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Airport (1970 film)

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Airport
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGeorge Seaton
Screenplay byGeorge Seaton
Based onAirport
by Arthur Hailey
Produced byRoss Hunter
Starring
CinematographyErnest Laszlo
Edited byStuart Gilmore
Music byAlfred Newman
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Ross Hunter Productions
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • March 5, 1970 (1970-03-05) (New York)
[1]
Running time
137 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$10.2 million[2]
Box office$128.4 million

Airport is a 1970 American air disaster–drama film written and directed by George Seaton and starring Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin.[3] Based on Arthur Hailey's 1968 novel, it originated the 1970s disaster film genre.[4] It is also the first of four films in the Airport film series. Produced on a $10 million budget, it earned over $128 million. The supporting cast features Jean Seberg, Jacqueline Bisset, George Kennedy, Helen Hayes, Van Heflin, Maureen Stapleton, Barry Nelson, Lloyd Nolan, Dana Wynter and Barbara Hale.

The film is about an airport manager trying to keep his airport open during a snowstorm, while a suicide bomber plots to blow up a Boeing 707 airliner in flight. It takes place at fictional Lincoln International Airport near Chicago. The film was a commercial success and surpassed Spartacus as Universal Pictures' biggest moneymaker.[5] The movie won Helen Hayes an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as an elderly stowaway and was nominated for nine other Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Cinematography for Ernest Laszlo, and Best Costume Design for designer Edith Head.

With attention paid 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. 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.

Ernest Laszlo photographed it in 70 mm Todd-AO. It is the last film scored by Alfred Newman and the last film roles of Van Heflin and Jessie Royce Landis. It was also Ross Hunter's last film produced for Universal after a 17-year tenure.

Plot

[edit]

At Chicago's fictional Lincoln International Airport, a Trans Global Airlines (TGA) Boeing 707 flight crew misjudge their turn from Runway 29 onto the taxiway, becoming stuck in the snow and closing that runway. Airport manager Mel Bakersfeld is forced to work overtime, causing tension with his wife. A divorce seems imminent as he nurtures a closer relationship with a co-worker, customer relations agent Tanya Livingston.

Pilot Vernon Demerest is scheduled to evaluate Captain Anson Harris during TGA Flight 2 to Rome. TGA's flagship international service, The Golden Argosy, is being operated with a Boeing 707. Despite being married to Bakersfeld's sister, Demerest is having an affair with Gwen Meighen, chief stewardess on the flight, who informs him before takeoff that she is pregnant with his child. They consider abortion, but Gwen has moral qualms about such a procedure and expresses the excitement she felt upon being told of her pregnancy.

Bakersfeld borrows mechanic Joe Patroni to assist with moving TGA's disabled plane blocking Runway 29. Airport Manager Mel Bakersfeld and customer relations agent Tanya also deal with an elderly widow from San Diego who is a habitual stowaway on various airlines.

Demolition expert D.O. Guerrero, down on his luck and with a history of mental illness, buys both a ticket aboard Flight 2 and a large life insurance policy with the intent of committing suicide. He plans to set off a bomb in an attaché case while they fly over the Atlantic Ocean so that his wife, Inez, will collect $225,000 of insurance. His erratic behavior at the airport, including mistaking a Customs officer for a gate agent, attracts officials' attention. Inez finds a Special Delivery envelope from a travel agency and, realizing D.O. might be doing something desperate, goes to the airport to try to dissuade him. She informs officials that he had been fired from a construction job for "misplacing" explosives and that the family's financial situation is dire.

The elderly widow manages to evade the employee assigned the task of putting her on a flight back to Los Angeles. Enchanted by the idea of a trip to Rome, she talks her way past the gate agent, boards Flight 2 and sits next to Guerrero. When Flight 2's crew is made aware of Guerrero's situation, they turn the plane back toward Chicago without informing the passengers. Once the stowaway widow is discovered, her help is enlisted by the crew to get to the briefcase, but the ploy fails.

