crash landing ( 1958 film )
‎crash landing (1958) directed by fred f. sears • reviews, film + cast • letterboxd
crash landing was released on a double bill with going steady (1958). [ 9 ]
review:' crash landing' (1958) .
urltoken. retrieved: july 29, 2016 .
with the headline: screen: crash landing;' back from eternity' opens at victoria .
the passengers and crew of a trans - atlantic flight prepare for a crash landing at sea .
crash landing (1958) genre: drama in this classic drama, nancy davis stars as an airline stewardess aboard a plane that is rapidly going down. wh… | pinteres…
; literally :
emergency forced landing
) is a 1999 chinese thriller film directed by zhang jianya .
original print information:' crash landing' .
turner classic movies. retrieved: july 29, 2016 .
the robot vs. the aztec mummy (1958) – mst3k revie ...
kelat, david .
articles:' crash landing' .
turner classic movies. retrieved: july 29, 2016 .
santoir, christian .
review:' crash landing' .
aeromovies, 2016. retrieved: july 29, 2016 .
a shanghai film studio production, crash landing follows the contours of many airplane disaster films, such as the airport series, and stars shao bing, xu fan, and you yong .
a shanghai film studio production, crash landing follows the contours of many airplane disaster films, such as the airport series, and stars shao bing, xu fan, and you yong .
, released in february 1958. air disaster movies comprised a special genre unto themselves - and with
jason bailey is the film editor at flavorwire. he is the author of the ultimate woody allen film companion .
due to the film' s scale and budget, crash landing was seen upon its release as a prime example of the growing sophistication of china' s mainstream film industry, with one western media review calling it
one giant leap for chinese cinema .
before making her last motion picture, 1958’s crash landing, nancy reagan had already begun a second phase of her hollywood career, guest - starring in a number of television theatrical dramas including four episodes of general electric theater, which her husband hosted .
the film connoisseur - a film review site that loves going back to the 80s and 90s as much as i do .
dear all, the crash landing does do a good job on what to expect during a plane crash. i think the actors are believable. i forgot how snippy gary merril gets in this movie. you almost want to hit him
due to the film' s scale and budget, crash landing was seen upon its release as a prime example of the growing sophistication of china' s mainstream film industry, [ 1 ] with one western media review calling it
one giant leap for chinese cinema .
[ 2 ]
robert zemeckis' s film, seemingly inspired by chesley sullenberger' s emergency hudson river landing in 2009, gives the credit to the wrong guy .
the only feature film the reagans appeared in together was a minor war film, hellcats of the navy (1957), he as a submarine commander, she as a nurse. in her final movie, crash landing (1958), she is seen in flashback as the wife of a pilot in trouble (gary merrill), not really the sort of role to inspire her to continue in the acting profession .
teen - age story to be screened .
los angeles times, january 25, 1958, p. b3 .
panned the film, awarding it a score of 1 out of 4, criticizing the film' s monster as
preposterous - looking
.
you have whetted my appetite to tivo crash landing in march. sounds like a mystery science theatre evening at my house with that flick. one tiny error, didn’t the plane that made the emergency landing land in the hudson, not potomac? enjoyed your post .
ronald reagan jr. tv journalist, former dancer. born may 20, 1958; quit speaking to mother c. 1993 .
for the lowly protagonist, david mann, spielberg hand - picked character actor dennis weaver because he loved his performance as the jittery and feeble hotel night manager in orson welles’s 1958 film touch of evil .
crash landing
is most likely (loosely) based on the saga of pan am flight 6, which ditched in the pacific on 16 october 1956 after encountering ...
yes. technically, it was a controlled water landing, as tom hanks' character emphasizes in the movie. the coast guard released a miracle on the hudson crash landing video that shows the plane descending into the hudson river at 3: 31pm on january 15, 2009 .
end - of - world tale - meteors on collision course with earth: the day the sky exploded (1958, fr / it. )
( 1958) is an entertaining if b - movie variation of the john wayne - william a. wellman blockbuster with an almost identical story .
it was not the end of offers to star in a feature film, however .
this diagram shows the plane' s flight path in red, with the option of landing at teterboro in blue and the option of turning back to laguardia in pink (or landing in the east river) .
ok b plane crash movie. gary merrill is the pilot and a hard - to - take dad .
in depth and mini reviews of movies with a sprinkling of nostalgia and film music musings .
the poster for hellcats of the navy, the feature film which co - starred the reagans .
