The Concorde... Airport '79
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
December 1979. An American-owned French operated Concorde super-sonic jet takes off from the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Captain Paul Metrand (Alain Delon) makes conversation with Isabelle (Sylvia Kristel), the purser whom is his current lover. They land at Dulles Airport in Washington DC.Maggie Whalen (Susan Blakely) is an investigative reporter who recaps the arrival of the Concorde and reports on the "Goodwill" flight on the Concorde the following day, which leads to a story of future boyfriend Kevin Harrison (Robert Wagner) and his Buzzard missile project. Carl Parker shows up at Maggie's house with a claim about documentation of illegal arms deals to communist nations. Carl is shot before a passerby triggers a fire alarm, scaring the assailant away.Meanwhile, Captain Joe Patroni (George Kennedy) introduces himself to Captain Metrand as being the pilot for the Concord flight to Paris and to Moscow for the upcoming 1980 Summer Olympics to be held eight months from then. The next morning, Maggie tells Harrison about her ordeal and the rumor of documents. Kevin claims someone is framing him. He sends Maggie off in a limo while he waits for his business partner Willie Halpern to arrive. Kevin tells Willie that Parker is dead, but they do not have the documents. Kevin asks what time the next launch of the Buzzard is. Willie replies 6:30; Kevin wants it delayed until 8:00 and the drone test reprogrammed.Metrand and Patroni board the Concorde. It is difficult to determine the pilot-in-command as both of them are captains. Peter O'Neill (David Warner), the 2nd officer and flight engineer, is living with a controlling girlfriend.Kevin surprises Maggie at the airline check-in desk to see her off. He asks if the documents showed up, but they have not. As he is walking away, Carl Parker's wife delivers the documents to Maggie as she steps on the mobile lounge. She looks them over on the lounge and realizes that Kevin lied to her.The Concorde takes off from Washington/Dulles enroute to Paris where, unbeknownst to the flight crew, an off-course ground-to-air missile is headed straight for them. At company headquarters, Kevin tells his controllers to alert the government. Patroni takes over the Concord as it goes into evasive action manouvers to evade the missile. The USAF scrambles F-15 fighter jets to intercept the missile just as it locks onto the Concorde. An F-15 shoots down the missile before it collides with the Concorde.As the Concorde is approaching the European coastline, an F-4 Phantom fighter jet, piloted by a mercenary, is sent by Harrison and engages the Concorde with air-to-air missiles as well as gunfire as French Air Force Mirages scramble to help the Concorde. The Mirages shoot down the F-4 and the Concorde continues to Paris, although it diverts to Le Bourget Airport instead of Charles de Gaulle because it is damaged by the F-4's gunfire. The Concorde reaches the French coastline, landing with a damaged hydraulic system and just barely stopping at the last safety net.Captain Metrand and Isabelle invite Joe to dinner as they wait for the Concord to be repaired. Meanwhile, Kevin arrives at Charles de Gaulle Airport, where an associate meets him, stating that he has another plan to stop Maggie from making public the documents before she reaches Moscow.Joe, Paul and Isabelle meet for dinner with a date for Joe as promised by Paul. Maggie meets Kevin for dinner. He promises to go public with the documents but attempts to bribe Maggie into "polishing" his statement. After being paid by Kevin, a mechanic, Rollie, places a device in the Concorde's cargo door control unit, timed to open during flight to depressurized the aircraft.The next morning, as the passengers re-board the Concorde for the second stage of the flight to Moscow, a well-dressed woman (Charo) attempts to smuggle a dog aboard. She is caught by an alert Isabelle and leaves the aircraft. Inside the terminal, Rollie is in line at the security checkpoint when his money falls out of his pants leg. The X-ray technician attempts to return it, but Rollie pretends not to hear and runs off. The security guard tells his partner to call security before chases Rollie. Rollie runs onto the runway where the Concorde is taking off. The aircraft's wake scatters the money he received from Kevin.The aircraft is en route to Moscow when the automatic device opens the cargo door. When Captain Metrand investigates, he sees the carpet tear down the middle of the aisle, signifying the fuselage is under tremendous stress and the aircraft is about to break apart. The cargo door is ripped off, extensively damaging the aircraft and ripping the floor of the cabin from the Concord as it spirals toward the ground. The airline founder's seat lodges in the hole, acting as a plug. The pilots attempt to fly to Innsbruck for an emergency landing, but realize they do not have enough fuel. Paul realizes they are flying towards a ski area he used to go to in the Swiss Alps; they could make a gear-up landing on a mountain-side.The aircraft approaches the landing site while the Swiss ski patrol marks a runway. The aircraft lands successfully. Maggie immediately gives a report of the accident to a news reporter and gives details about a major story she is about to release. In his office back in Paris, Kevin hears the newscast and commits suicide by shooting himself. At the crash site, Patroni and the last of the crew leaves the Concord shortly before fuselage caves in and the entire aircraft explodes from the leaking fuel.