The pilot Vernon Demerest tries to persuade Guerrero not to trigger the bomb, informing him that his insurance policy has been nullified. Guerrero moves to give Demerest the bomb, but Guerrero runs into the lavatory and sets off the bomb, dying and blowing a three-foot hole in the fuselage. Gwen, just outside the door, is injured in the explosion and subsequent explosive decompression, but the pilots retain control of the airplane.

With all eastern airports unusable due to bad weather, Flight 2 returns to Lincoln for an emergency landing. Due to the bomb damage, Demerest demands the airport's longest runway, Runway 29, which is still closed due to the stuck airliner. Bakersfeld orders the plane to be pushed off the runway by snowplows, despite the costly damage they would do to it. Mechanic Joe Patroni, who is "taxi-qualified" on 707s, tries to move the stuck aircraft in time for Demerest's damaged aircraft to land. By exceeding the 707's engine operating parameters, Patroni frees the stuck jet without damage, allowing Runway 29 to be reopened just in time for the crippled Flight 2 to land.

As the passengers exit the plane, a hysterical Inez apologizes for her husband's actions. Demerest's wife sees him accompanying Gwen's stretcher as he says he will go with her to the hospital. Demerest has by now decided he wants her to go through with her pregnancy. Ada enjoys her reward of free first-class travel on TGA. But while arriving at the gate, she laments that it was "much more fun the other way." Bakersfeld and Tanya leave together, heading to her apartment for "rest" and breakfast.

Cast

[edit]
  • Burt Lancaster as Mel Bakersfeld, airport manager at Lincoln International Airport near Chicago
  • Dean Martin as Vernon Demerest, checkride captain on Trans Global Airlines (TGA) Flight 2, Bakersfeld's brother-in-law
  • Jean Seberg as Tanya Livingston, head customer relations agent for TGA, widow, Bakersfeld's future mistress
  • Jacqueline Bisset as Gwen Meighen, chief stewardess on TGA Flight 2
  • George Kennedy as Joe Patroni, chief mechanic for Trans World Airlines (TWA) at Lincoln International, on temporary loan to Trans Global Airlines at the request of airport manager Bakersfeld to help with the current crisis
  • Helen Hayes as Ada Quonsett, an elderly stowaway
  • Van Heflin as D. O. Guerrero, failed contractor, and bomber on TGA Flight 2 (Heflin's final theatrical film role)
  • Maureen Stapleton as Inez Guerrero, wife of D.O. Guerrero
  • Barry Nelson as Anson Harris, captain on TGA Flight 2
  • Dana Wynter as Cindy, Bakersfeld's wife
  • Lloyd Nolan as Harry Standish, head of the U.S. Customs Service at the airport
  • Barbara Hale as Sarah, Bakersfeld's sister, Demerest's wife
  • Gary Collins as Cy Jordan, flight engineer on TGA Flight 2
  • John Findlater as Peter Coakley, a TGA gate agent, assigned to escort Mrs. Quonsett
  • Jessie Royce Landis as Mrs. Mossman, an arriving passenger trying to sneak items through U.S. Customs (Landis' final theatrical film role)
  • Larry Gates as Ackerman, head of the Lincoln Airport Board of Commissioners
  • Peter Turgeon as Marcus Rathbone, a caustic and interfering passenger
  • Whit Bissell as Mr. Davidson, passenger seated beside Mrs. Quonsett

Production

[edit]

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."

Seaton caught pneumonia Christmas Day in 1968 and Henry Hathaway took over directing while Seaton recovered, directing all of the exteriors; despite shooting for five weeks, Hathaway elected for no payment.[6][7]

The expensive set built representing the full interior of the 707 was left standing at Universal Studios, and was eventually joined with a more expensive airliner set, the front half of a 747-interior constructed in 1974 for Airport 1975. These two sets became known as "Stage 747" on the lot, and both sets were used extensively in other Universal films and television series. The 707 set was used, for instance, in The Andromeda Strain and on series like Ironside. The sets were amortized over these many productions, and later removed around 2002 and the space converted into a workshop.