mgm released her from her contract in 1952; and she sought a broader range of parts, but also married a guy called ronald reagan, of which she said, “being his wife was the role i wanted to play. ” after her first child was born she starred in the science fiction film “donovan' s brain” (1953); and then she made “hellcats of the navy” (1957), in which she played nurse lieutenant helen blair and appeared in a film for the only time with her husband. her last picture was “crash landing” in 1958, which also starred gary merrill .
production for crash landing began on august 6, 1957, and wrapped in 10 days, with both studio and location photography completed in the typical sears fashion. [ 6 ] principal location photography took place at the hollywood burbank airport, playing the part of lisbon airport. the aircraft seen in the film include a united airlines convair cv 240 and douglas dc - 6 as well as dc - 6s from american airlines and western airlines. the principal airliner featured in crash landing was a douglas dc - 7 c, seen in miniature and in stock footage. [ 7 ]
there isn' t much to this. the air disaster formula was in its infancy, not as refined as it would become in the 70' s, so crash landing doesn' t fully understand how it should work. the crash literally takes hours to occur, and when it does... well, sometimes even practical effects will let you down .
the future first lady was still in college, however, when she made her very first appearance on film, performing in a national foundation for infantile paralysis fundraising short film short shown across the nation’s movie theaters .
crash landing follows the tense hours on board a stricken passenger aircraft that was on a routine flight from shanghai to beijing. shortly after taking off, the pilot (shao bing) discovers that the plane' s landing gear is unable to be retracted. unable to continue, but unable to land, he and his flight attendant wife (xu fan), are forced to circle shanghai .
crash landing follows the tense hours on board a stricken passenger aircraft that was on a routine flight from shanghai to beijing. shortly after taking off, the pilot (shao bing) discovers that the plane' s landing gear is unable to be retracted. unable to continue, but unable to land, he and his flight attendant wife (xu fan), are forced to circle shanghai .
). adding controversy and personal drama to the story certainly helps to fill in the time around the three - minute water landing. the
1. it was director simon west' s first film, but you' d probably seen his work before .
luxury liner disaster at sea: titanic (1915), titanic (1943, ger .), titanic (1953), a night to remember (1958), the last voyage (1960 )
there is an interesting film in the middle of this movie. but it does struggle with a few things typical of a low budget film of the era. the first is scope. the rocket ship used in the early portions of the film is pretty silly looking, and extremely small. worse still is the official nasa equipment used in the film, an old farm truck and what looks like an abandoned radio station as a home base. none of this looks official in the least .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
shifting of tectonic plates dooms japan: japan sinks (2006, jp .) (aka nihon chinbotsu) - a remake of the 1973 film
her role as a nurse in the 1957 film hellcats of the navy is perhaps her most famous because her co - star was her husband .
the menacing bird, in particular, is considered by many to be badly made, being a puppet with a very odd face. film critic
, ditching the plane is an absolute last resort, the implication being that chances of surviving the crash and even a few minutes in the water are remote at best. in
of all her movie roles, mrs. reagan’s own favorite was that of a fiancée whose intended husband dies, in the 1951 film night into morning .
it took 15 months before federal crash investigators concluded that capt. chesley
sully
sullenberger and co - pilot jeff skiles made the right decision to ditch the plane in the hudson river (
during her first year on contract, her first two film roles the doctor and the girl and east side, west side were as a supporting cast member .
is pretty decent. despite barely adequate miniature work, crash footage obviously cobbled from somewhere else, and a by - the - numbers script courtesy future tv producer fred freiberger, once viewers have reached the climax they' ve spent sufficient time with the characters to care about their fates a little, and the violent landing and evacuation of the plane is pretty exciting for a little b - movie .
the film is inspired by the first emergency landing in china. on september 10, 1998, china eastern flight 586, a mcdonnell - douglas md - 11, flying from shanghai hongqiao international airport to beijing capital international airport, suffered a nose gear failure after take - off. the aircraft landed back in shanghai with the nose gear up on a foamed runway .
the film is inspired by the first emergency landing in china. on september 10, 1998, china eastern flight 586, a mcdonnell - douglas md - 11, flying from shanghai hongqiao international airport to beijing capital international airport, suffered a nose gear failure after take - off. the aircraft landed back in shanghai with the nose gear up on a foamed runway .
watch miracle on the hudson footage, including sully' s water landing and the subsequent rescue. then view a captain sully interview and a documentary that includes remarks from some of the flight 1549 passengers .