Review: In fact, it is so bad they advertised it as a comedy!The plot is inane:  wealthy weapons manufacturer (Robert Wagner) is confronted by television anchorwoman/girlfriend (Susan Blakely), who tells him she has evidence that he is selling secrets to the Russians and is going to expose him.
The movie is only half over, so after an overnight layover, in which the cast couples as if the Concorde is Noah's Ark, everyone reboards the plane to go on to Moscow, even though they know someone is trying to bring it down.Anyway, let's just say the second leg of the trip ends even worse, with the plane crashing into a snowdrift without a single passenger or crew fatality.
And then there are the actors:  soft-core porn star Sylvia Kristel as a stewardess, Jimmie "J.J." Walker a saxophonist, Mercedes McCambridge looking ridiculous as a Russian gym coach, Andre Marcovicci as a gymnast who appears to be six feet tall, John Davidson as a TV reporter, Bibi Andersson a prostitute, Eddie Albert the idiot Concorde owner and Sybil Danning his trophy wife, David Warner the flight engineer, etc.
The stunts with the Concorde are worth watching for the laughs, although the special effects aren't as terrible as I'd expect for a movie of this quality made in 1979.
Let's see, George Kennedy, the cigar chomping "tough guy" mechanic of the original has somehow been promoted to airline captain, and, after the Concorde comes under missile attack (don't ask), he resorts to stunts like shooting a flare gun out the cockpit window despite (presumably) flying at Mach 2, all the while doing the sort of wild high-G evasive maneuvers that would have ripped the wings off any real airliner, never mind the effect of the passengers!
Thankfully, the release of the ever hilarious "Airplane!" the following year brought the whole "Airport" franchise to a well deserved halt, as anyone even contemplating a fifth installment would have been laughed to death by studios and movie fans alike.
The best scenes are when Robert Wagner decides to shoot down the plane with missiles and pass it off as a mechanical failure, Charo tries to smuggle a Chichiauah on the plane and, when it's discovered, claims it's her seeing eye dog, John Davidson's hair stays in place when the plane flies upside down, when a missile gets close to the plane, pilot George Kennedy rolls down the pilot's seat window (at the speed of sound) to shoot at it, Jimmy Walker smokes weed in the bathroom stall, and when stewardess Sylvia Crystal says seductively "You pilots are such men!", Kennedy replies, "They don't call it a cock-pit for nothing!" What floors me is that after the first disaster, the plane takes off for another flight and the passengers get back on!
Of course "Airplane" the following year would make fun of the entire previous decade's worth of disaster films.Alain Delon gets top billing as the captain of the title craft.
With Susan Blakely and John Davidson as reporters, Robert Wagner as a crooked arms dealer, Sylvia Kristel as the head stewardess, Eddie Albert as the airline owner, Sybil Danning as his trophy wife, Avery Schreiber as a Soviet Olympic coach with a deaf daughter, Andrea Marcovicci as the oldest Russian Olympic gymnast ever, Mercedes McCambridge as her busybody chaperone, Cicely Tyson as a mother to a child desperately in need of a heart transplant, Nicolas Coaster as the doctor to perform it, David Warner as the dieting flight engineer, Bibi Andersson as a prostitute, Jimmie Walker as a pot-smoking sax player, Charo as Margarita and Martha Raye as the woman who can't stay out of the bathroom (no, really).George Kennedy costars as Patroni, the only character to appear in all four films.
