Here is a question for all of you today.
Have you ever heard of a 1957 film entitled “Zero
Hour”? It’s okay if you haven’t. I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t
seen the movie before in my life.
This is the movie poster below.
The film’s screenplay was penned by Arthur Hailey,
and its stars included Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, and Sterling Hayden.
I’m going to describe the plot to all of you. Perhaps it might sound familiar if you hear
me talking about it.
The story begins during World War II when half a
dozen members of pilot Ted Stryker’s squadron are killed in the line of duty,
largely in part due to the orders he gave.
Flash forward a number of years, and Stryker is trying to adjust to civilian
life in Canada, where he is having marital problems and has difficulty finding
(and keeping) jobs.
One day, Stryker happens to find a note at home
written by his wife, Ellen, which explains that she is taking their young son,
Joey away to live somewhere else, and that the marriage is over. Stryker immediately rushes to the airport to
try and stop them from leaving. He buys
a ticket on the same commercial flight that Ellen and Joey are on, and pleads
with them to reconsider leaving. Ellen’s
mind seems to be made up though, and nothing will change her mind. It seems as though Stryker has spent money on
a wasted trip.
But then fate steps in - in the form of the
in-flight meal.
Apparently those people who opted to choose the
fish meal instead of the meat dish really began to regret it, as almost
immediately after eating it, they begin feeling sick. Apparently, the shipment of fish that was
boarded onto the flight was tainted, and everyone who ate it began suffering
from food poisoning. Approximately half
the passengers (including young Joey Stryker) were affected by the tainted fish.
Oh, did I mention that the pilots happened to have
a craving for fish, and are now out of commission?
So here’s the situation. You have a plane that is basically out of
control due to the crew being sick, and the only person onboard the plane that
can help prevent disaster from happening is the very man who has not flown a
plane in a decade because of what happened during the war. To add to the panic of the situation, even if
Stryker didn’t have the events of ten years ago weighing down his conscience,
he wasn’t familiar with flying a plane as huge as a commercial jet.
Now, keep in mind that “Zero Hour” was a movie
that was meant to be taken seriously, and the whole movie was one that kept
filmgoers on the edge of your seat. If
you want to watch it, it’s been available on DVD since 2007.
However, “Zero Hour” is not the intended film that
I want to talk about...even though the plot for this movie was basically the exact
same one as “Zero Hour”...only with a few minor adjustments. I mean, the two movies even reused the name
of the main character (although in the movie we’ll be discussing, the last name
is spelled ‘Striker’).
I’m sure some of you may have figured out what
movie we’re going to be talking about here already, but for those of you that
haven’t, think of what the movie “Zero Hour” would have been like if it were
put on by a sketch comedy troupe. Why,
you’d likely end up with scenes like this one...
...or this one...
...or even this one...
...and it’s scenes like that one that made the
David Zucker/Jim Abrahams/Jerry Zucker directed film “Airplane!” one of the
biggest movies of 1980!
MINI-CONFESSION: This movie probably ranks well within my
all-time favourite movies that I have ever seen. At least Top 5 anyway!
“Airplane!” was released on July 2, 1980, and had
some fairly huge names attached to its roster.
The main stars were Robert Hays as Ted Striker, and Julie Hagerty in her
film debut as Elaine Dickinson.
Others who starred in the feature were Leslie
Nielsen, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Peter Graves, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and
Ethel Merman.
The movie itself ended up making a total of $83.5
million at the box office (in 1980 dollars), and was named as the 10th
funniest comedy by the American Film Institute, and in 2010, the movie was
selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of
Congress.
The idea for “Airplane!” came at a time when the
Zucker brothers and Abrahams were performing with a theatre group they formed
in 1971 called the Kentucky Fried Theatre.
And the idea came to them almost by accident. They were recording commercials from
television in the hopes of writing a spoof about them when they realized that
they had taped an airing of “Zero Hour” in the process. This mistake ended up being a blessing, as
the Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker borrowed a lot of ideas from the movie to draft
their script. The trio ended up drafting
a script based on “Zero Hour”, as well as adding in the commercial spoofs that
they had come up with. The project was
initially titled “The Late Show”. But
when people advised them to shorten the commercial parodies, they removed them
altogether and ended up with a script that no movie company would even touch.
That is until they had a meeting with famed
director John Landis, who encouraged the three of them to write a film that was
based on their theatre sketches, and that film would later become the script
for what became “Airplane!”
