Anyone remember the movie: Airplane? Here's the title that inspired that classic.

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the ringo kid

the ringo kid

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If you have seen the classic comedy movie: Airplane? you most likely never saw the movie released in nineteen fifty-seven--that inspired this movie.

The movie im going to mention is one that starred Sterling Hayden and Dana Andrews. The movie is called: Zero Hour. The "remake"'Airplane--took many of its classic lines directly as said and used in Zero Hour. After watching Zero hour--I couldnt believe how much Airplane had taked directly from that movie. For instance--the Sterling Hayden characted had been the commanding officer in WWII--of the Dana Andrews character.Dana Andrews characters name is Ted Stryker--which was the name of Robert Hays character in Airplane. Match was fully intentional.

Many lines copied werefully intentional--situations too. I;e--in this movie--they had the same choice of dinner as offered on Airplane.Fish or meat. Wel--the Fish made people sick--yadda yadda yadda. Zero Hour was a serious drama--Airplane--certainly was not.

You just have to watch Zero Hour before watching Airplane to see all the same-isms.

A "Lloyd Bridges line in Airplane--was a direct one taken from the Sterling Hayden character. "Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop smoking." Needless tosay,that character did not have the other classic Lloyd Bridges lines like: "Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop drinking/sniffing glue-etc. heck,even the ""Coffee guy"" was in Zero Hour.

Anyway,if you ever wanted to know what spawned the idea for Airplane?well,now ya know.
 
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Sterling Hayden was on last night on TCM. A movie about Search & Rescue helicopter pilots in Korea. Flying the old H-3 and H5 helo's. As an old rotor wing guy it was super interesting.

But...,Still Mr. Hayden's finest hour....General Ripper in "Dr. Strangelove".

POE.

"Purity of Essence Mandrake'.
 
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I saw Zero Hour yesterday. Some great flashback Airplane lines with Sterling Hayden screaming into the mic, "Stryker!! You're too low! You're too low!!"

BTW, Hayden had quite a resume. He was an OSS (precursor of the CIA) agent who parachuted behind enemy lines in WWII to assist in getting downed aircrews out. A Silver Star recipient, he was more than just a pretty face.
 
No doubt "Zero Hour" was a big influence, but "Airport" and "The High and The Mighty" were also influential.

The scene towards the end of "Airplane" when the jet knocks over a radio tower is very similar to a scene in "The High and The Mighty" when the plane is on approach and flies by a tower.

There are a lot of funny scenes in "Airplane". Some of the funniest are in the background, just stupid sight gags or quick throw away lines.

While we're on the subject of airplane disaster movies and seeing that some of the participants here are master thread drifters, I'll mention "No Highway in the Sky" with Jimmy Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, and Glennis John. Great movie.
 
Frank237 said:
...Still Mr. Hayden's finest hour....General Ripper in "Dr. Strangelove".
Click to expand...

I'll agree that Hayden was fantastic in Strangelove, but if you haven't seen him in 1950's The Asphalt Jungle, you owe it to yourself to watch it. Everyone always mentions Bogart and Cagney as tough guys. And both of them were tough in real life, but Hayden was tougher, in my opinion. And in The Asphalt Jungle, Hayden's the quintessential film noir protagonist-victim...caught up in events and unseen forces beyond his control, a classic case of taking a wrong turn that leads to his downfall. The film is full of shadows, just like Hayden's Dix Handley.

A lot of people probably don't remember it, but when Sterling Hayden first went to Hollywood, he was hailed as a "young golden god" for his classic good looks.





 
A little useless fun fact. Julie Haggerty's brother Kim and I have been friends for a long time. He is quite the guitar player and we have worked together a lot.

He came in the shop one time and said "hey Rusty, Julie's coming into town...ya want her to bring ya anything"?

I said "tell her to bring me a kiss".

He said "will do".

A week later he walked in and gave me an empty beer can with lipstick all over it signed by her.
 
Asphalt jungle had one of the best ever quick draw shootings of any movie. Dix gets shot but the other guy dies.

Roger, roger, over, over.
 
Fishinfool said:
Airplane - one of the most "politically incorrect" movies I have seen. Loved it...:)

Larry
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31227-Airplane-cream-coffee-black-li-k9NQ.png



Kept getting funnier each time I saw the movie.
 
"Zero Hour" screenplay co-written by Arthur Hailey, author of "Airport." It was originally filmed as "Flight Into Danger" and broadcast on CBC-TV in 1956. Then Paramount made the 1957 movie and Hailey published it as "Runway Zero-Eight" in 1958. I remember seeing that movie when I was 18 right after I started working for Delta.

CW
 
Straightshooter2 said:
"Zero Hour" screenplay co-written by Arthur Hailey, author of "Airport." It was originally filmed as "Flight Into Danger" and broadcast on CBC-TV in 1956. Then Paramount made the 1957 movie and Hailey published it as "Runway Zero-Eight" in 1958. I remember seeing that movie when I was 18 right after I started working for Delta.

CW
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And Arthur Hailey and John Castle actually novelized the script under the "Flight into Danger" title. You can still find it as a paperback in used book stores if you're lucky. It's a pretty good read.
There is also another American re-make from 1971 with Doug McClure, called "Terror in the Sky".
And if you're a nerd, you can watch a German remake from 1964 on youtube here:

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAVVdg2OM34[/ame]
 
My wife and I watched it last night. I could envision Lloyd Bridges' "I sure picked a good week to quit smoking" line, and many others. It got to the point where I could forecast the next line. And the only thing missing from Sterling Hayden's wardrobe were the multiple sunglasses that Robert Stack wore.

The only thing missing in "Zero Hour", was the scene where the woman was in panic mode, and I was waiting for someone to slap her.

Macho Grande.
 
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