Bubble--headed reporter Susan Blakely finds out that boyfriend Robert Wagner, a duplicitous arms dealer, has been secretly selling weapons to the Russians; when she boards the Concorde bound for Paris, he sends his latest heat-seeking missle after the plane.
Pilots Alain Delon and George Kennedy (who started out as just a simple mechanic in the first Airport) turn the plane upside down to avoid it.
In an inane attempt to continue the exploitation of the original film (and cash in on the notoriety of the then-new Concorde, the fastest commercial plane ever), this film came along and ended the series for good.
(See Blakely's ridiculously unconvincing newscast in which she never once looks into the camera and in which clips from events AS THEY ARE HAPPENING IN REAL TIME parade across the screen.) It also contains some of the most abominable blue-screen and model special effects ever to be seen in a major studio film.
It has a touch of The Towering Inferno (1974) with Robert Wagner still being up to no good, the miniature effects work of the Concorde itself is pleasing to my eyes and the film starts with a very uplifting Lalo Schifrin theme tune.Perhaps Schifrin was trying to be the new disaster movie composer as in 1980 he would score Irwin Allen's When Time Ran Out as well.There was to be a 5th Airport movie but the poor box office takings for Airport '79 put an end to all that.
The plot is sillier than ever: George Kennedy is back in the role of Joe Patroni, now the pilot of the Concorde (co piloted by co-pilot Alain Delon) en route to France after the Summer Olympics.
We have Cicely Tyson transporting a live human heart in a cooler (!), Martha Raye as a woman with a bladder condition (and the character doesn't go deeper than that), J.J. Walker a a pot-smoking saxophonist (arguably the most annoying character in the film), Eddie Albert married to "old" wife Sybil Danning, Avery Schreiber as Russian coach with a deaf daughter and finally, a love story between reporter Jon Davidson and gymnast Andrea Marcovici (much to the sour watching-eye of coach Mercedes McCambidge).
As the Concorde is chased by missiles when the nasty Robert Wagner , who runs an arms plant , has been caught selling weapons to the bad guys of the world , and his journalist-mistress -Susan Blakely- is the woman with the evidence .
Look quickly to Eddie Albert , Bibi Andersson , Charo , Andrea Marcovicci , Cicely Tyson , David Warner, Mercedes McCambridge , Jimmie Walker , Sybil Danning , Jon Cedar , Ed Begley Jr , final feature film of actress Martha Raye, among others .
This has Alain Delon and George Kennedy (who was in all the Airport movies) as pilots; David Warner (!!!) as the radio engineer; Susan Blakely as a newswoman targeted for death; Robert Wagner as a brilliant scientist (stop laughing!); Eddie Albert as a president of the airlines; Charo in a dreadful "comical" bit; John Davidson as a newsman (love how his hair stays in place even AFTER the plane turns upside down!); poor Martha Raye is humiliated; Cicely Tyson plays a mother who is flying a heart for her dying son (stop rolling your eyes!); Jimmie Walker as a clarinet player (what did I say about not laughing?); Mercedes McCambridge as a Russian gymnastics coach (OK you can laugh at that one); Bibi Andresson as a hooker and Sylvia Kristel and Sybil Danning as love interests.Just pathetic.
CONCORDE: AIRPORT '79, THE (1979) **½  Alain Delon, Susan Blakely, Robert Wagner, Sylvia Kristel, George Kennedy.
True, the script is rife with hokey, often saccharine dialog (in one nauseating scene, a television reporter (John Davidson) and his Russian gymnast girlfriend recite wedding vows to each other when they think the plane is going down), and leaves far too many unresolved subplots (thanks mostly to the use of a huge ensemble cast of Hollywood has-beens, a series trademark).
Fun bloke George Kennedy is the only actor who appeared in all four of the "Airport" movies, so it's truly a shame that he plays his biggest role in the worst of the series.
Naturally, he decides that destroying the very high-profile Concorde plane undertaking an international flight before the Olympic Games in Russia is the perfectly logical course of action to take...(sure!) Not even the presence of George Kennedy as familiar character Joe Patroni(now a pilot on the Concorde) can save it.