Only one Boeing 707 was used: a model 707-349C (registration N324F[8]) 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 on March 21, 1989 during approach into São Paulo while in service as cargo flight Transbrasil Flight 801, killing all three crew members and 22 people on the ground.[9]

Release

[edit]

Airport was released on March 5, 1970 at New York's Radio City Music Hall.[1]

Reception

[edit]

Box office

[edit]

The film grossed $235,000 in its opening week at Radio City Music Hall, placing seventh at the US box office.[10] It expanded to more cities in its third week of release and went to number one at the US box office where it stayed for a second week.[11] It returned to number one in its eighth week of release where it again spent two weeks at the top; a feat repeated three weeks a later[12][13] After 12 weeks of release, it had grossed $9.5 million, including $2.6 million at Radio City Music Hall.[14] It returned again to the top spot in its 17th and 19th week of release for a total of eight weeks at number one.[15][16]

By the end of the year, it was the highest-grossing film of the year with theatrical rentals of $37.7 million in the United States and Canada and the seventh highest-grossing film in the United States and Canada of all-time.[17][18] Universal claimed that it was the highest-grossing film without a roadshow release of all-time.[19]

It went on to gross $100,489,151 in the United States and Canada, which, adjusted for inflation, is equivalent to $788 million in 2023.[20] Internationally, it grossed $27.9 million for a worldwide gross of $128.4 million.[21]

Critical response

[edit]

Variety 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."[22]Boxoffice praised the film's strong production values, excellent cast, and potential to be very popular but foresaw that other critics' opinions would not be universally favourable.[23] Film critic Pauline Kael gave Airport one of its worst contemporary reviews, scornfully dismissing it as "bland entertainment of the old school."[24] "There's no electricity in it", she wrote; "every stereotyped action is followed by a stereotyped reaction."[24] Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four and faulted a predictable plot and characters that "talk in regulation B-movie clichés like no B-movie you've seen in ten years."[25] Gene Siskel gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and reported that while the theater audience cheered at the climax, "it's a long and torturous road to the applause. Blocking the path are speeches that promote the industry, dialog that ranks among the silliest in memory, and a labored plot that tells you everything twice.[26] Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it "an immensely silly film—and it will probably entertain people who no longer care very much about movies."[27] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called the film "breath-taking in its celebration of anything which used to work when Hollywood was younger and we were all more innocent."[28] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it "a lousy movie" that was "utterly predictable."[29] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "Corny is really the only word for this unbelievably old-fashioned look at the modern phenomenon of an international airport: the one surprise is that the sweet old white-haired stowaway doesn't spring to the controls and bring the distressed aircraft down single-handed as Doris Day did once upon a time in analogous circumstances."[30]

Christopher Null wrote in 2000, "With one grandiose entrance, Airport ushered in a genre of moviemaking that is still going strong—the disaster movie... Too bad the 'disaster' doesn't happen until 2 hours into the 2:15 movie. No matter—Airport's unending sequels and spoofs are a testament that this film is a true piece of Americana, for good or for bad."[31] Despite the film being one of the most profitable of Burt Lancaster's career, he called it "a piece of junk."[32][33]

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 75%, based on 16 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10.[34] On Metacritic, the film holds an average rating of 42/100, based on 5 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[35]

