It was foolish of me to think that the Italian film industry wouldn't have a go at the old disaster genre, and here it its: the Italian version of Airport. Kind of.
Evil businessmen are wishing to destroy the Concorde by sabotaging it and causing it to be decommissioned. Using evil henchmen Venantino Venantini and Ottavia Dell'Aqua, they bring one aircraft down in the Antilles. It's a shame that air hostess Mimsy Farmer survived though, because she could blow the whole conspiracy wide open. It's kind of a mixed blessing that the henchmen get a hold of her, because although they already know about the conspiracy, they always start blackmailing the evil businessmen. Where's the loyalty these days in avational espionage?
Journalist James Franciscus gets involved when his wife phones him from the Antilles and annoyingly doesn't tell him anything over the phone, which is rather selfish because by the time he flies there from New York she's dead and he's not got a clue what she's on about. Luckily he's got a guardian angel looking out for him, because Venantino and Ottavia reckon they'd be better off minus a nosy journalist.
There's a lot of scuba diving looking for sunken Concordes and amazingly Mimsy nearly escapes the ship she's being held on just as James was passing by. By the time this all happens you'll be wondering when the disaster element is going to arrive - it does eventually, involving another plane piloted by Van Johnson. The same device that took down the first concorde is on board this one, but only Mimsy Farmer and her amnesia can save everyone on board...
When not murdering animals for a laugh, Ruggero Deodato can actually produce a good film, or at least an mildly entertaining one like this. There's a whole load of shenanigans going down between James trying to convince the authorities of the conspiracy and people trying to kill him, but those looking for Deodato gore will be let down, save for the bit where a diver is shot in the face and about ten gallons of blood pours out. Van Johnson does well as the stressed out pilot and you can't beat a bit of Joseph Cotton being evil, so that's not so bad either.
What's good for a laugh are some of the effects - the emergency cars at the end of the film are clearly toys, and so are several shots of the concorde itself. I'm no expert in disaster films but as a quick time waster it was okay. Dakar from Zombie Flesh Eaters gets his head run over by a boat.
Evil businessmen are wishing to destroy the Concorde by sabotaging it and causing it to be decommissioned. Using evil henchmen Venantino Venantini and Ottavia Dell'Aqua, they bring one aircraft down in the Antilles. It's a shame that air hostess Mimsy Farmer survived though, because she could blow the whole conspiracy wide open. It's kind of a mixed blessing that the henchmen get a hold of her, because although they already know about the conspiracy, they always start blackmailing the evil businessmen. Where's the loyalty these days in avational espionage?
Journalist James Franciscus gets involved when his wife phones him from the Antilles and annoyingly doesn't tell him anything over the phone, which is rather selfish because by the time he flies there from New York she's dead and he's not got a clue what she's on about. Luckily he's got a guardian angel looking out for him, because Venantino and Ottavia reckon they'd be better off minus a nosy journalist.
There's a lot of scuba diving looking for sunken Concordes and amazingly Mimsy nearly escapes the ship she's being held on just as James was passing by. By the time this all happens you'll be wondering when the disaster element is going to arrive - it does eventually, involving another plane piloted by Van Johnson. The same device that took down the first concorde is on board this one, but only Mimsy Farmer and her amnesia can save everyone on board...
When not murdering animals for a laugh, Ruggero Deodato can actually produce a good film, or at least an mildly entertaining one like this. There's a whole load of shenanigans going down between James trying to convince the authorities of the conspiracy and people trying to kill him, but those looking for Deodato gore will be let down, save for the bit where a diver is shot in the face and about ten gallons of blood pours out. Van Johnson does well as the stressed out pilot and you can't beat a bit of Joseph Cotton being evil, so that's not so bad either.
What's good for a laugh are some of the effects - the emergency cars at the end of the film are clearly toys, and so are several shots of the concorde itself. I'm no expert in disaster films but as a quick time waster it was okay. Dakar from Zombie Flesh Eaters gets his head run over by a boat.