The only way I can imagine a producer undertaking such a film project is similar to the famous sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus in which Graham Chapman, dressed as megalomaniac Howard Hughes (Big hat & cigar) states loudly before a bunch of "yes-men" something like:"I see a plane" (the Concorde).Applause."I see the hottest french leading man of the moment as the pilot" (Alain Delon).Roar of applause."I see the not so hot french girl from Emmanuelle as the stewardess" (Sylvia Kristel who is rather dutch for that matter).Louder roar of applause."I see a missile that goes up to the plane...
You never get very convinced by the solidity of the damn plane seeing it cracking from all parts like that.This was one of the last attempts in the disaster movie category by the end of the 70s., including some memorable box office flops as When Time Run Out, Meteor, or one of my favorite, in the unintentionally funny type, The Swarm..
The absolutely most hilarious scene comes when the Delon and Kennedy are making loop the loop 360's to avoid the French missiles that Wagner ordered to destroy the Concorde.
The dumb parts of this movie include the total lack of plot----yeah lets have some action for 25 minutes than land in Paris and go ONE HOUR with love scenes with prostitutes and flight attendants.
(It looks as though a cartoon missile is following the Concorde; although it does work well when the plane lands in Paris)  Why does Patroni think that he is in a flight simulator?
In fairness though, some of the acting was pretty good, with believable performances from Kennedy, Delon & Blakely, and the storyline was befitting of film from the 80's, although I don't think it would make even a TVM nowadays.The passengers were a joke, I guess we weren't meant to take them seriously - how many people have seen passengers on a plane dancing to music or someone playing the Saxophone ?
The fourth and last "Airport" movie is not really too bad; it nearly drowns in soap-opera cliches at times, but some of the action scenes are decently spectacular (especially near the end, when decompression slowly tears the plane apart).
George Kennedy is workmanlike in this otherwise bad B-movie but then he also does a loop with the Concorde and fires a flare out the window.
It has a cast of big stars, a very good score by Lalo Schifrin (which somehow suggests a better film) and, of course, George Kennedy.
I said STAR WARS earlier because some of the action scenes appear to be wanting to be like that George Lucas film.Some of the action scenes are embarrassingly bad including the ones where the plane comes under attack by some missiles.
Even worse is the fact that the direction is so poor that there's never any suspense during any of the scenes and even dumber is how the screenplay has all sorts of things going wrong with the plane.The lack of any suspense is what really kills the film and makes its long running time seem even longer.
And I hate the bad movies with only good actors to publicize it!Exactly, the cast is the only good thing you can find in this movie (if you didn't saw it), and I also liked the actors' previous work.French sex-simbol Alain Delon and Airport veteran George Kennedy are the pilots of the Concorde, along with David Warner as their co-pilot.
Eddie Albert stars as a famous womanizer with a much younger wife at his side, and Jimmie Walker as a religious sax-player.The story is full of many bad jokes, and one follows one another like lemmings, and I found very stupid and awkward the ending, with the Concorde landing in the snow and with Kennedy that says ''If they find this plane they can make it work, snow or no snow''.
The plot this time has pilots Alain Delon and George Kennedy trying to land a Concorde jet airliner safely while avoiding bad guy Robert Wagner's comical attempts to destroy it by .
The "Airport" series had run its course by now, but somehow it was decided to trot out a bunch of stars to make another bad movie.
Fans of Bibi Andersson,beware;this is not Bergman.It is actually the most demeaning part she has ever played.The "star" is here Sylvia "Emmanuelle" Christel who cannot act as any French knows.She is Delon's love interest.This is a mediocre disaster movie with some usual suspects such as Robert Wagner,Susan Blakely,and Arthur Kennedy who cracks vulgar jokes ,and who,like Andersson ,is demeaned ."She was paid for that" says Delon.This film was made to show the "Concorde ",a British/French collaboration, to good advantage and that plane must be solid,given the drivel inside it..
This picture hit the big screen on August 17 1979 starring George Kennedy as Joe Patroni, Susan Blakely as Maggie Whelan and Robert Wagner as Dr. Kevin Harrison.
