Lost Flight (1970 TV Movie) User Reviews

LOST FLIGHT...and LOST now...

[zillabob · 7/10 · 13 February 2006]

I saw this film a long time ago. It was an NBC Movie of The Week in 1969(and repeated in 1970) and wound up on many "Movie for a Saturday Afternoon"'s on UHF stations through the 70's subsequently. All I could think of was this film, when I saw the opening episodes of the current LOST.

Lloyd Bridges plays the Captain of a Hawaii-to-Australia 707 airliner, "Trans-Pacific Airlines" with an assorted cast of characters we are all introduced to in the opening airport/bar/departure lounge scenes. One of these characters is a little boy, flying on his own to meet his father in Sydney, who doesn't feel so well(telling us this will factor into the plot). We are also introduced to Andrew Prine's smarmy character who has an altercation not only with Billy Dee Williams character but manages to smart-mouth Bridges as well when(as I recall) he breaks up a fight Prine has provoked-so we know he's trouble(nowadays he would be thrown off the plane to start).Bridge's co-pilots inform him of a "pretty bad typhoon" near the Solomon Islands and they alter flight plans to skirt around it. As the plane is well into the flight, the little boy is by now quite ill, and found to have acute appendicitis and, according to the med student on board "has to begotten to a hospital immediately" in an exchange with Bridges (Now, all we can think of is Leslie Neilsen in AIRPLANE! for which Bridges sort of parodied the very "Captain" role dialog from this film!). Which of course means, Bridges makes the fateful decision to turn the plane into the storm and fly to Samoa which is within two hours travel. Of course the plane loses part of a wing to lightning, and is caught in tremendous turbulence and with damaged hydraulics Bridges has to ditch it the shallow waters of a handy but remote island which appears on the radar.(Some of the plane crash scenes are remarkably similar to Tom Hank's CASTAWAY with regard to the storm, crash etc.)

At first people are stunned and confused, the remains of the plane are washed out to sea and all anyone has are the clothes on their backs and a few supplies. The kid is gotten "painless" drunk on booze and the med student nips out his appendix so that's dealt with. A radio was rescued and when Bridges finally gets a signal with it they hear the news report of the plane loss, but are crushed to hear the authorities-discovering the plane's wing tip-assume all hands are dead and thus the search is discontinued. Now they realize they are here for the long run and have to form some kind of society only that differences arise in who will follow who-with a bigot(Andrew Prine) and a businessman(Ralph Meeker)and several others wanting their own way. So now we go into LORD OF THE FLIES territory. As factions and ensuing violence are dealt with, Bridges tells the boy that if they are here for the long run, he wants them to make a better society...

The movie was designed as a pilot for a weekly TV series that never took off-it was killed before it was even aired so the film was aired as a one-off. Oddly, later in 1976, CBS took some of the same plane footage and the concept and with leads Kevin Dobson and Lara Parker aired the pilot STRANDED which took the plot several months to a year ahead(I can't remember) showing the kind of society people would form with the rusting plane wreckage not far from their village/camp. This was a more family-friendly drama with a young boy and his dog being central to the plot. There was even a small lagoon that was inhabited by a "monster"-a giant eel(not huge huge, but think large boa constrictor) that creates some tension. And hints of "the others" who left this bunch when the plane crashed and formed a different society on the other side of the island. You could really tell this was a pilot.

And now...we have LOST...which remarkably incorporates lots of the ideas of these pilots, just with new twists and really amped up tension and violence. LOST is *supposedly*(according to the actor who played the "pilot" in the first show) preparing a flashback episode which has the crash of the plane but told from the pilot's point of view and everything leading up to that, which is designed to give us more information of what happened, how they went off course, etc.

So, it shows, what goes around comes around. Just depends on the talent handling it that makes it "new".

What LOST should have been

[drystyx · 8/10 · 3 January 2013]

This was obviously supposed to be a pilot about a pilot.

Okay, let me rephrase that.

It is a story about a plane wreck on an isolated island. This is before the days of cell phones and laptops.

The people have to learn to get along.

That was a lot easier for the greater generations. It probably wouldn't fly today, since "assertiveness training" went over the roof, and no one can cooperate with anyone any more.

So, this could be dated in that respect, sadly. That only means that today's society is "dated", actually. A film like this will return to form when we get a more mature society.

Lloyd Bridges heads a cast that get to play the sort of three dimensional characters that the later decades refused to show.

As the pilot, he takes charges, but there is a power struggle that eventually sees the confrontation come from another confrontation between two of the younger men, one who is clearly in the right, and one who is clearly a thug.

The way it is handled is very adult. There isn't a large amount of action, but it still holds your interest.

This is probably what "Lost" the series should have been, instead of their version of "The Tempest" or "Fantastic Planet", whatever "Lost" based itself on.

In other worlds, if you have a story about a crash on a deserted island, it really comes across better when that's the story, as it is here, instead of looking like you're scrounging around with other writers at a table, trying to outdo each other in a Round Robin story telling festival.

That's why this film works. It's a story about an exciting adventure.

pretty good

[Ajtlawyer · 7 January 2003]

Contains spoilers I have never forgotten this movie although I was just a kid when it came out and it probably hasn't been shown again in years. You'd think with the "Survivor" craze, perahps this movie could be resurrected.

Lloyd Bridges is the captain of an airliner that crashes during a storm in the Pacific. The passengers and crew are able to get to life rafts and reach safety on a deserted island. No "Gilligan's Island" here though but an adult version of "Lord of the Flies."