Awards and nominations

[edit]
Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
Academy Awards Best Picture Ross Hunter Nominated [36]
Best Supporting Actress Helen Hayes Won
Maureen Stapleton Nominated
Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium George Seaton Nominated
Best Art Direction Art Direction: Alexander Golitzen and E. Preston Ames;
Set Decoration: Jack D. Moore and Mickey S. Michaels 		Nominated
Best Cinematography Ernest Laszlo Nominated
Best Costume Design Edith Head Nominated
Best Film Editing Stuart Gilmore Nominated
Best Original Score Alfred Newman[a] Nominated
Best Sound Ronald Pierce and David H. Moriarty Nominated
American Cinema Editors Awards Best Edited Feature Film Stuart Gilmore Nominated
British Academy Film Awards Best Actress in a Supporting Role Maureen Stapleton Nominated [37]
Golden Globe Awards Best Motion Picture – Drama Nominated [38]
Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture George Kennedy Nominated
Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Maureen Stapleton Won[b]
Best Original Score – Motion Picture Alfred Newman Nominated
Golden Reel Awards Best Sound Editing – Dialogue Won
Grammy Awards Best Instrumental Composition "Airport Love Theme" – Alfred Newman Won [39]
Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special Alfred Newman Nominated
Laurel Awards Best Picture 5th place
Top Male Supporting Performance George Kennedy Nominated
Top Female Supporting Performance Helen Hayes Won
Top Composer Alfred Newman Nominated
Writers Guild of America Awards Best Drama – Adapted from Another Medium George Seaton Nominated [40]

Television

[edit]

The film was first broadcast on Canada's CTV on October 24, 1973, nearly a month before ABC on November 11. The ABC broadcast became the joint highest-rated film on television, matching Love Story, with a Nielsen rating of 42.3 but with a slightly higher audience share of 63% (compared to Love Story's 62%).[41] The record was beaten in 1976 by Gone with the Wind.[41]

Score

[edit]

The film was the final project for composer Alfred Newman. His health was failing and he was unable to conduct the sessions for his music's recording. The job was handled by Stanley Wilson, although the covers of the Decca "original soundtrack album" and the 1993 Varèse Sarabande CD issue credit Newman. Newman did conduct the music heard in the film.[citation needed] He died before the film's release. Newman received his 45th Academy Award nomination posthumously for this film, the most received by a composer at that time.

Soundtrack

[edit]

Track listing

[edit]
  1. Airport (Main Title) (3:11)
  2. Airport Love Theme (3:30)
  3. Inez' Theme (1:29)
  4. Guerrero's Goodbye (2:37)
  5. Ada Quonsett, Stowaway (1:26)
  6. Mel And Tanya (2:27)
  7. Airport Love Theme #2 (2:40)
  8. Joe Patroni Plane Or Plows? (2:22)
  9. Triangle! (3:50)
  10. Inez-Lost Forever (1:45)
  11. Emergency Landing! (1:38)
  12. Airport (End Title) (2:36)

Personnel

[edit]

Sequels

[edit]

Airport had three sequels, the first two of which were hits.

The only actor to appear in all four films is George Kennedy as Joe Patroni. Patroni's character evolves and he goes from a chief mechanic in Airport to a vice president of operations in Airport 1975, a consultant in Airport '77, and an experienced pilot in The Concorde ... Airport '79.