“Airplane!” ended up being a first for the ZAZ
trio. Not only was it their first
attempt at a motion picture, but it was their first time setting foot on a
movie soundstage. As David Zucker
explained in an interview, they learned so much about the film industry from
shooting “Airplane!”.
Now, casting for the film was a tricky
business. Finding the lead roles for the
film was fairly simple. The unknown
Julie Hagerty was cast, and Robert Hays was doing double-duty at the time, as
he was also working on the short-lived television sitcom “Angie” during the
filming of “Airplane!”.
It was getting big named stars like Leslie
Nielsen, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, and Peter Graves to agree to taking on a
role in the film. I know it seems hard
to believe, especially in the case of Leslie Nielsen, but would you believe
that prior to “Airplane!”, none of these actors actually appeared in a comedic
film? I know!
Getting Leslie Nielsen to agree to the role of Dr.
Rumack was the easiest sell. Nielsen
even admitted that he was getting too old to play the serious roles he was used
to acting in, so this film was a nice change for him. The others had to be convinced.
Lloyd Bridges (Steve McCroskey) only agreed to
take on the role because his children suggested that it was a good idea, while
Robert Stack was persuaded by the team of ZAZ to take on the role of Captain
Kramer (a role that the team believed was one of the most important roles to
cast perfectly).
Peter Graves was probably the hardest sell to the
script, particularly since his agent had believed that the script was complete
garbage, a belief that Graves held as well.
But when he was interviewed by the Today Show in 2008, he later said
that friends and colleagues convinced him to loosen up a bit and take the role
of Captain Clarence Oliver.
While we’re talking about the behind the scenes
moments of “Airplane!”, let’s talk about some other morsels of trivia that you
may or may not know about this film.
1 – Robert Hays wasn’t the only person associated
with “Angie” involved with the film. The
part of the singing nun was played by Maureen McGovern, who sang the theme song
for the television show.
2 – “Leave It To Beaver” star Barbara Billingsley
had a cameo role in the movie as the “jive talker”.
3 – Jim Abrahams makes a cameo in the film as one
of the religious zealots on the plane.
4 – Would you believe that David Letterman
actually screen-tested for the role of Striker?
5 – This was the final movie that Ethel Merman
took part in before her death in 1984.
6 – The Boeing 747 that was used in the film was
actually a TWA airliner painted a different colour.
7 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s role was initially meant
for baseball player Pete Rose to play instead, but Rose had to turn it down as
the filming took place in the middle of baseball season.
8 – Barry Manilow was also considered for the role
of Striker.
9 – The first draft for the film was completed six
years before the film was released.
10 – The film was shot in just thirty-four days.
11 – The jive talk scene was completely
improvised.
12 – Ethel Merman not only brought her own
hairdresser to the set of the movie, but apparently her hair took so long to
style that she was rarely on the set before noon!
13 – Robert Hays actually owned the Mustang that
was used in the film, and was paid $35 a day for its use. He ended up making an additional $70 on his
final take home pay as a result.
14 – Initially when the film was being filmed,
there’s a portion of dialogue that had McCroskey asking for someone who wouldn’t
crack under pressure to Johnny. The
original response was supposed to be Mamie Eisenhower, but when she died in
November 1979, the line was dubbed over and replaced with a Mister Rogers line
instead, out of respect to the former American First Lady.
15 – Paramount only greenlit the film after ZAZ
pitched the film as “Animal House on a plane”.
It was not exactly the truth, but it worked!
16 – The title of the film was known as “The
Incredible Trip in a Crazy Airplane” in Germany, “The Craziest Plane in the
World” in Italy, “Help, We’re Flying” in Norway, “Land As You Can” in Spain, and “And Where Is
The Pilot?” in Argentina!
17 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar revealed in a 2008
interview that he was asked to sit in the cockpit of a plane that was taking
off in Europe, just so the pilots could brag about flying with Roger Murdoch
(the character played by Adbul-Jabbar).
18 – Stephen Stucker (who played Johnny) ad-libbed
his entire speaking part in the movie.
19 – Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty rehearsed their
‘Stayin’ Alive’ dance sequence for an entire month.
20 – The producers had to get permission from the
Bee Gees to use a sped-up version of ‘Stayin’ Alive’ for inclusion in the film.
21 – The scene in which the plane crashes through
the window of the airport terminal featured the Zucker brothers in a cameo.
No comments:
Post a Comment