With a cast of mostly lesser-tiered stars (Alain Delon, Robert Wagner, Eddie Albert), lousy special effects (sure, it was the 70's but "Alien" and "Star Wars" came from the same decade), and a storyline that is so laughable that one might want to cry, this is a "flight" that should have been GROUNDED.Even Emmy winner Cicely Tyson and Oscar recipient George Kennedy can't keep this "bird" airborne.The implausibility of the third film - airplane is submerged in The Bermuda Triangle - is much more believable than this turkey.Avoid "The Concorde" at all costs!.
Let's look at the cast:  George Kennedy, Alain Delon, Robert Wagner, Susan Blakely..not bad so far.
Let's look at the cast:  George Kennedy, Alain Delon, Robert Wagner, Susan Blakely..not bad so far.
Nevertheless, if you want to watch a disaster movie and laugh hysterically out loud, watch "The Concorde: Airport '79".
The official mascot of the "Airport" series and the only actor to appear in all four movies, Kennedy had more than earned the starring role and his turn in the Captain's seat would have been the only possible reason for this entry other than the squeezing of one last buck.
If you bear in mind that the whole film is dedicated to showing what that needle nosed plane could do in the sky, than the whole film kind of makes sense.But if you're expecting some serious drama here, than by all means take some of the evasive action the Concorde shows here when some nasty folks try to shoot her down.Susan Blakely plays a television news reporter who also happens to be the mistress of military industrial tycoon Robert Wagner.
However, this movie outdoes all the others combined with campy, ridiculous silliness.Paul Metrand (Alain Delon) and Joe Patroni (George Kennedy) are Concorde pilots who run into a little bit of trouble, courtesy of sinister arms dealer Kevin Harrison (Robert Wagner).
Any movie that has George Kennedy firing a flare gun out an open Concorde window during flight (at 30,000 feet, maybe?) has to be seen to be believed.
Not only that but a pilot for more than 30 years when he told in the first movie that he was licensed only for taxiing.The plot is so exaggerated it becomes boring and makes no sense at all.Almost every action scene is bad but that stupid idea where you can, (roll the drums) Open a window, flying at Mach 2, to shoot a flare gun at a fighter plane is the most insane.
And then, last night, i watched Airport '79, the last in the series!*First off, i'll start with the negatives in the film: The special effects were really crap most of the time during the film, although there were some scenes that looked very good.
JJ from Good Times, Jimmie Walker himself playing the sax is enough to make you bust a gut laughing.This is the first time George Kennedy has actually piloted a plane and by the way, what happened to his kids?
The Concorde is attacked by drones, there's a bomb, and the plane starts to fall apart.Just leave it to those pilots, played by George Kennedy, Alain Delon, and David Warner to bring it to safety in a snowbank.I asked myself why anyone would want to embarrass themselves by appearing in this film.
Luckily the plane is being flown by three brilliant, sex-obsessed men ( played by George Kennedy, Alain Delon, and British actor David Warner ) and they skilfully avoid destruction, before touching down in Paris where the Kennedy character ( 'Joe Patroni' - the only one to appear in all four movies ) makes out with a hooker!
I quite liked the absurd plot about a wealthy industrialist wanting to kill his girlfriend TV reporter before she can expose him as an illegal arms dealer but this guy doesn't do subtle & decides the best way to do it is to blow Concorde up with his own guided missile & then gets a Fench fighter pilot to try & shoot it down before finally sabotaging it so really there's three mini disaster flicks in one here as each time super pilot Joe Patroni manages to save the day.
You know Joe Patroni played by George Kennedy appears in all four Airport films & goes from mechanic in the first to Concorde pilot extrodinaire in this, also I reckon he's a bit of a jinx since in the space of nine years he has been involved with four major aviation disasters.
(Some Spoilers) The last and by far the worst of the "Airport" movies has ace airplane mechanic and all round handyman Joe Patroni, George Kennedy, now elevated to captain of the supersonic passenger jet Concorde who together with his co-pilot the hot shot Frenchman Capt.
Last night, after buying the "Airport" 4 movie DVD set, I watched "Concorde" for the 1st time.