Airport 1975 gathers its specimens into a 747 jetliner which collides mid-air with a private plane, precipitating a complicated rescue effort. Charlton Heston’s formula characterization is, quite literally, Messiah-exmachina.
Don Ingalls is credited with the scripture, ‘inspired’ (as the crawl says) by Ross Hunter’s 1970 pic which, in turn, came from Arthur Hailey’s novel. Jack Smight’s direction has the refreshing pace of a filmmaker who knows his plot can crash unless he hurries.
The redundant script massaging of the 747’s elaborate backup controls, safety features and all those other yum-yum goodies that airlines keep yacking about would suggest that some of the dialog was written by Boeing.
