Movie Geek Yearbook: AIRPORT (1970)

In this segment from the Movie Geek Yearbook podcast series, a panel of special guests discuss the 1970 disaster film AIRPORT.
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[@nealwhaley63]

Worshipped these films as a child. Still enjoy them today as an aviation geek. Growing up landlocked in the middle of the country, the notion of flying off on a plane was very exciting.

[@scottmiller6495]

It was in the good days from 1960 to 1989! People got dressed up and they were nice along with the entire crew, 15 airlines in this country or more especially (TWA and Pan Am). They fed you the food was really good, you could see a movie, listen to all kinds of music on the headphones, people smoked and there was a true feeling of respect and Morality. Not anymore though, and it's an unforgivable shame, PERIOD!!!!!

[@BAKER22-l4u]

Worshipped? Lol. WTF is WRONG with you?

[@scottmiller6495]

A very fine tribute to a great motion picture Airport was a sensational film, PERIOD!!!!!

[@johnharris6655]

That scene at the end of the movie where the Doctors are talking about Gwen being pregnant and then Dean Martin walks out infront of his wife and does not even see, her, Brutal.

[@tvmonte]

Yes, and she's played by "Perry Mason"s Della Street, Barbara Hale!

[@MightyMezzo]

@@tvmonte I’m sure her former boss could refer her to the most bloodthirsty divorce lawyer in the city.

[@BAKER22-l4u]

Idiotic..He sees her...He chose to IGNORE her

[@jusadude7162]

I still get excited watching this movie even as a 50+ year old. I remember watching it as a kid with my parents at the drive in. If it’s on TV, I’ll stop and watch it.

[@irish89055]

"Everyday is beautiful.. you're just too young to know that"...

[@goodowner5000]

-- Gloria Swanson, "Airport '75"

[@195511SM]

I toured UNIVERSAL STUDIOS THAT YEAR & recall the tram tour taking us right past a full-scale cutaway of the airliner, the tour guide walking us into Mr. Martin's dressing room .I was 14 at the time & really loved it. Wish i could go back & relive the entire experience.

[@moviegeeksunited]

That's a great story! Thank you for sharing!

[@snarkus63]

We saw this at a drive-in when my brothers and I were kids. It's still one of my favorites. I've never seen any of those three sequels, nor do I have any desire to.

[@hlafrond965]

I loved this film when it came out. For 7 Sundays in a row I took the bus into the city and watched the film.

[@georgeforall]

I think of the landing sequence climax every single time I fly and we land in a snow storm. The music is blaring in my head!! For the past 45 years!!❤

[@rogerrose8220]

Same here Sir. Pilot chops the throttles - goes into full thrust reverse - engages the speed brakes (spoilers). Excellent attention to detail.

[@BAKER22-l4u]

WTF is WRONG with you

[@Jeph629]

Panned by so many.......yet, the film did exactly what any movie is supposed to do, and did it superbly: entertain!

[@BAKER22-l4u]

Panned by so many? Lol. WTF? NO it WASN'T

[@dualactionsurgilator]

A number of the Cast also stayed at the Minneapolis Airport Marriott and neighboring Thunderbird in Bloomington. I learned this when working at the Marriott.

[@MightyMezzo]

Airport 77: The plane doesn’t just sink. It sinks IN THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE. GREAT VIDEO. “Airport” was the first movie I saw with my own money. Still love it.

[@Clipgatherer]

+MightyMezzo. Your money was well spent. “Airport” (1970) is a classic movie.

[@ShakespeareCafe]

I'm an Airport purist. Only the original is worth watching. George Kennedy's character Joe Patroni is one of his best roles. He was pretty good in Earthquake, too

[@scottmiller6495]

Should have won Best Picture of 1970, Patton was very good but Airport was a very special film, one for the ages !!!!!

[@brihev4355]

MASH was also 1970.

[@scottmiller6495]

@@brihev4355 Very good film and was nominated for Best Picture if I remember!

[@peregrino9154]

Airport '77 was the best. I can still remember watching it as a kid in the movie theater. I loved it.

[@louisaparker]

Just watched it. Very enjoyable.

[@NormanLor]

ONE OF MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE FILMS AND SCORES. I also HAD A 1ST EDITION OF HAILEY'S BOOK.

