Absolutely Fantastic

The first must-see film of the year.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Cheesy and common to the times, still there's a nostalgia to watching these old flicks from the 70's, it was worth the watch for that alone. A little snapshot of the bad/campy/predictable TV of the day, but somehow fun anyway. As for holes and errors in the scenes, one could pick apart all the discrepancies, and most been done here. I'd add that I've never been on a flight, nor seen one from those days where all the seats are oriented backwards to the nose of the plane, not to mention the rest of the seat layout, fanning in towards the aisle as they do. Maybe they did, but first class, flying backwards the whole way? Might make some people more ill if they're prone to that. Some mention the variation in quantity of passengers in some scenes (coming and going of passengers), but there's the bathrooms, and not staying in your seat would be normal back in the good old days when a lounge was available, though they showed the lounge mostly empty when shown at all. (I'm all for bringing the lounge back, especially for long flights). "Skyjackings", as they were called, were in the news a fair bit in those days, yet dogs seemed to do just fine in deterring trouble, no need for today's excess. If only people could watch the news these days with as discerning an eye for discrepancies as they do with films, they may notice a few things. At any rate, a good little film if you want the flavor of how that genre of TV was back then....

MURDER ON FLIGHT 502 is an Aaron Spelling-production murder mystery TV movie from 1975. It's an ultra-cheesy and dated tale about a flight from New York to London and the situation that arises when it becomes apparent that one of the passengers is intent on committing murder. Like one of those cheesy disaster movies from the decade, this features an all-star cast of faces (B-list this time around) and no less than four red herrings and one real murderer.The convoluted script from veteran TV writer David P. Harmon is the worst thing about this low rent and obscure movie, because it's really long-winded and lacking in interest. You're supposed to care about the characters involved in a film like this but you never do here; the tale is merely episodic, solving one mystery sub-plot before moving on to the next. Director George McCowan had previously made the fun B-movie FROGS but can do little with this film's story.The actors do the best with the material they've been given. Old-timers Ralph Bellamy and Walter Pidgeon supply old-timer advice. Theodore Bikel does shifty and sweaty very well (as anyone who saw his Columbo appearance can testify). Farrah Fawcett-Majors and Brooke Adams supply glamour as the stewardesses. Danny Bonaduce is incredibly annoying as the red-haired joker. George Maharis is the guy on the ground trying to solve things. Sonny Bono plays himself, essentially. The unravelling of the mystery isn't very interesting, but I do have a soft spot for TV movies from this era so it wasn't all bad for me, and the more dated a film is the more fun I find it to sit back and enjoy the fashions and attitudes from the era.

An ensemble cast of familiar Hollywood faces act, and attempt to act, in this low-budget whodunit, about a New York to London flight that has a psychopath on board. Polly Bergen hams it up as an alcoholic writer, and is fun to watch. Robert Stack plays the pilot, consistent with his serious, take-charge persona. Danny Bonaduce plays himself, more or less. Laraine Day's acting is fine but she needs more makeup. And hip looking Sonny Bono shows why he was wise to earn his living as a singer.The film's sets look cheap, and the stereotyped characters are too perfunctory to spark much interest. The film's visuals look dated.Given the suspects and the obvious red herrings, the whodunit puzzle is not that hard to solve. However, the plot twist at the end I did not see coming.Even with a couple of obvious plot holes, "Murder On Flight 502" held my interest as a whodunit puzzle. But it has a "Producer Aaron Spelling" look and feel to it, with those cheap sets, bland dialogue, cardboard characters, and nondescript elevator music, all rather typical of assembly-line 1970's made-for-TV movies.

***SPOILERS*** Self-centered obnoxious and all around pain in the butt young Millard Kensington, Danny Bonaduce,pulls off one of his brainless practical jokes at the JFK Airport lounge just after Flight 502 went airborne. Danny antics alerted the crew on the plane as well as the police in NY and London to a letter that was left there for airport security chief Robert Davenport, George Maharis, stating that a number of murders were to have to happened on that flight. After a harmless smoke bomb went off in the lounge Davenport noticed a letter, that he was supposed to get later, addressed to him in the in mail chute saying that whoever wrote it was responsible for the murders on Flight 502. Knowing now ahead of time what was to happen the crew and passengers at least knew what to expect and be able to apprehend the killer before he got away when the plane landed even though in the end it didn't prevent them from stopping the murders. Top-flight cast in this low-budget made-for-TV movie about a peaceful flight over the Atlantic that turns into a terror trip with an unknown and unseen killer on the loose on board. Having a personal grudge against some the crew and passengers on the plane he plans to make them pay with their lives now for what they did to him, and members of his family, in the past. Your given a number of clues to who the killer is with a number of the passengers having it in for each other. There's also a number of sinister and unsavory characters on the flight as well.Those on Flight 502 who may be involved in the killings are Otto Gruenwaldt, Theodore Bikel, who's vengeful and has it in for passenger Dr. Walker, Ralph Bellamy, for not coming to his wife's aid that lead to her death. Dr. Walker was at a party and didn't want to be disturbed at the time. There's Ray Garwood, Dane Clark, who has it in for passenger and rock musician Jack Marshall, Sonny Bono, who Ray's daughter, a Jack Marshall groupie, overdosed in Marshall's hotel room while partying with his band. There's Paul Barons, Fernando Lamas, who's an exonerated bank robber, who was involved in a seven million bank heist where a security was killed, There's the person sitting next to Barons on the flight famous mystery/murder writer Mona Briarly,Polly Bergen, who's is really getting on his nerves by bringing up that unpleasant fact. There's also a Priest, Don Hammer, who's not a priest at all but is impersonating one who died some four months ago! Is he using that disguise to throw off the crew and passengers to him being the killer.The movie keeps you guessing until the flight almost touches down in London to who the killer is and what his motives are that leads to a shoot out and fire that almost has the plane crash with it's 250 passengers and crew. Robert Stack is his usual take charge and confident self as the pilot Captain Larkin and both Farrah Fawcett and Brook Adams are pretty appealing as the two stewardesses on the plane who are more then what you at first you thought they were. I found the scene between Dane Clark and Sonny Bono, as the distraught father Ray Garwood and entertainer Jack Marshall, who Ray held Jack responsible for his daughter death really moving, as well as explosive. It more then lifted up the movie "Murder on Flight 502" a couple notches, or hundred feet, higher then your average made-for-TV-movie or even theatrical release for that matter.