Lovers of bad exposition will rejoice in this airline-disaster flick, which features numerous scenes of supporting actors going “see that person over there? That’s Benny. His wife died two years ago in suspicious circumstances” etc. Ernest Gann adapted his own novel and perhaps wasn’t the best choice for screenwriter.
John Wayne is in confident form – I love the way he walks into his films he’s like “right, I’m John Wayne who am I playing in this one?” There is a cross section of passengers on a plane (much of their background is provided by the booking clerk), none of whom are that interesting.
There are two good bits – one when Wayne has to prepare the passengers for crashing in the ocean, and when Robert Stack cracks up. And an interesting moment when a honeymooning couple have a “we’re going to die aren’t we” chat and start kissing – and then really start going for it, you wonder if they had sex!
But they never lick the problem of integrating all the plots in a visual way, as say Airport did. It was very popular though – watching it I could hear the chomp of pop corn and slurp of coke from war veterans and boomers gasping at the technicolor adventures on the big screen.
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