Airport ‘80: The Concorde ** (1979, Alain Delon, Susan Blakely, Robert Wagner, Sylvia Kristel) – Classic Movie Review 5428

‘At twice the speed of sound, can the Concorde evade attack?’ Well, what do you think? Director David Lowell Rich’s 1979 fourth and final Airport series movie is a lumbering disaster movie epic that’s at least good for a bit of a laugh. It follows a couple of years after Airport ’77 (1977) and nine years after the original Airport (1970).

French cinema icon Alain Delon strays way off his usual flight path as Captain Paul Metrand, pilot of the Concorde, in this tired and wooden addition to the series. Emmanuelle’s Sylvia Kristel and Ingmar Bergman’s actress Bibi Andersson are the other surprise Euro-stars involved.

Unbelievable though they are, there’s worse from Robert Wagner as Dr Kevin Harrison, a computer scientist out to destroy the plan, Susan Blakely as his newscaster mistress Maggie Whelan and Mercedes McCambridge as a Soviet gym teacher unfortunately called Nelli. Naturally the one returning series regular George Kennedy (as Joe Patroni) is again at hand to dispense with his wisdom.

The movie is a bit of a farrago but it is funny if you’re in the mood to scoff at struggling movies.

It runs 113 minutes but the US TV version runs 19 minutes longer and there is a 108-minute home video version.

Also in the cast are Eddie Albert, John Davidson, Cicely Tyson, Andrea Marcovicci, Martha Raye, Jimmie Walker, David Warner, Avery Schreiber, Sybil Danning, Monica Lewis, Nicholas Coster, Robin Gammell, John Cedar and Ed Begley Jr.

It is also called The Concorde… Airport ’79 and just plain Airport ’79.

It is released by Universal, written by Eric Roth, shot by Philip Lathrop, produced by Jennings Lang and scored by Lalo Schifrin.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5428

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