[@robpinon309]

Brings back so many memories. This was quite the movie in 1970. I was 12 then, and our family went by train to see it in Radio City Music Hall! Must have been sometime in early April and really great Easter Show was the main event. I still have the original Radio City program in relatively good condition, it is like the one they show in this video, unfortunately, no date on it. I do remember going to the second or third balcony for seats, and remember it was filled to capacity, from my viewpoint, and it would have been a matinee, probably on a Saturday. I remember really liking the movie, and the one part that I have a distinct memory about is when the nerdy kid notices the plane is turning around, he tells his parents, who call Dean Martin, the captain over. Prior to this Martin tells his co-pilot or a flight attendant, I don't remember which, that if anyone notices the plane is turning back to the airport, he'll "give them some double talk", or something like that. So when the kid asks the captain for an explanation of why the constellations in the sky are reversed, Martin then gives his ridiculous double talk. The kid sits and the parents ask him what the captain said, and he says, "Oh never mind Mother" or something to that effect. I remember the audience erupting at that point. 5000 people laughing uproariously and clapping at once, I still haven't forgotten that moment to this day. "Airport" had found its audience. The entire experience is something I'll never forget. The acting, screenplay and soundtrack by Alfred Newman were deserving of many more accolades, but I'm so glad that Helen Hayes won Best Supporting Actress.

[@robertmcghintheorca49]

Sadly, in audition to most of the cast and crew now having long passed away, other than Jacqueline Bissett, who's still going, not even the plane was spared. On the 21st of March 1989, the Boeing B707-349C registered as PT-TCS, formerly N324F, crashed in São Paulo while flying as TransBrazil Cargo Flight 801, killing 25 people, and injuring around 200 more.

[@Shamrock100]

I flew on it a few times when it was with Aer Lingus as EI-ASO.

[@brihev4355]

Helen Hayes earned the EGOT! and her son was "Dan-O".

[@frankdenardo8684]

She made an appearance on Hawaii Five-0 in 1975. She played Aunt Clara

[@BAKER22-l4u]

And?

[@johnharris6655]

"We're all gonna die" Smack.

[@darthstarkiller1912]

Always make me laugh when the priest slaps him. 🤣

[@muzluv33]

@@darthstarkiller1912 Amen to that! One of my favorite scenes as well!

[@robertbenson9797]

Wow, this episode brings back a lot of memories! I had just turned 18 and my parents decided to let me drive into Kansas City, with my girlfriend and another couple. It was about a 200 mile round trip. We made the trip with no problems and had a memorable movie experience. The movie seemed magical with all the characters and airplanes. To see it now, some of the special effects seem very dated. But it still stirs my heart when I hear the music at the start of the movie. Arthur Hailey got the idea for a suicidal bomber on an airliner from a real event in 1962. Continental Flight 11 was brought down by a bomb near Unionville, Missouri. Just like in the movie, the bomber had personal and legal problems. He had purchased several sticks of dynamite before he left Chicago. He had also purchased life insurance and had, again like in the movie, bought another policy at the airport. The flight was from O’Hare airport in Chicago to Kansas City. Over southern Iowa, the bomber ignited the dynamite. Unlike in the movie, when the bomb went off in the starboard rear restroom, it blew the tail off of the main fuselage. Even though the aircrew did everything they could, the flight was doomed. All passengers were killed. The insurance policies were cancelled because the death was a suicide.

[@brihev4355]

I read the novel a little while ago. good book.

[@theflightdetective2450]

Thank you for this, it's great! Well done!

[@moviegeeksunited]

Thank you!

[@scottmiller6495]

Outstanding Review of one of the greatest Airplane Drama Films of All Time PERIOD!!!!!

[@attyrsa]

"Airport" is one of the all-time greatest films. The title of "Airplane" was an obvious takoff of "Airport", but the plot, characters, and even many lines of "Airplane" were taken from "Zero Hour", not "Airport". George Seaton got pneumonia just before everyone was about to head to Minneapolis-St. Paul for the location shoot. Henry Hathaway turned down a director's credit, saying it was a favor for his old friend, Seaton (Hathaway said he also declined a vehicle and a vacation from Universal). The interior of the main terminal at Minneapolis-St. Paul International has been redone, but that iconic exterior seen in "Airport" is very much there.

[@BAKER22-l4u]

All time greatest? Lol. Idiotic and beyond ignorant

[@muzluv33]

It sure is. Flown in and out of that airport many times on Northwest and now Delta. My late father used to work for NWA. Went with him to the Mall of America.

[@jeanfrancoispilon8746]

Thank you very much that was really wonderful. Just forgot to mention Alain Delon the French actor in airport 77 and always love Burt Lancaster. I love him even more now. Thank you very much.

[@OsbornTramain]

Helen Hayes shouldn't have won that Oscar. Both she and Maureen Stapleton were nominated and honestly Maureen Stapleton was amazing and the best in the film....I still tear up when I see the scene where she realizes her husband left and is on the plane for Rome, never to be seen again. Just an amazing seen

[@zekeonstormpeak4186]

Scene

[@BAKER22-l4u]

Tear up? Lol. WTF is WRONG with you?