pilot sullenberger and co - pilot jeff skiles didn' t have enough time to go through the entire crash landing checklist. the ditch button, which seals the planes vents and outlets from taking on water, was never pressed. that, coupled with the fact that the impact had caused a breach near the plane' s tail, resulted in the plane rapidly taking on water. as thousands of gallons of water poured in, the plane began to sink by the tail. the passengers would have just 24 minutes before the cabin and wings were fully submerged. - miracle of the hudson plane crash documentary
prolific b - movie director fred f. sears had been renowned for
quickies
, films that were shot on tiny budgets and often worked on a number of projects at once, from feature films to television shows. after his death in 1957, crash landing (originally known by the working title
rescue at sea
) was one of five films that were finished but remained unreleased for a year. [ 5 ]
( 1958). barely have the credits finished rolling than the disaster is underway: the plane is past the point of no return, with nothing but ocean underneath it, two of the four engines have failed, and the flight attendants start passing out the inflatable vests. and the movie has only just
, the inspiration for the story may have been taken from media reports about scientific discoveries in the field of particle physics, dealing with matter and antimatter. other influences included the japanese film
noted that the film disappointed for those reasons ,
( a) lack of decent special effects ruins the running battle between colossal bird and fighter jets. big bird is laughable .
another pre - crash scene some people are going to have trouble accepting is the moment when the flight attendant convinces the mother of an infant to let someone else hold the baby during the impact. “you may not be strong enough to hold onto the baby when we ditch. let me give it to one of the men, ” to which one of the husky servicemen says, “let me take it. he’ll be safe with me. ” i can’t imagine any mother parting with their baby in some similar contemporary situation but maybe this was not an unusual consideration for 1958 .
loftin rigged the truck with a dead clutch so the 18 - wheeler could drive without anyone behind the wheel. spielberg filmed the crash with seven cameras from multiple angles to be able to use some editing tricks to stretch out the scene .
disaster films: disasters have been the subject of film - goers' fascination since the time of silent film epics, and this interest continues to exist up to the present time. catastrophes can take so many different forms - but they are mostly man - made or natural. they can be either impending or ongoing, or set in a distant future, or they can exist locally or globally .
the picture does have its share of unintended howlers. aboard the plane are a pair of empty - headed chorus girls (joan bradshaw and brandy bryan) who, as the plane is about crash, ask ,
what will happen to our
executive producer for night of the blood beast is roger corman, and that should give you a hint of what’s in store. corman can be really hit or miss. and the fact that this film was paired with she gods of shark reef may have you worried. but there is some interesting stuff in this movie even if (as mike puts it) the film has been thoroughly corman - ized .
movie .
it was a hard landing, and then we scooted along the surface for some point and then at some point the nose finally did come down as the speed decreased, and then we turned slightly to the left and stopped .
streamline is the official blog of filmstruck, a new subscription service that offers film aficionados a comprehensive library of films including an eclectic mix of contemporary and classic art house, indie, foreign and cult films .
at the fail - safe point, williams radios to a nearby u. s. destroyer for help, and alerts everyone on board to ready themselves for a crash landing at sea. as they prepare for the ditching, the pilot realizes that landing at night is too perilous, and they circle until sunrise. during the delay williams realizes that his attitudes have been too harsh and ann thatcher reconsiders her attitude to the co - pilot. when the airliner hits the water, the passengers, who are violently tossed about, recover and climb out to deployed life rafts. all are saved, and williams rescues the dog, which he had previously told the boy would have to be abandoned. eventually williams reunites with his wife and son in lisbon .
was one of five fred f. sears - directed features released in 1958 - a pretty astounding achievement when you consider that he died in 1957. sears, a former actor, literally worked himself into a fatal heart attack at age forty - four. despite a very modest budget, probably in the $ 175, 000 - $ 350, 000 range versus
spielberg only had one take to pull off the climactic cliff crash because the initial shoot only had a single truck at their disposal. (a backup truck was built during reshoots in case the engine of the main truck stopped working. the backup truck is
the film has been a staple of the bootleg video market, with only two official vhs releases (one in the usa through goodtimes home video and the other through screamtime in the united kingdom) to date .
the first act of the director robert zemeckis' s new drama flight culminates with what is already being called the finest and most terrifying plane crash sequence ever committed to film. an engine failure on a full - capacity passenger flight has put the aircraft into an uncontrolled nosedive. the co - pilot (brian gereghty) is in a screaming panic, desperately trying to regain control of the plane, but the pilot, whip whitaker (denzel washington), keeps it together. he calmly
inverts
the plane (turns it upside down) in order to level it off, then brings it in for a landing in an open field. as the giant jet approaches the grass, he utters three words over the pa :
brace for impact .
