Shakes on a plane… Murder on Flight 502 (1975) Take 2

 

Apparently this was the tenth most highly-rated screening on American TVs from November 17–23 in 1975 and you can well understand why it failed to fly higher although neither did it really dive-bomb… Nowadays it’s almost impossible to watch this film without thinking about other films with Robert Stack in them, as the pilot of a 747 passenger jet and – I swear – playing the role in exactly the same way as he does in Airplane! (1980). People talk about Leslie Nielsen’s way with comedy but Mr Stack had the chops too… or should that be “chocks”? 

This ABC TV Movie of the Week was a Spelling-Goldberg Production and, like so many from that era, I probably experienced it at the time as a young teen watching with my family. It has that familiarity not just because of the sequence of now cliched events and dialogue but also because the pattern of the narrative is perhaps dimly remembered or at least predictable for those of us who lived through the seventies. 

If the venue of choice for classic murder mysteries was the old dark house or English country house then by this stage the giant planes that represented the perfecting of the global travel boom were now the ideal setting: people already nervous of long haul flying could find that extra frisson of fear from the prospect of deadly dealings in First Class… I mean, what could be more disturbing to have the people you had to trust the most be potentially your killer?

So much drama in such a confined space...

Written by David P. Harmon possibly after a sweaty and very brief elevator pitch with Aaron Spelling the film is efficiently directed by George McCowan who had recently finished the third and final iteration of the Magnificent Seven Extended Universe. It’s a moderately tense affair that, in the manner of these things, creates a lot of room for the impressive array of stellar talent to interact and create characters in whom we are invested even if the idea of Sonny Bono chatting up your 15-year-old daughter is a bit “of its time”. 

If you are going to watch this film, and it is in fairly good condition on YouTube, I would recommend watching it with friends or family as it is the kind of artefact that will spark debate amongst young and old…

It begins on a flight from Newark Airport to London – back in the days of the Special Relationship – with a prank from lovable former Partridge Family irritant, Danny Bonaduce as spoilt brat Millard Kensington, who leaves a suspicious package back in the passenger lounge which causes alarm but soon he is chided for his larking by Captain Larkin (Robert Stack) who all but ruffles his hair and =asks him if he’s ever seen wrestling… But, this false alarm is soon followed by genuine concern after Safety official Robert Davenport (George Maharis) receives a letter saying that there is to be a series of murders on the plane.

Walter Pidgeon,Theodore Bikel, Molly Picon and Danny Bonaduce

Whilst Davenport immediately begins a forensic examination of the backgrounds of his passengers, telling his assistant to put their names in alphabetical order – not mean task in the days before Excel and booking software, and a signal that they will be taking every possible measure to find the oddball with a reason to kill. Oddly, for a plane capable of holding 350 passengers, we are limited to the relatively small first class area and the 747’s legendary upstairs bar which seems sadly unoccupied. 

Over the next hour or so a series of nailed on possibles present themselves: the frankly foreign Otto Gruenwaldt (Theodore Bikel) who holds an unfair grudge against Dr. Kenyon Walker (the legendary Ralph Bellamy who worked with both Jean Harlow and Julia Roberts – that is quite some career!) who he blames for his wife’s death. Otto has a cardiac arrest and Captain Larkin must trust him to not kill his potential murderer… 

Then there is the aforementioned pop star Jack Marshall (Sonny Bono) who is being blamed by a couple Ray (Dane Clark) and Claire Garwood (Laraine Day) for the drug death of their daughter. Ray looks fit to burst but is this another high-altitude red herring? Then there’s the shifty Paul Barons (Fernando Lamas) who is engaged in a discussion with his neighbour, Dorothy Saunders (Polly Bergen) a rather tipsy but observant crime novelist who is either trying to woo him or investigate him.

Hugh O'Brian and Farrah Fawcett

There’s more Hollywood royalty as Walter Pidgeon’s Charlie Parkins befriends his seat-mate Molly Picon as Ida Goldman whose career goes even further back than Bellamy’s, her first film being in the silent era in the Austrian film, Lock up Your Daughters (1922) with future Hitchcock blond Anny Ondra (star of Blackmail, the first British talkie). I genuinely love watching them work and they bring out the darker edges and wisdom required for this context.

Thank goodness there’s a policeman on board, as soon the murders do begin and Detective Myerson (Hugh O'Brian, as typecast as Stack…) has to begin the investigation as a false priest is found life-less in the dumb waiter. There’s more to follow and the tension builds as even an air stewardess, Vera Franklin (Brooke Adams) is murdered? What and who is connecting this all together and will anyone make it alive to Heathrow??

Sonny Bono and Elizabeth Stack

Dusty Verdict: Of course Murder on Flight 502 is absolutely worth watching if you’re in the mood. My daughter enjoyed its serious silliness and she wasn’t born until the Jumbo Jets were all but retired from service. But it’s still a fun family experience with a storied cast and a plot that could easily work in a country house, a remote island or even a quiet village in Midsomer.

We also have a Stack family outing with his wife Rosemarie and daughter Elizabeth as Marilyn Stonehurst the teenager being chatted up by Sonny Bono’s musical letch. Then there’s an early Farrah Fawcett as Karen White, a resourceful stewardess who gives an eye-catching performance with the teeth and hair that would establish her as one of the Seventies’ sexual super-powers. She could act and went on to show it more after the Angel years with Emmys to prove it!

Not an essential film but a warm hug of nostalgia from a time when shakes on a plane were less frequent… and not just in Boeing’s case.