Airplane! ***** (1980, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen, Peter Graves, Robert Stack) – Classic Movie Review 669

Written and directed by the Zucker Brothers David and Jerry and Jim Abrahams, this 1980 send-up of the Airport movies, group-jeopardy disaster films in general and Arthur Hailey’s 1956 TV movie Flight into Danger (remade as the movie Zero Hour! in 1957) in particular is nothing short of hysterically funny. Airplane! comes up fresh and hilarious every time you see it, thanks to the exuberant playing of the non-stop scattershot of gags, the good, the bad and the corny.

The performers triumph by playing the nonsense absolutely straight – especially the old-time actors Lloyd Bridges as the batty, clumsy air traffic controller Steve McCroskey, Peter Graves as the paedophile pilot Captain Oveur (‘do you like gladiator movies, son, ever seen a man naked?), Leslie Nielsen as Dr Rumack, and Robert Stack as Captain Rex Kramer.

Ethel Merman plays Lieutenant Hurwitz, Lorna Patterson plays Randy, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar plays Roger Murdock, Jonathan Banks plays Gunderson, Barbara Billingsley plays Jive Lady, Frank Ashmore plays Victor Basta, Stephen Stucker plays Johnny Henshaw-Jacobs, and Kenneth Tobey plays Air Controller Neubauer.

Excellent too are young leads Robert Hays as the flight-scared ex-pilot Ted Striker and Julie Hagerty as his estranged air stewardess girlfriend Elaine Dickinson, whom he follows onto the flight that she is working on as a member of the cabin crew. Elaine doesn’t want to be with Ted any more but, when the crew and passengers fall ill from food poisoning, the duo have to take over the aircraft together.

Dr Rumack (Nielsen): ‘Can you fly this plane, and land it?’

Ted Striker (Hays): ‘Surely you can’t be serious.’

Rumack: ‘I am serious… and don’t call me Shirley.’

Despite, or because of, dialogue like that, it’s one of the best spoof movies ever, an all-time great American comedy movie. Whether the gags are ancient or modern, hit or miss, you’ll just love ’em. It’s 88 minutes of comedy bliss.

There’s a great disaster movie parody score by Elmer Bernstein. The Zucker brothers have cameos as ground crewmen and Abrahams is Religious Zealot No 6.

Born on April 5 1920 in Luton, England, Hailey became a full-time author in 1956 after the success of Flight into Danger. Sticking with the theme, Hailey also wrote the novel Airport (the basis of the movie series) as well as Hotel, which spawned a TV movie and series. Hailey, who died of a stroke in his sleep aged 84 on November 24 2004, said: ‘I don’t think I have really invented anybody. I have drawn on life.’

Graves said he was astounded when his agent sent him the script for Airplane!, and after reading it, he felt that it was ‘the worst piece of junk’ he had ever seen. However, he changed his mind after meeting with the Zucker Brothers.

The doctor role was Nielsen’s first comedy part. He said he was delighted to be offered it, fearing that he was getting too old for anything but elderly grandfather parts. It rejuvenated his career and he spent the rest of his life in comedy.

Airplane II: The Sequel, written and directed by Ken Finkleman, followed in 1982, with Lloyd Bridges back as Steve McCroskey. Bridges also starred as Admiral Tug Benson in Jim Abrahams’s Hot Shots! (1991) and Hot Shots! Part Deux.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 669

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