all of this is just filler though until the climax when williams finally has to “ditch” the plane. the preparations for this frightening turn of events plays out as deadpan comedy with the two showgirls expressing their major concern – “what will happen to our luggage? ” – while the stewardess gives duck - and - cover instructions on the crash landing: “now, remember, the first shock will be a light one, followed by final heavy shocks. ” that’s comforting. did she really need to tell them that? i think i hate her .
a late 1950' s not bad by - the - numbers plane in peril film. captained by a stiff - necked pilot who raises his son like he' s in the army. while struggling to keep the plane flying until they reach assistance he learns some tolerance and good parenting skills. the plane is filled with the usual stereotypical potential crash victims. a pretty ok time - passer. the sony pictures collection dvd - r is very good quality. recommended for fans of the genre .
as the truck rams the car over the cliff and falls off in the final film, there is a low roar sound effect that the filmmaker included to emphasize the death of the truck. spielberg, who wanted the truck to seem
bruckheimer said one version of the script had the plane crashing into the white house .
i said the guys would really rather crash into las vegas ,
bruckheimer said —which makes more sense anyway, as vegas is much closer to the plane' s starting point of oakland .
in that 60 minutes interview, couric asked sullenberger if he took time, in the three and a half minutes between the bird strike and the landing on the hudson, to pray. sullenberger' s answer is diplomatic, but pointed :
i would imagine somebody in back was taking care of that for me while i was flying the airplane... my focus at that point was so intensely on the landing, i thought of nothing else .
in other words: yeah, i let the other people do the praying—i was busy doing my job .
is a grown - up movie about real world problems, mapped onto a disaster movie formula. on the surface it is a gripping thriller about panicking people forced to crash their plane into the sea - inside that fragile shell is a ruminative drama about what happens when you refuse to compromise .
a scene where passenger maurice stanley (lewis martin) offers mrs. willouby (irene hervey) a cup of coffee is parodied in the satirical comedy film airplane! , with their respective roles assumed by child actors david hollander and michelle stacy .
both the new york times and washington post film critics detected authenticity in the emotions she conveyed on screen. the times declared that she “knows the loneliness of grief, ” while the post critiqued that she “is splendid as the understanding widow. ”
the film' s memorable climax, which has the con air plane landing in vegas and crashing through the front of a casino, benefited from real - life serendipity: the sands hotel was about to be demolished. the filmmakers simply had to persuade the hotel' s owners to wait a few weeks and let them help with the destruction. they only got one take, obviously. good thing they nailed it. (the plane hitting the giant neon guitar at the hard rock hotel & casino was accomplished using models, though. )
you’re absolutely right jenni. it was the hudson, not the potomac, and is now correct. i think i got it mixed up with the 1982 crash on the potomac of a boeing 727 during a snowstorm. that one didn’t end up well. only 6 survivors out of 79 people .
alas this movie was not made in australia. in fact i' m not sure if mst3k ever tackled an australian film. but they did mention the infamous yahoo serious in a sketch and wished and escape pod would fall on him. does that count ?
world ravaged by biological warfare and nocturnal mutants: the omega man (1971) - earlier film was the last man on earth (1964, it. / us) (l' ultimo uomo della terra), then remade as i am legend (2007 )
still, i’ll take crash landing and others of its ilk (jet over the atlantic, julia (stewardess doris day lands the plane in a precursor to karen black’s hysterical pilot of airport ’75), no highway in the sky, five came back, the crowded sky) over the more realistic depictions of air disasters in such films as alive (1993) or fearless (1993) or united 93 (2006) or even that paranoid imagining of edward norton’s character in fight club (1999). those are the sort of horror films you don’t want to have in your head when you’re crossing the atlantic ocean in the dead of night .
yes. clint eastwood had been involved in an emergency water landing when he was in the military as a young man .
i' ve been involved in a water landing before ,
he acknowledged when asked by katie couric .
well, it was an exciting moment for a 21 - year - old kid, but i was riding in the back of a military plane as a passenger, a free flight deal. coming down the pacific coast from seattle to san francisco, we went in the ocean off of point reyes, california. it was a good water landing, much like sully did. the plane didn' t float though. we had about 30 seconds to get out of it, on the wing, and the water was coming up. the pilot said,' what do you think?' i said,' i guess we' re going swimming.'
they got in the cold november water and swam for the shore, surviving the ditching. - katie couric facebook live interview
eagle - eyed viewers will catch the word “flammable” scrawled across the back of the truck, yet when it careens off the cliff at the end of the movie it doesn’t go boom. the studio wanted a big explosion, but the director wanted a slower demise for his film’s villain .
