artwork collection ,which is due to be flown to his museum, on his state of the art 747, Among the artwork their are several VIP's and Stewart's estranged daughter,who are all traveling in style to Stewart's museum, A group of thieves hijack the 747 mid flight Which in dense fog, collide's with an off shore oil rig, and Spectacuarly plunges the craft off radar and in to mysterious depths in the waters of the Bermuda triangle, Jack Lemmon, takes over From Charlton Heston,as the heroic pilot, Falcon Crest's Robert Foxworth is Lemmon's co-pilot who aids the hijackers,Brenda Vaccaro,plays Lemmon's love interest who is a stewardess, Also on board is Christopher Lee,a businessman who has a shrewd alcoholic wife to contend with played by Lee Grant, Joseph Cotten, and Olivia De Havilland,play autumn year lover's, And George Kennedy in a probable contractually obliged role returns as 'Joe Patrioni.
And this time around, there is a slight element of the supernatural, as most of the goings-on in the second half of the film take place in that part of the Atlantic bounded by Miami, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda—the infamous Bermuda Triangle, where it is said ships and planes have been known to vanish without a trace.The plane in question is the new Stevens Corporation jumbo jet, whose owner (James Stewart) has invited many dignitaries onboard to take a flight from Washington to his place in Palm Beach, Florida for the opening of his new art museum and library grounds.
Since physical underwater rescue of the passengers is impossible, the Navy is forced to use pontoons to somehow raise the plane up to the surface long enough to get the passengers out.Lemmon's performance as the pilot is one of many reasons why AIRPORT '77 works as well as it does; his Everyman quality is the kind audiences appreciate (much like pilot Chesley Sullenberger in the real-life 2009 Miracle On The Hudson).
And the climactic rescue operation sequence, though it requires a suspension of disbelief not uncommon for the disaster genre, is also quite good too.John Cacavas' score, which goes from brooding avant-garde to typical grandiose orchestral gestures, is the icing on the cake for AIRPORT '77, a film that manages to be suspenseful and entertaining, while dialing down some of the worst excesses of the disaster genre that so alienated critics, and doing so with solid performances from almost all of the cast involved..
Airport '77 is a movie that fits the standard disaster genre formula: an all-star cast in peril who try to save themselves and each other.As it has been noted in other posts, it is virtually and physically impossible for a 747 to crash in the ocean and submerged underwater almost intact.
Old Hollywood stars like James Stewart, Olivia de Havilland, Christopher Lee and Jack Lemmon are in this film, and Lemmon is absolutely the best one here in his acting.
The third in the series of Airport films sees another stellar cast against the clock with an interesting setting for another disaster, probably the third of three that can possibly happen without retreading old plots.
First, it has a really good cast, with Jack Lemmon as an appealing hero/pilot, Brenda Vaccaro as a sympathetic and vulnerable flight attendant, Christopher Lee as a virtuous passenger, and James Stewart lending a bit of class as the worried jet owner.
Jack Lemmon and Jimmy Stewart act like it's 1954, Christopher Lee delivers his lines with a distinct look of someone with a poker up their bum, and Brenda Vaccaro takes over head stewardess duties from Karen Black.
Hey, if Jack Lemmon could play a character in an Airport movie with such conviction and without looking like an idiot, he obviously could do anything !
There's no question the idea of turning a plane into a submarine was absolutely preposterous and the special effects are ridiculously dated but the script is fun and the cast and characters not bad at all (a big improvement from AIRPORT 75).
It appears that the CO pilot did not know how to fly this plane because the plane's wing hits a tower and crashes in the Bermuda Triangle.This film gets a boost from Jack Lemon as well as Christopher Lee. He is the dedicated caption.
The biggest revelation upon seeing the theatrical cut was how all of George Kennedy's scenes before the crash weren't there any more.Even at it's best, Airport 77 is only par for the course as far as disaster movies go.
All of the passengers on the plane and the chief pilot are faced with how to rescue themselves before they run out of air to breathe while believing no one knows where they have crashed.Watch for the small cameo role of Chris Lemmon (Jack's son) as a fighter pilot looking for the sunken 747..
But as soon as the plane crashes and lands below the surface, the plot becomes waterlogged with too many unrealistic soapopera sub-plots involving an extremely uninteresting cast of characters.Jack Lemmon was a last minute replacement for a Charlton Heston-like hero role and he and Brenda Vaccaro actually do a good job of emoting.
Not much else can be said for the rest of the cast--Christopher Lee, Lee Grant (strident and over-the-top as a sarcastic, slightly tipsy wife), Olivia de Havilland and Joseph Cotten as reunited lovers, Darren McGavin, Kathleen Quinlan and others, left to the mercy of a witless script.The rescue operation is by far the most exciting and credible part of the whole story, making the implausible seem almost plausible.
Another all-star cast(including Jack Lemmon, Jimmy Stewart, Darren McGavin, Olivia De Havilland, Christopher Lee, Lee Grant, and returning actor George Kennedy as Joe Patroni) enliven this film about a 747 loaded with valuable art and passengers is threatened by thieves who knock out the crew with gas, in order to steal the art, only the plan goes wrong and they crash into shallow(100 feet) of ocean water.
