Excellent but underrated film

Admirable film.

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

You'll enjoy this movie even if you haven't seen "Airplane". But if you enjoy "Airplane" you'll see the setups for the jokes contained in "Airplane".

As suspense films go this may be lacking, but the star power of John Wayne as dan Roman, the over the hill co-pilot and third in command allows the film audience to believe that this plane is in great jeopardy. Dan Roman is in the latter stage of his career and the younger pilots know it, but they show him little respect until their airplane loses an engine and is running low on gas. The pilot of this Titanic in the air is John Sullivan played superbly by Robert Stack.There is a multitude of great characters on the flight all of whom realize that whatever problems they had before they boarded their Titanic plane are now far in the past, and their will to live is put to the test.I enjoyed the film and although the first half of the film concentrated on each of the passengers personal stories, and the disparity amongst the three (3) pilots, the latter half of the film provided great suspense with a warm and fuzzy feeling ending expected from a catastrophic action/suspense film.I give the film a 6 out of 10 rating.

How this film can be taken seriously is beyond me. The premise of a plane in trouble over the ocean is interesting. But this movie then completely destroys any such optimistic anticipation. A few of the highlights:Sarcastic comments from airline clerks gossiping about their passengers. Joy Kim as a caricature of the simpleton Asian who fawns over Americans. This along with an equally slow-minded Swedish immigrant with an accent that sounds half Italian. What does this say about arrogant attitudes toward foreigners in the early 50's? An embarrassingly endless closeup scene of makeup removal for unknown effect. Uninteresting flash backs of unsympathetic passengers solely interested in maximizing their personal pleasures. Stone-faced John Wayne saving the day by slapping his copilot silly.As another reviewer said, I wished that all 4 engines had failed and the whole lot of them put to a quick end, along with this painfully tasteless and tacky movie.

The first thing that struck me as the film began was how comfortable the airplane looked and how personable the airline personnel were. And while those may be exaggerated, this film was made just about the year I took my first airplane ride, and I remember flying being a lot more enjoyable back then. Instead of the rude airline personnel you are likely to meet now and the cramped seats. Ah well.What more needs to be said than that John Wayne was John Wayne in this film! It is interesting that in the earlier scenes of the film, his role is somewhat secondary as the co-pilot; as the crisis deepens, the focus shifts to him...a wise script and director! Claire Trevor as a passenger is fine. Laraine Day is convincing as an angry millionaire getting ready to divorce her husband, although I'm more used to seeing her as a sympathetic character. Robert Stack has never been one of my favorites, and this may be the only film (or television show) that I ever saw him in where I actually liked his performance (as the airplane's captain). Jan Sterling as another passenger has a couple of impressive scenes. I don't quite buy Phil Harris as a sort-of middle-American country bumpkin; the part is overdone, and so is some of his acting; Ann Doran is a bit more acceptable as his wife; but the subplot of their misfortunes in Hawaii is good for a few laughs. Robert Newton as an actor...well, not sure it fit well here. David Brian, whom I always found as a pleasant character actor, has a decent role as a misaccused breaker-upper of a marriage. Paul Kelly has a role as a disillusioned scientist; he had only one screen performance after this one before his death. I usually enjoy the character actor Sidney Blackmer, but I did not find his performance here, as a jealous husband, very fulfilling. Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez as Gonzales, who was also in "Rio Bravo" a few years later, is here as an ham radio operator. John Howard is fairly good as the wife of Larraine Day. Wally Brown has a pretty good role as the plane's navigator. William Campbell is irrelevant as the plane's second officer. John Qualen, as he so often did, plays an accent-role...although this time it was Italian instead of Swedish...but with him it didn't seem like there was a lot of difference...but he was always a fine addition to a film (as in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence" with John Wayne). It's nice to see Paul Fix in a sympathetic character...a man dying. Regis Toomey is here as an operations manager -- a fine actor underused. Doe Avedon does nicely as the flight attendant, though I was not at all familiar with her. John Smith is a newlywed husband; was there ever a man more handsome? There are a couple of interesting small roles in the film. William Hopper, who played Paul Drake on television's Perry Mason has a brief role at a cabin. Carl Switzer -- Alfalfa -- has a role as a Coast Guard flier; this film was made 5 years before his tragic death in an argument.In terms of the story, this was the granddaddy of all the disaster pics, and I was reminded of how similar the formula was for Dean Martin's "Airport" in 1970. Each passenger had his or her own story, and each got his or her screen time. Quite nicely done. Stack plays the pilot who sort of chickens out, allowing Wayne to dominate the later parts of the film. The one thing that was just plain wrong was the little boy; I doubt any little boy would sleep the entire flight from Honolulu to San Francisco; and, despite thinking they would crash into the ocean, they put a float device on him (during which he still didn't wake up), but didn't fasten a seat belt. That's illogical.This is a true classic, and one of the films I most remember John Wayne for; guess that was all those showings on network television. Highly recommended.