the real issue is the pacing. there are lots and lots of talky scenes with little pay off or suspense. there are also several montages of walking (a corman favorite). i can appreciate the idea to keep costs down by staying on one set, but the film never does much with it (unlike john carpenter’s the thing which used its isolated setting to excellent advantage). the scenes with the blood beast creeping around almost work at times, but director bernard kowalski never manages to pull it off. i had the same issue with his film attack of the giant leeches .
on the set in wendover, utah (where the desert scenes in the second half of the film were shot), a 39 - year - old welder named phillip swartz was killed when a plane he was working on fell over on him. the closing credits include a mention in his honor .
the snakerama gas station seen in the film also appears in spielberg' s 1979 world war ii comedy, 1941, with actress lucille benson again appearing as the proprietor. the two elderly people weaver tries to flag down in a car also appear as helpless motorists in close encounters of the third kind .
begins with an astronaut john corcoran (michael emmet) crash landing on earth. he doesn’t survive, but nasa picks up the ship and the body to study just what went wrong. when the crew gets back to their station, they find that they all contact to the outside world is blocked out by a powerful magnetic force. before you can say, alien life form, one of the scientists is killed gruesomely and a strange shape is seeing wandering around the base. on top of that john comes back to life – and he’s got a little surprise. turns out he didn’t come back alone. incubating inside his body are small living creatures of unknown origin. what other horrors will be revealed during the night of the blood beast ?
yes .
my knee hit my sternum and actually cracked my sternum ,
says survivor barry leonard (miracle of the hudson plane crash documentary). 78 people were treated for injuries. most were minor, such as hypothermia, but five were severe, including a deep l - shaped laceration to flight attendant doreen welsh' s leg (depicted in the movie) .
yes. like in the sully movie, the real chesley burnett sullenberger iii later stated that he suffered flashbacks and insomnia for several weeks after the accident (urltoken). sullenberger told 60 minutes that the moments before the crash were
the worst sickening, pit - of - your - stomach, falling - through - the - floor feeling
that he' d ever experienced .
yes. while exploring the sully true story, we learned that a vintage wwii fighter plane crashed into the hudson river in may 2016, killing pilot bill gordon. the cause was most likely mechanical failure (urltoken). with regard to commercial airlines crashing into u. s. rivers, on january 13, 1982, air florida flight 90, a boeing 737, crashed into the frozen potomac river after taking off from washington national airport in virginia. only five people on board survived. 74 on the plane and four on the ground died, including one initial survivor who perished after making sure that the other crash survivors were rescued. in 1984, a popular tv movie was made about the potomac crash, titled flight 90: disaster on the potomac .
no. the ntsb investigators were re - imagined for the movie, with only very loose correlations to the real - life ntsb board, which included chairman deborah a. p. hersman, member robert l. sumwalt, and vice chairman christopher a. hart, among others. the real sully insisted the names be changed for the film since the movie treats the ntsb investigators as the
villains
of the story, painting them to be more vindictive and out - to - get -' em than they were in real life. the movie' s three main ntsb board members, charles porter, ben edwards and elizabeth davis (portrayed by mike o' malley, jamey sheridan and anna gunn), have no direct real - life counterparts. the film needed an antagonist and the ntsb became that villain .
the basic premise of the film is simply inaccurate ,
says one source connected to the ntsb (condé nast traveler) .
after her final film, she appeared for a brief time as a guest star in television dramas such as the zane grey theatre episode
the long shadow
( 1961), where she played opposite ronald reagan, as well as wagon train, and the tall man, until she retired as an actress in 1962 .
t here were many earlier action / adventure disaster films in the silent era through the advent of the talkies. some of the most notable were the hurricane (1937) - with one of the most spectacular tropical storm scenes ever shot in film history. and two 50' s films, the high and the mighty (1954) and zero hour (1957) - were the inspiration for all the airplane disaster films of the 70s. [ hitchcock' s foreign correspondent (1940) also contained a harrowing airplane crash sequence. ] the real horrors of world war ii (the holocaust), and the perceived threat of nuclear annihilation and radioactive mutancy during the resultant cold war led to a further onslaught of disaster - related films soon after in the 1950s .
she was born anne frances robbins in new york. after her parents divorced and her mother, edith, an actor, remarried, nancy took her stepfather’s surname. nancy davis was a middle - ranking film actor in her 20s when she received her initial introduction to reagan, having already told a friend that he was top of her list of hollywood’s eligible bachelors .