The survivors desperately try to escape the plane, before it's flooded.Despite a plot that seems like a cross between "Airport" & "The Poseidon Adventure", this entry is surprisingly entertaining, with good direction by Jerry Jameson, and good acting by the stars, especially Jack Lemmon, who invests his character with more humanity and character than was likely in the script.Highly satisfying yarn with a plot later memorably used in an early episode of "The Incredible Hulk" TV series(called '747'!).
I think there are good performances turned in by Jack Lemmon, Jimmy Stewart, Brenda Vaccaro, Olivia De Havilland, Joseph Cotten, Darren McGavin, and George Kennedy as part of the all-star cast that's featured here.
A passenger plane does a crash dive into the sea.Jack Lemmon, Pamela Bellwood before Dynasty, Joseph Cotten, James Stewart, Darren McGavin not being The Night Stalker, Christopher Lee long before Star Wars, Gil Gerard not being Buck Rogers...so many interesting faces here!I was first introduced to this film in the late 1970s or early 1980s with the "extended TV version" which basically sucked.Years and years later I saw the much better (and shorter) "theatrical version"...now I love Airport '77.However, the first Airport film of 1970 had such a powerful and uplifting musical score at the start of the flick...it is too bad the following Airport movies, like this one, are missing that great music..
The best of the "Airport" franchise (which continues the fad of naming the film after its vintage) has Jack Lemmon as the unlikely hero when the plane he captains is hijacked in a inside job, then crashes into the ocean, coming to rest on the sea floor.
A daring escape plan ensues for the survivors, while George Kennedy returns as airline disaster Mr Fix-it Joe Petroni, to co-ordinate a rescue attempt from above the waves.77's best asset is its eclectic cast combining some true Hollywood heavyweights (de Havilland, Stewart, Cotten and Lemmon in particular) and a stable of reliable B-movie actors (Quinlan, Markham, Pataki and Walsh to name a few) under the expert tutelage of cult movie director Jameson.
It's not as good as the first movie, but it has a better cast and better production values than its immediate predecessor AIRPORT 1975.Proving once again that's perfectly watchable in any role he lands in, James Stewart plays billionaire Philip Stevens, who has turned one of his old estates into a million dollar-worth art museum.
But when they plane gets lost in the Bermuda triangle, the plane crashes and submerges in the middle of the ocean, leaving the passengers in a claustrophobic fight for survival in the vein of THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE.The cast is much better this time around, instead of a "who's who" of Hollywood has-been's and TV stars as the previous AIRPORT 1975, including Brenda Vaccaro as a flight stewardess and Gallagher's girlfriend, Christopher Lee as a selfless marine biologist married to bitchy alcoholic wife Lee Grant and Olivia De Havilland and Joesph Cotten landing in some great supporting performances.
The film starred a number of veteran actors, including Jack Lemmon, James Stewart, Joseph Cotten, Christopher Lee and Olivia de Havilland.
Jack Lemmon as the captain, Jimmy Stewart as the millionaire who owned the plane, George Kennedy who played in all 4 of the AIRPORT movies, made up some of the key characters.The great Chris Lee who has played  in some of the most god awful movies ever and has also played in the greatest films ever made in my opinion THE LORD OF THE RINGS series, also played maybe the most memorable role in this movie.I feel silly because I wondered why this film had the "'77" in the title and just today I found out that this is the third in a series of 4 AIRPORT movies.
I was moved to see this film because of its wonderful cast with actors as Joseph Cotten, Christopher "Dracula" Lee, James Stewart, Jack Lemmon, and the excellent actress Olivia De Havilland.
An early popcorn flick - like all the disaster films were.In this sequel, Jack Lemmon plays the ever-present Heroic Captain who must save the day as his ship gets a) hijacked, b) crashed into the ocean and c) lost by the search planes.
In fact, compared to the other "Airport" sequels, it qualifies as high art, simply because director Jerry Jameson and his all-star cast (Jack Lemmon, Brenda Vaccaro, Lee Grant, Darren McGavin, Christopher Lee, Olivia DeHavilland, Joseph Cotten, etc.) actually take the whole thing seriously and seem to be trying to do good work, instead of phoning in inept cameos and working harder at cashing paychecks than giving decent performances.The plot is definitely the film's weakest component:  luxury jumbojet full of jetsetters (and two children for sympathy's sake) and priceless artwork is hijacked by a gang of art thieves (and a crooked copilot) and driven into the Bermuda Triangle after the pilot and passengers are knocked out with nerve gas.
The acting isn't great, two time Oscar winner Jack Lemmon has said since it was a mistake to star in this, one time Oscar winner James Stewart looks old & frail, also one time Oscar winner Lee Grant looks drunk while Sir Christopher Lee is given little to do & there are plenty of other familiar faces to look out for too.Airport '77 is the most disaster orientated of the three Airport films so far & I liked the ideas behind it even if they were a bit silly, the production & bland direction doesn't help though & a film about a sunken plane just shouldn't be this boring or lethargic.
I also liked John Cacavas' music.The cast includes George Kennedy, James Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Christopher Lee, Olivia De Haviland, M.
Once again it has a grand old cast, people like James Stewart, Jack Lemon, Joseph Cotten,Olivia De Havilland, Christopher Lee and Darren McGavin.