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The Crowded Sky/Airport 1975 (SPOILER ALERT)

posted 17 years ago by hobnob53
11 replies | jump to latest

1960 -- THE CROWDED SKY: Eastbound small-plane pilot Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., collides with westbound airliner out of Washington, D.C., piloted by Dana Andrews and is killed; damaged airliner makes it down. 1974 -- AIRPORT 1975: Eastbound small-plane pilot Dana Andrews collides with westbound airliner out of Washington, D.C., piloted by Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., and is killed; damaged airliner makes it down. Coincidence? Revenge? Hack Hollywood writing and casting? You decide!

[–] wingspan-2 15 years ago

Thanks for the chuckle. I've never made the association.

[–] hobnob53 15 years ago

Considering these are aviation movies, I love your extremely appropriate IMDb name, wingspan!

[–] The_Dying_Flutchman 14 years ago

This, along with a few others of similar ilk, were the basis of "Airplane", but you would know that.

Sacred cows make delicious hamburgers.

[–] hobnob53 14 years ago

Well, only tangentially. The real basis of Airplane! (1980) was Zero Hour! (1957), in which a passenger with air fright due to his war experiences has to take control of an airliner when the pilots are stricken with food poisoning. Umm, sound familiar? The ZAZ boys lifted rafts of dialogue directly from ZH unchanged, and in a different context what had been serious dialogue became hilarious. They'd seen the original movie on TV in Milwaukee one night and actually liked it, but also thought it'd be a good basis for a parody.

And who played that shell-shocked pilot who had to take command under pressure in Zero Hour!? (Drum roll..............)

Dana Andrews! Natch.

But little from other airplane disaster movies made it directly into Airplane!, though there were riffs on other, non-plane films, like Since You Went Away.

HOWEVER...NOW...for the BIG NEWS...beginning at 8:00 PM EST this Friday evening (March 5, 2010), TCM is running the following foursome of fearful flying feature films:

The Crowded Sky...
Airplane!...
Zero Hour!...
and the almost-never-seen
Crash Landing -- this last co-starring no less a personage than future First Lady Nancy Davis Reagan!

Hope you're not leaving on a flight anywhere Saturday.

[–] The_Dying_Flutchman 14 years ago

Yes Dr. Hob, I do know all those frozen wonders are on this Fri. but I'll probably be doing something else like ironing my breasts. And while we're on the subject of air disasters, did you ever see the consumate genius riddled flying film "Crack Up" starring Peter Lorre? Its a hard one to find or to view, but my fave of the Crack Ups that were. Made in 1936 and what a marvel!

Sacred cows make delicious hamburgers.

[–] hobnob53 14 years ago

Ee-yah, whatever. No, never saw Crack Up, but it sounds like something Alpha Video would love to get its mitts on, if it hasn't already.

[–] The_Dying_Flutchman 14 years ago

I wish it were.

Sacred cows make delicious hamburgers.

[–] zumbinis-1 14 years ago

Thank you! I'd seen both movies years apart and wondered why something seemed oddly familier. I remembered Zimbalist wearing the helmet in a small cockpit, but thought it was from BOMBERS B-52, another favorite film co-starring Karl Mauldin and Natalie Wood.

[–] hobnob53 14 years ago

They were both Warner Bros. movies, so I wouldn't be surprised if Efrem got the same helmet from the prop department. Hmmm... props for a jet?

[–] mojo2004 11 years ago

It's noted in the trivia section.

Sheldon:"Was the starfish wearing boxer shorts? Because you might have been watching Nickelodeon."

[–] hobnob53 11 years ago

Yes, I know. Someone put it there a couple of years after my original post. I'm sure many people saw the same thing. I never thought this was something exactly right for the trivia section, but maybe it is.