the prop recreators at chronicle collectibles have collaborated with universal studios to make the canisters as faithful to the original as possible. just like the prop used in the film, the vessel resembles an unassuming can of shaving cream from the outside. but screw off the bottom and you' ll find a secret compartment filled with vials the perfect size for storing prehistoric genetic material .
so, compared to century 21 calling it’s a failure as an advertisement. but for sheer goofiness it’s a hoot. the wishing song is ridiculous in the extreme. the acting is over the top. the dance sequences are silly. wilber the angel presents a whole new take on floaty. it’s just packed with everything a fan of absurd cinema could want in their short film .
jurassic park (1993) is known for having some incredible props. the fake shaving cream can dennis nedry uses to smuggle dinosaur dna out of the cold storage unit may not be as iconic as the life - sized t. rex, but it still plays a colossal role in the film. now, io9 reports that an official replica of the prop can soon be yours .
ronald reagan. actor, politician. married uin march 1952; born on february 6, 1911; formerly married to actor jane wyman; sportscaster turned film actor (from late 1930s through mid - 1960s); later entered politics: became governor of california (1967 - 74) and later president of the united states (from 1980 to 1988); diagnosed with alzheimer' s disease .
spielberg got his start directing for tv at the age of 21, helming episodes of such shows as night gallery and marcus welby, m. d. but the aspiring filmmaker was desperately searching for a property he could turn into a feature film. it was spielberg' s secretary, nona tyson, who found matheson’s story in playboy and first sent it to her boss to potentially adapt into a movie .
title: amityville 3 - d. this is an original movie script from the 1983 horror film ,
amityville 3 - d
. a man who is separated from his wife moves into the infamous amityville house. their daughter dies in a boating accident (after being told that she is not allowed to go to the house) and now the mother sees her deceased daughter
alive
in the house .
but the real puzzle is figuring out the point of the whole enterprise. it’s obvious that this is a short film advertisement for something. but unlike the outrageous design for dreaming which clearly made its goal the exciting cars of the 1956 motorama, this little film never clearly points out what its hawking. it took multiple viewings for me to finally realize that this was an extended ad for designer color phones. and no one was going to watch this thing multiple times, except for fans of mst3k. you see, as mary is singing and dancing around, wishing for new interior designs for her house, she made sure to mention the different color phones she can get for each room. also notice how wilber the angel uses his portable phone, and the boss makes a big deal of using conference call and speakerphone technology .
, which is thought to have netted the retired pilot a healthy six figures. how much personal drama was injected or heightened for the story is hard to say, but sullenberger himself stands by the film .
the story being told came from my experiences, and reflects the many challenges that i faced and successfully overcame both during and after the flight ,
he said in a statement passed along by warner bros .
a us supreme court decision had severely constrained the major studios’ business practices, and cinema audiences had slumped by half with the rise of television. by 1955, however, ronald had secured a lucrative television contract with general electric and, as the family finances improved, nancy embarked on a campaign of relentless networking. central to it was an influential magazine publisher, walter annenberg, whom she had met through her film connections .
what better way to start off the truncated season seven of mystery science theater than with a roger corman “classic”? not only did mystery science theater 3000, tackle this film, but they also aired it on thanksgiving of 1995, as part of the turkey day marathon. as such the episode has two unique sets of host segments: one them revolving all around thanksgiving. so here you go, the thanksgiving episode of my favorite show .
after a tense goodbye with his wife, helen (nancy davis), pilot steve williams (gary merrill) is on his regular flight from portugal to new york city when disaster strikes: one of the plane' s four massive engines catches fire, rendering it useless. before steve can even register the first fire, another engine dies. williams quickly realizes that two engines won' t get the plane safely to new york - - and he' s going to have make an emergency landing in the middle of the atlantic ocean .
to get the water landing right and not end in disaster, pilot chesley
sully
sullenberger had to bring flight 1549 down at the perfect speed and angle. if the nose was angled up too high, the fuselage would take too much of the impact and the plane would break in half. this could also create too much drag and slow the plane down too much. sloping the plane forward would increase the speed, but too much forward slope would mean the engines would hit the water first, causing the plane to break up .
yes, but mainly only when the
human factor
was omitted. several months after the ditching, nearly two dozen emergency simulations were flown at the airbus headquarters in toulouse, france. four out of four simulations were successful when the pilots returned to the closest laguardia runway. however, in the simulations the decision to turn back was made immediately after the engines blew. the simulated scenarios didn' t account for the
human factor ,
essentially the 30 seconds it took to decide what to do. nine more simulated attempts to land at laguardia were conducted, taking into account the human factor and variables like landing at a different laguardia runway or landing with the plane more severely disabled. only three of those attempts were successful. in the end, the faa agreed with what sullenberger stated in his book ,
i had to be certain we could make it ,
he wrote, because
it would rule out every other option
and could kill
who knows how many people on the ground .