Ralph Meeker plays a domineering businessman who immediately starts questioning Bridges' authority. "I don't remember anyone making you king of this island" he sneers at Bridges. But Bridges asserts his authority under maritime law---he is the captain and responsible for the safety of everyone on the plane. Plus, Bridges has the only gun.

Andrew Prine is a sleazy con man who is constantly hitting up on one of attractive women. Ann Francis is Bridges' love interest except that up until the crash she had been Meeker's girlfriend. A young Billy Dee Williams is the only black amongst the survivors and a Marine sergeant. Bridges turns to Williams for help since Williams is the only survivor who seems to have any training or skills on living off the land. He makes several deadfalls and snares to catch what game is on the island. The girl that Prine is hot on is meanwhile friendly with Williams---a rather daring hinting of an interracial relationship which was very daring for 1969.

Prine aligns himself with Meeker and soon enough there is a power struggle on the island. Prine already hates Williams after Williams saves him from eating something poisonous. The racist Prine cannot bear that a black man has shown him up and he makes a bigger mistake when he tries to fight Williams. Why he thinks he can beat a combat veteran Marine sergeant, who knows? Williams easily kicks Prine's butt with a few hand-to-hand combat moves only to have several white men grab him and beat him up. Bridges finally stops the lynching by threatening them with his pistol. But the lines are now drawn.

Still pursuing the girl, Prine tries to force her to have sex with him and when she won't go along, he pushes her off a cliff. Thinking that he's killed her, Prine accuses Williams of killing her. By this Prine has also been able to steal Bridges' pistol. The mob sets off after Williams and he is shot by Prine. Bridges gets to him first and refuses to turn Williams over to the mob for execution. Finally the non-committed survivors line up with Bridges and they force the Meeker/Prine faction to stand down. In a turnaround, the girl has survived and is able to tell the others that Prine is the one that really attacked her. Off the mob goes again, chasing Prine who has the bad luck to run into one of Williams' tiger traps and is killed. In a final act of symbolism Bridges throws the pistol off a cliff an into the ocean.

A good movie and I wish they would show it again.

A no fills, no holds barred perfect disaster movie.

[mark.waltz · 10/10 · 10 February 2022]

Usually, I can't watch airplane disaster movies without chuckling while thinking of the 1980 spoof "Airplane!" where every little thing led to a joke of some kind. But after watching this and the Tom Hanks movie "Castaway", I doubt I could ever laugh again because the airplane disasters in those films were very serious with the crash sequences quite shocking in every detail. The presence of Lloyd Bridges as the captain automatically adds I'll see you laugh because of his presence as the air traffic controller in "Airplane!" A horrificc thunder and lightning storm causes the plane to have to go down, right after they have to plan an emergency landing because of a sick child aboard.

"I suggest we do something about it", the obnoxious businessman (Ralph Meeker) with an important oil contract to sign suggest, to which if I were Bridges, I'd say "Then start swimming." Entertainer Bobby Van too has a gig he has to get to. These two fools don't realize after what they've been through how dire the situation is, and their selfish demands don't mean a hill of beans when it comes to the nearly hundred other passengers frightened and desperate to survive. With his crew missing, Bridges enlists a marine sergeant (Billy Dee Williams) to help him, and he'll need it with the few passengers to go out of their way to cause trouble.

In addition to the actors mentioned above, the all-star cast also features Anne Francis, Andrew Prine, Linden Chiles and Elaine Joyce are featured among the dozens of actors, and certainly there isn't enough time for complete character development but what are is next for intriguing drama, about a necessity in life, survival. It's also about the ability to get along in a difficult time, and of course, when you've got more than just a few people, that's difficult. Meeker, a superb actor of stage and screen, plays an absolutely deplorable character, one the audience does not root for to be one of the survivors. Superb drama in every way, this is one of the best of the early TV movies, and a different take in airline disaster films. There are no cliches which means that there are no unintentional laughs, and that makes this all the better.

Gilligan's Island It Ain't

[Sargebri · 22 November 2003]

This film was a pretty interesting concept and probably was intended to become a regular series. Interestingly enough, it came out the same year as Rod Serling's similarly themed series "The New People". The only thing that differentiates this from the other show is the fact that the survivors are all adults and not college students. Also, this film dealt with themes like race relations and rape. Too bad this film is not shown on television and too bad it never made it to series.

Well, it landed In Oz

[ptb-8 · 3 February 2005]

Released in cinemas in Australia in 1970 this flying low drama is quite a good film. A strong cast of Universal stalwarts: Bridges, Meeker, Francis, Prine and even Billy Dee Williams see LOST FLIGHT offer solid performances with believable interaction. No dumb kids or even whining teens in this one, LOST FLIGHT was made for adults. Preceeding AIRPORT, this small but rewarding plane crash disaster pic may have been a trial run for the Arthur Hailey film. I saw it in a huge screen in a big 2500 seat cinema as a double feature (one week only!) and was well reviewed at the time. The plane crash sequence is particularly effective. 2005 TV has now seen a mini series called LOST about - exactly the same thing. Sort of a Lord Of The Flies entry into the desert island plane crash theme of stories LOST FLIGHT is very entertaining and recommended (if it ever turns up again, anywhere). This type of 60s Universal film was very well made and I would suggest today looks even more acceptable and interesting given the low quality of 2005 TV dramas and the silly violence and squabbling therein. DUEL and KILL CHARLEY VARRICK may have been other similar level films off the same production line that made it into cinemas overseas. Anyway with LOST on TV, LOST FLIGHT deserves another look. It's actually shorter and more interesting.