Airport (1970)

George Seaton’s film of the Arthur Hailey best seller which started the AIRPORT franchise for Universal holds up surprisingly well. It’s an elegant, glamorous example of the kind of entertainment that seems to have disappeared from contemporary cinema, perhaps too “hokey“ for audiences starving for CGI action and non stop thrills. The film takes a leisurely pace, giving time for ample exposition and introduce its characters before it gets to its central premise, an emotionally disturbed man (Van Heflin) on a flight to Rome with a bomb in his attaché case. Alas, the four leads are remarkably dull and most of the roles are so underwritten that the actors (good actors all) are unable to flesh them out. Only three actors manage somehow (it’s not in the writing) to rise above the shallowness of the script: Maureen Stapleton as Heflin’s wife bring an astonishing amount of pathos, Dana Wynter as the disgruntled wife of Burt Lancaster makes the most of her brief screen time and Van Heflin is perfect. The large cast includes Dean Martin, Jacqueline Bisset, Jean Seberg, Helen Hayes (in an Oscar winning performance), George Kennedy, Lloyd Nolan, Barbara Hale, Barry Nelson, Larry Gates, Jessie Royce Landis and Virginia Grey. The atmospheric score is by Alfred Newman (his last, he died before the film opened). It’s a period piece in the sense that airport security is a thousand times tighter than in 1970 and the situation in the film could never happen today.