there was no guarantee that the 70 - ton glider would clear manhattan' s skyline .
tyson helped track down whether the movie rights to matheson’s story had been optioned, and eventually discovered that a teleplay was in development at abc and universal with producer george eckstein. spielberg took a meeting with eckstein, and brought a rough cut of his legendary 73 - minute series premiere episode of columbo, “murder by the book. ” eckstein was impressed, and gave spielberg the job to direct duel after a follow - up meeting where the filmmaker laid out how he envisioned the film from matheson’s screenplay in full .
the wishing song and the dance sequences offer all kinds of hilarious riffing opportunities. tom does what he does best, add hilarious riffs to the music and lyrics. when a dance number starts, mike focuses on the painful smile on jeff’s face and says in a strained voice “honey, help! i can’t stop smiling! ” mike decides that the film “is the perfect pairing with eraserhead ”. while that is a hilarious thought, i believe that once upon a honeymoon is one of the perfect pairings for mike and the bots .
for the most part, season seven is a final hurrah for the cast and crew. you get the feeling here that they were going to go out with a bang, and why not start with something that fit their mo – a black and white sci - fi film with no budget. having already tested their mettle with some of the most painful films ever made in season six (coleman francis trilogy of pain, not to mention starfighters and racket girls), even this slog - fest from cormanland couldn’t keep the boys down .
it was at the height of the mccarthyite purges, and reagan was head of the screen actors’ guild. the ostensible reason for the meeting was that nancy had been confused with a leftwing actor of the same name and was afraid of being blacklisted for her supposed communist leanings. the chemistry between the two emerged at this first encounter, but reagan, still bruised by his divorce in 1949 from the actor jane wyman, did not propose for a further two years. when the couple married in 1952, the film industry was in turmoil and both their careers were under threat .
thanks so much for writing tom. these figures are humans before they are political symbols, as least as far as this author is concerned. and yes, from many of the newspaper reviews of her appearances at the time her films hit the screen, nancy davis was given consistently high marks for her performances. the problem was the poor material. and she was perpetually cast in one - dimensional roles. what a turn of fate had she won a role in a larger film – one might wonder if she’d have married and then further wonder what ronald reagan’s career direction might have been .
the most disturbing part of the pre - crash sequence is williams’ conversation with little teddy, informing him that he will have to leave his dog wilbur behind on the sinking plane because pets aren’t as important as people and we can’t jeopardize the safety of others by attempting to save some animal. teddy somehow accepts this wisdom with the reassurance that wilbur will be given his baseball cap as a little memento of teddy when he’s left behind. and what about all those pet birds in cargo? in one truly astonishing sequence, the co - pilot and the stewardess open one of the plane windows while in flight and begin tossing out parakets and parrots. the scene barely lasts 30 seconds but i thought i was hallucinating while watching this .
shadow on the wall (1950) gave davis her first substantial part, as a cool - headed child psychiatrist, trying to get the truth of a murder witnessed by a young girl. the title of william wellman’s the next voice you hear … (1950) refers to a mysterious voice on the radio claiming to be god that davis as the pregnant mary smith and her blue - collar worker husband joe (james whitmore) hear every night. the film was a comforting exploration of faith, in which davis, according to the new york times, “was delightful as the gentle, plain and understanding wife” .
this low - budget drama about a passenger airplane that develops engine trouble mid - atlantic and is forced to ditch in the ocean has troubles of its own holding the audience' s attention. there is the usual varied assortment of characters, with flashbacks to their lives on terra firma merely dissipating any tension that might have been built up over the impending splashdown. gary merrill is the captain, while nancy davis plays his wife; she quit acting after this film to concentrate on life as mrs ronald reagan. there are no surprises at the climax, either, in one of the last films directed by b - feature specialist fred f sears .
it all begins with the short film from 1956, once upon a honeymoon. all songwriter jeff (ward ellis) and his wife mary (virginia gibson) want to do is go on their honeymoon. they were married a year ago, but jeff was so swamped with his work on a play that the honeymoon was put off. just as they are about to leave, they get a call from jeff’s boss. the lead actress in the show is demanding a rewrite of the song. despair starts to creep in as the couple attempts to come up with a song. little do they know that their guardian angel, wilber (chick chandler) has a bit of heavenly magic ready to help them out .
