AIRPORT '77 (1977)

After falling off a little bit with Part 2, the third AIRPORT movie kicks it back into gear with an improved all-star cast and a mile a minute story of a rich dude (Jimmy Stewart) who is flying a group of family and friends (along with a cargo bay full of priceless paintings) down to Miami on his private plane piloted by Jack Lemmon and Robert Foxworth.

While the rich people (Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, Christopher Lee, Buck Rogers, Darren McGavin, Kathleen Quinlan, M. Emmet Walsh, etc.) are schmoozing it up, some hijackers put knockout gas in the air system and take over the plane.  Then they go under the radar and off course in order to land it on an island and steal the paintings, but in doing so they accidentally clip an oil rig hidden in the fog and the plane goes down, down, down underneath the waves, mermaids wavin', wavin' to mermen, wavin' sea fans, sea horses sailin', dolphins wailin', red snappers snappin', clam shells clappin', muscles flexin', flippers flippin', boys in bikinis, girls on surfboards, everybody's rockin', everybody's fruggin', twistin' round the fire, havin' fun, but they're not having fun cause the plane comes to rest on the edge of a giant underwater cliff.  Now...not only do rescuers have to locate the plane they have to get them out before the plane falls into the abyss.

AIRPORT '77 is pretty low on the Believability Scale, but it's still fun.  I especially like the scenes with Jack Lemmon being a action star.  It was pretty cool seeing him running around, tumbling, swimming and barking orders at people.  And, of course, Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, Jimmy Stewart, M. Emmet Walsh and Christopher Lee are always great.  George Kennedy returns, but he really doesn't do very much.

Word around the campfire is there was a much longer version shown of television back in the day.  I've never seen it, but I'd love to check it.

[Updated 10/17/2023: Word around the campfire is I fianlly saw the 182-minute "long version". Added some screenshots. Also, two newspaper snippets mentioning the TNT broadcast of the long version on June 15, 1997. Oh yeah, the added scenes are definitely cool to see, but I can understand why they were edited out. The only scene with dialogue that I think should have stayed is the brief scene with Jimmy Stewart and Robert Hooks.]

Part 1 - Airport - (1970)
Part 2 - Airport 1975 (1974)
Part 4 - Concorde...Airport '79 (1979)

Look at the size of that laserdisc player!!!

Inspiration for the cake scene in the "November Rain" video?

Screenshots from the "long version" television broadcast:

AIRPORT 1975 (1974)

Considering the success of the original AIRPORT film, I'm kinda surprised that it took them 4 years to make a sequel, but they did and it's...alright.  The star studded cast makes things enjoyable to look at, but the character development is badly written and many of the stars (Loy especially) are wasted in weak roles.

Instead of a bomber blowing a hole in the airplane shitter, the pilot of a small aircraft (Dana Andrews) has a heart attack and smashes into the cockpit of the 747 creating a large gash and fucking the flight crew all to Hell.  Now it's up to Karen Black to fly the plane until superstud Charlton Heston can be lowered in on a wire to save the day.  Along the way there's all kinds of drama including a sick Linda Blair needing a new kidney, Large Marge smuggling a dog onto the plane, Erik Estrada wanting to bang the new stewardess, crazy 70's fashions, screaming, a couple of drunks getting rowdy, a purple sofa, Sid Caesar trying to get up in Myrna Loy's guts, a nun playing a guitar, Epicurean Sexual Delights, George Kennedy yelling a lot and so on.

Worth a watch, but really not that memorable.  I really missed Burt Lancaster.  They had Swanson playing herself, so I'm kinda surprised that they didn't have Loy also play herself and have them seated together talking nonstop about the Golden Days of Hollywood.  That would have been awesome!!!!  Hell, the airplane could have never left the runaway and it would have been the greatest movie ever!  Also, why in the Hell did the filmmakers have Charlton Heston and his PLANET OF THE APES co-star Linda Harrison in the same film, but not have them in a scene together?  What a ball drop.  Hell, they should have had her in Karen Black's role.

Part 1 - Airport (1970)
Part 3 - Airport '77 (1977)
Part 4 - Concorde...Airport '79 (1979)

If my Classic Hollywood memory serves me correctly both Grace Moore and Carole Lombard died in plane crashes.  Weird.