See also

[edit]
  • The High and the Mighty, a 1954 film which served as the template for Airport
  • Zero Hour!, a 1957 film written by Arthur Hailey that visited the airline disaster film genre a decade before Hailey published Airport
  • Jet Storm, a 1959 British film with many similarities
  • Airplane! (1980), a successful parody film that blended elements of an already well-established airline disaster film genre, including plot points inspired by Airport '75 as well as Zero Hour!
  • Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land, a 1983 ABC television movie, starring Lee Majors. Also known as Starflight One or Airport 85.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Airport at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
  2. ^ Warga, Wayne (June 21, 1970). "Freddie Fan of Filmdom Finds Lost Audience: The Lost Audience Discovered". Los Angeles Times. p. q1.
  3. ^ "Airport". Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on March 12, 2016. Retrieved February 29, 2016.
  4. ^ Harpole, Charles (15 March 2002). History of the American Cinema. University of California Press. pp. 251–252. ISBN 978-0-520-23265-5. Archived from the original on 27 April 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
  5. ^ Link, Tom (1991). Universal City-North Hollywood: A Centennial Portrait. Chatsworth, California: Windsor Publications. p. 87. ISBN 0-89781-393-6.
  6. ^ "Seaton Partly Active". Variety. February 12, 1969. p. 4. Retrieved May 6, 2024 – via Internet Archive.
  7. ^ "Take One September–October 1974: Vol 5 Iss 1". Take One, Incorporated. 1974.
  8. ^ "FAA Registry (N324F)". Federal Aviation Administration.
  9. ^ "Accident description PT-TCS". Aviation Safety Network. Archived from the original on 12 October 2013. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
  10. ^ "50 Top-Grossing Films". Variety. March 18, 1970. p. 13.
  11. ^ "50 Top-Grossing Films". Variety. April 8, 1970. p. 11.
  12. ^ "50 Top-Grossing Films". Variety. May 6, 1970. p. 11.
  13. ^ "50 Top-Grossing Films". Variety. May 27, 1970. p. 11.
  14. ^ "$9,510,729 U.S. Gross To Date!". Variety. June 10, 1970. pp. 9–11.
  15. ^ "50 Top-Grossing Films". Variety. July 8, 1970. p. 11.
  16. ^ "50 Top-Grossing Films". Variety. July 22, 1970. p. 11.
  17. ^ "Big Rental Films of 1970". Variety. January 6, 1971. p. 11.
  18. ^ "All-Time Box Office Champs". Variety. January 6, 1971. p. 12.
  19. ^ "1...all from Universal (advertisement)". Variety. January 13, 1971. pp. 36–37.
  20. ^ Airport at Box Office Mojo
  21. ^ "Universal's Foreign Champs". Daily Variety. February 6, 1990. p. 122.
  22. ^ "Film reviews: Airport". Variety. 1970. Archived from the original on July 22, 2019. Retrieved July 22, 2019.
  23. ^ https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/29864529/boxoffice-february231970 Boxoffice, February 23, 1970, Feature Reviews, p.11
  24. ^ a b Kael, Pauline (2011) [1991]. 5001 Nights at the Movies. New York: Henry Holt and Company. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-250-03357-4. Archived from the original on 2017-02-14. Retrieved 2016-11-02.
  25. ^ "Ebert's review of 'Airport'". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on 2013-03-09. Retrieved 2009-08-31.
  26. ^ Siskel, Gene (March 25, 1970). "Airport". Chicago Tribune. Section 2, p. 6.
  27. ^ Canby, Vincent (March 6, 1970). "The Screen: Multi-Plot, Multi-Star 'Airport' Opens Archived 2013-11-02 at the Wayback Machine". The New York Times. 34.
  28. ^ Champlin, Charles (March 21, 1970). "'Airport' Recalls Older Hollywood". Los Angeles Times. Part II, p. 7.
  29. ^ Arnold, Gary (March 24, 1970). "Lousy 'Airport'". The Washington Post. B6.
  30. ^ "Airport". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 37 (437): 126–127. June 1970.
  31. ^ "Airport". Filmcritic.com. Archived from the original on 2010-02-02. Retrieved 2009-08-31.
  32. ^ "Airport 'junk' – Lancaster". The Montreal Gazette. March 8, 1971. Archived from the original on April 26, 2016. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
  33. ^ Stafford, Jeff. "Airport". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  34. ^ "Airport (1970)". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on April 30, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2022.
  35. ^ Airport, archived from the original on 2020-12-15, retrieved 2018-11-03
  36. ^ "The 43rd Academy Awards (1971) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2011-08-27.
  37. ^ "BAFTA Awards: Film in 1971". BAFTA. 1966. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  38. ^ "Airport – Golden Globes". HFPA. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
  39. ^ "13th Annual GRAMMY Awards". Grammy.com. Retrieved 1 May 2011.
  40. ^ "Awards Winners". wga.org. Writers Guild of America. Archived from the original on 2012-12-05. Retrieved 2010-06-06.
  41. ^ a b "Hit Movies on U.S. TV Since 1961". Variety. January 24, 1990. p. 160.
  42. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult contemporary: 1961–2001. Record Research. p. 31.
  43. ^ a b c d "Airport". Library of Congress.
  1. ^ Posthumous nomination.
  2. ^ Tied with Karen Black for Five Easy Pieces.
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