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Airport (1970)

"The instruction book said that was impossible."

"That's one nice thing about the 707. It can do everything but read."

#airport #1970 #disaster film #american cinema #george seaton #arthur hailey #burt lancaster #jean seberg #dean martin #jacqueline bisset #george kennedy #van heflin #dana wynter #barry nelson #virginia grey #john findlater #maureen stapleton #barbara hale #gary collins #helen hayes #pop culture would have me believe this is a bathetic melodrama whose failings were laid bare by Airplane! a decade or so later but actually #getting round to it‚ it's a grand old time and there's plenty of value here. the kind of big spectacle‚ big cast triumph of a film that #simply does not exist anymore; this gets the blame for igniting the 70s obsession with big budget disaster flicks too‚ but here it's #actually a good length of time before anything goes wrong and we spend just as much time with these characters and their world before it #all goes to hell. benefits from some expert pacing so that it never really flags as well as a glittering cast that mixes old Hollywood #royalty with up and comers. Van Heflin wrings a lot of pathos from his nervy‚ despairing bomber‚ Seberg and Lancaster are their dependable #professional selves. it's a great shame we seem to have lost the knack for this kind of human drama mosaic on a grand scale: they're #invariably entertaining and allow for films which can mix genre and mood within one greater whole (comedy‚ tragedy‚ action‚ suspense)#whatever its modern reputation‚ this was a smash hit at the time and earned a clutch of awards and spawned a series of sequels

Barbara Hershey-John Findlater "El novio de mamá" (With six you get eggroll) 1968, de Howard Morris.

#Barbara Hershey #John Findlater #Howard Morris

Gunfight in Abilene 1967

Switch 1.10

A script that doesn’t work, despite a good cast and great ideas.

This episode is full of “Why Would?” moments, places where the characters make stupid decision for no reason. Other than driving the story forward. At the very end, the villain blurts out a shopping list of his misdeeds in front of witnesses. But, really... why would he do that? And a hitman that he’s previously hired goes to extreme lengths to help him, a guy he’s never met. Hmm... why would he do that? At one point Mac and Pete send the police to arrest a guy who has... taken a phone call. And the police duly swarm in. Why would they do that? The list goes on.

The story feels butchered. Four writers are credited, suggesting multiple drafts. Hence the lack of cohesion, where stuff happens to drive the story forward even if it really makes no sense whatsoever.

Which is a pity, because there are interesting ideas here. Especially the hitman. Who is actually twins. And one is a cross-dresser. So they can really confuse people. Christopher Morley is good in the role, but the show overplays its hand. In his first big scene, you kinda guess that the character is male by the way it is written. A shame. By not drawing attention to the deception, they could have really gotten away with it.

The cast are good, regulars and guest cast. With Lloyd Bochner and Jared Martin as the villains you are on to a winner.

The two leads are good, but - again - the show does absolutely nothing with the characters that isn’t plot-driven. A wasted opportunity, when you watch other similar shows with mismatched duos (like HARDCASTLE AND MCCORMICK, for example) you can see just much fun they could be having on this show. But they totally ignore that. All these two ever talk about is the case they are working on. Ten episodes in, and we still know precious little about them.

5/10