[@taroman7100]

Golden Age of flying. America was classier. Awesome score. We gave too much away.

[@scottmiller6495]

Agreed 💯 percent! Now things are horrible. You fly on a Bus with ignorant people, you don't get fed there's very few direct flights and there's always something that goes wrong and it's terribly dissapointing!

[@johnharris6655]

But it is harder to get on a plane with a bomb.

[@Salesman263]

My all time fav movie.

[@Damone7653]

3:03 Marion Ross on right (aisle seat)

[@ATLcentury334]

I always remembered she was in AIRPORT as a passenger. Seeing her in her short pixie cut was strange, it would have even funnier if Fonzie was sitting next to her.

[@HC-cb4yp]

You should see a movie with Jack Lemmon called "Macaroni." Lemon plays a veteran of WWII who was in Italy during the war. He met an Italian and then didn't contact him for decades, but the Italian wrote fake monthly letters allegedly from Lemon's character to the Italian's family for decades, each making Lemmon out to be a hero. Lemmon finds out, goes to Italy and starts reading some of these letters. He reads one out loud: "I was the pilot of a jumbo jet that crashed into the ocean and I and the passengers were trapped in it underwater. WHAT IS THIS CRAP?!"

[@bunnyrabbits35]

I like the first Airport movie.

[@chrisnorman9980]

The only movie of the franchise that was about an….airport.

[@ConradSpoke]

Man, "Concorde '79" has the greatest 1970's cast list.

[@peregrino9154]

They just moved everybody from The Love Boat to The Concorde.

[@acox3527]

Minneapolis airport

[@davidgilbert9822]

Great movie

[@newYorkStories]

Guerrero!

[@kshinokevin]

Airport '77 (1977) = an airplane/airline that went underwater, ala "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972), which was made 5 years earlier....

[@danielhixson3717]

By the 80s, if George Kennedy got on an airplane, other people asked to get off.

[@frankh.2669]

I still would, to this present day 😅

[@vstar7196]

Fantastic movie. I especially enjoyed reading reviewers comments about the film and how they panned it. The film went on to make in 2020 dollars over $700M dollars. Just goes to show you, film critics are morons who wouldn’t know a good movie even if it bit them in their collective asses.

[@irish89055]

I like the cast picture, who's the guy in the front right?.. Kennedy doesn't look too happy

[@Jeph629]

Front R as we look at it is Burt Lancaster who played Mel Bakersfeld, the airport's general manager.

[@irish89055]

707...

[@kevinswales7003]

Why was the Chicago airport named fictional "Lincoln" and not the real name Chicago Ohare. Doesn't Chicago Ohare have real major snowstorms.

[@chriswilson9230]

No airplane related movies can match up to the Airport series.

[@kevinswales7003]

Howcome George Kennedy was the only one cast member that went through all sequals

[@brihev4355]

red sign said academy Awards on a Thursday!

[@irish89055]

I'm surprised Jimmy Stewart wanted to be involved in that stinker.. thought the last one was an Uber stinker

[@philipberry6477]

Some red Italian sportscar called a “Pininfarina” or something……….sheesh.

[@irish89055]

Bert Lancaster supposedly hated this movie

[@moviegeeksunited]

It's discussed in the video.

[@vstar7196]

That’s because Lancaster was hired on, not to do this film, but he agreed to be in it so long as the studio sanctioned the production of another he film he was genuinely interested in doing. However, his post production comments were out of line. He insulted every cast member, writer, director and film crew member with his negative opinions of movie that earned hundreds of millions in profit.

[@BillLaBrie]

I liked the one with Karen Black and her big, sexy, lazy eye.

[@mbPxTMcX]

DC-8?

[@phillippacker5920]

Yes, but that was only at Universal Stujdios where they had to film pickup shots/re-shoots of a couple of, more or less, close-up scenes next to the fuselage. They had everything seen painted exactly as the 707 had been in Minneapolis.

[@kerprice]

I saw this recently after listening to the book. I think Dean Martin was sorely miscast

[@arthurgearheard4701]

The High and the Mighty with John Wayne was better! It was made before the Jet Age!

[@Demille40]

High and the Mighty is soooo melodramatic and drawn out. Extremely dated. As well as very different from AIRPORT. AIRPORT is the superior film.

[@wiiambarnarx8485]

I guess we have to listen to another video of making fun of an old movie. Oh brother, how predictable and ultra boring. You ought to really explore new avenues.

[@moviegeeksunited]

The franchise got progressively more ridiculous. But the first movie is spoken with reverence and warm nostalgia, here, I think. And no one told you that you 'have to listen to it'. If you're not interested, you should follow your own advice and explore new avenues.

[@Mark.G475]

Great music!