gave the film a positive review, stating ,
the giant claw has a terrible reputation that isn' t entirely deserved – to be sure, producer sam katzman opted for the cheapest, worst - looking monster that one could imagine, a ridiculous - looking giant bird puppet that makes the movie seem ludicrous. but except for those moments when the title monster is on the screen, the movie isn' t bad – so for the first 27 minutes, until it appears for the first time and evokes its first rounds of laughter, the picture is working just fine within the confines of its budget, script, and cast
. allmovie also complimented morrow' s performance as
the best thing in the picture
.
it comes to a head in possibly the film' s silliest single scene, which finds whip visiting his bible - thumping co - pilot and the man' s wife at his hospital bedside. (when whip says he' s happy to be alive, mrs. co - pilot quickly corrects him :
blessed to be alive .
)
nothing happens by accident in the kingdom of the lord ,
the co - pilot thunders, as the wife actually kisses the cross around her neck behind him, a moment of both painful literalism and amateurish upstaging. she then starts proclaiming
praise jesus
during her husband' s little sermon, a moment that is played for oddly incongruent laughs, since the movie is barely subtler than she is .
most disaster films have large - scale special effects (especially in the recent past' s mega - budget spectaculars), huge casts of stars faced with the crisis, a persevering hero or heroine (i. e. , charlton heston, steve mcqueen, etc .) called upon to lead the struggle against the threat, and many plot - lines affecting multiple characters. in many cases, the' evil' or' selfish' individuals are the first to succumb to the conflagration. as in any sub - genre, the move to capitalize on the' disaster film' trend has led to many sub - par disaster films, with weak and unsubtle, formulaic plots, improbable circumstances and bad science, poor character development, and laughable acting from third - rate stars portraying cliched characters .
yet the hand of god (well, his disciples, anyway) is all over flight. when whip brings in his plane for its open - field landing, the wing crashes into the steeple of a nearby church, whose members are performing baptisms in a nearby pond, wouldn' t you know it, at that very instant. (it' s a laughably unsubtle moment in a movie filled with them .) shortly before the flight, the chief flight attendant is giving whip the business for not going to church; as he lays in the hospital recovering, his pilot' s union rep (bruce greenwood) tells him ,
the way you landed that plane was nothing short of a miracle .
while in the hospital, whip shares a secret smoke with a cancer patient, who delivers a faith - floating monologue, assigning the randomness of the universe—everything from his cancer to his impending death to his meeting the pilot at that moment—to the big guy upstairs. the co - pilot' s wife, we' re told, has informed the press ,
god landed that plane .
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urltoken
imagine this. you are on a flight from lisbon, portugal to new york city and, in the dead of night over the middle of the atlantic ocean, the pilot’s voice on the intercom suddenly jolts you awake with these words, “can i have your attention please. this is captain williams. we’re in an emergency situation. we may have to ditch. ” you might be able to ditch your girlfriend, boyfriend or spouse but it’s not so easy to ditch a plane as demonstrated by the principals of
engineer: for crying out loud, captain. don’t you ever let up ?
like dana andrews’ neurotic pilot in zero hour! , williams turns out to have had a traumatic world war ii experience that has made him the super grumpus he is today. of course, we don’t get to see that flashback in this cheapo disasterpiece but we get merrill’s clinch - jawed recounting of the episode in close - up. throughout the movie merrill and his co - stars act up a storm in the cockpit as a substitute for exciting special effects or visual diversions. my favorite moments are when pilot and co - pilot dramatically clutch their steering wheels and shake uncontrollably to depict turbulence while the camera occasionally tilts from side to side to demonstrate the plane pitching.
crash landing ( aka rescue at sea ) is a 1958 dramatic , " disaster " film directed by fred f. sears , starring gary merrill and nancy reagan . this was the last film in which nancy reagan ( billed as nancy davis ) appeared , though she continued to work in television for some years thereafter . crash landing was based on pan am flight 6 , a real-life ditching at sea . 
crash landing (aka rescue at sea) is a 1958 dramatic, " disaster " film directed by fred f. sears, starring gary merrill and nancy reagan. this was the last film in which nancy reagan (billed as nancy davis) appeared, though she continued to work in television for some years thereafter. crash landing was based on pan am flight 6, a real-life ditching at sea.
crash landing (aka rescue at sea) is a 1958 dramatic, " disaster " film directed by fred f. sears, starring gary merrill and nancy reagan. this was the last film in which nancy reagan (billed as nancy davis) appeared, though she continued to work in television for some years thereafter. crash landing was based on pan am flight 6, a real-life ditching at sea.