Paramount's Zany Airplane! Zestfully Brings Unbridled Laughter to the Screen

 

                Experimenting with shooting a film’s chortle quotient through the stratosphere in an unabashed manner seldom seen in cinema, 1980’s Airplane! from Paramount spoofs the previously little-known Paramount skyward potboiler Zero Hour from 1957, with the goal to get more chuckles-per-minute than in any other movie, an aim it largely succeeds in obtaining, given a Marx Brothers or Preston Sturges effort or two. Created by the inspired, mischievous Zucker brothers (David and Jerry) in collaboration with the equally adept and bemused Jim Abrahams, the team hit on the novel idea of casting stoic, handsome, well-established dramatic leading men not known for their comedy chops in wacky roles seemingly far out of their range, with the surprise payoff being each one of these pros providing plenty of strait-laced ham to gain huge guffaws. With attractive leads Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty also throwing themselves into the shenanigans with verve as traumatized former war fighter pilot Ted Striker and his beloved flight attendant, Elaine, and several other key cameos rating memorable yucks, from takeoff to chaotic landing Airplane! ranks among the most high-spirited and quotable comedies ever made.

                Abrahams and the Zuckers, from a Madison, Wisconsin homebase, would hone their craft creating comedy sketches, which led to their first screen endeavor via 1977’s satirical cult offering The Kentucky Fried Movie, directed by John Landis and featuring some of the trio’s prime comic skits and an eclectic cast, including Donald Sutherland, Bill Bixby, Tony Dow, George Lazenby and Abrahams and the Zuckers themselves in a variety of small roles. After the surprise success of Kentucky, the trio was ripe to bring their ingenuity to a large-scale production, and with a random viewing of Zero found an unlikely but ideal blueprint for some of the wildest gags and wordplay yet committed to film. Watching the original 1957 programmer, one struggles to find comic inspiration in the largely mundane goings-on, making it all the more impressive how Abrahams and the Zuckers were able to mine comedy gold reworking standard scenes such as an offer of a cup of coffee, or handling a near-hysteric passenger. Airport 1975 also provided key material for the team, specifically in regard to the transport of a sick child, an earnest nun, and a serenade to the said youngster that becomes havoc-ridden and uproarious in its altered state. Following the huge impact of Airplane!, the ace team would go on to continued success, both together and in solo enterprises, such as the team gaining further hits with Top Secret! and Ruthless People, Jerry helming the 1990’s blockbuster, Ghost, David’s work on both The Naked Gun and the Scary Movie franchises, and Jim scoring with the Hot Shots! comedies.

                Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty, both making film debuts after Hays previously had his first impact on television in Angie, prove themselves the perfect fit for the high-flying craziness surrounding them, performing in a deft, tongue-in-cheek manner that makes their comic bits, both together and solo, all the more effective due to the ultra-serious approach they skillfully maintain throughout. Hays’ good-natured, easy-going persona and Hagerty’s earnest, fragile, whispery delivery style are beautifully matched, leading to possibly their most engaging and riotous sequence, a take-off of Saturday Night Fever set in a seedy bar, wherein they showcase some gravity-defying moves on the dance floor that would give John Travolta pause. Post their memorable teamwork in Airplane!, Hays would move on to become a leading man throughout the 1980’s, often in comedies such as a reunion with Hagerty in Airplane II, Take This Job and Shove it and Trenchcoat, while Hagerty also shined in lighter fare, with standout work opposite Albert Brooks in Lost in America, as well as stealing the show in Woody Allen’s A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy, and making her unusual comic presence and superb timing felt in What About Bob? and, more recently, in the acclaimed Marriage Story.

                Offering staunch support to the young stars are a quartet of venerable leading men of screens big and small, who all seem to relish the chance to cast off their typically heroic personas and show plenty of funny bones. Leading the way is Leslie Nielsen as Dr. Rumack; Nielsen’s ultra-somber approach to his lines, as if he’s playing Hamlet, make his every retort rate a chuckle, at least, and some of the biggest laughs in the movie at best, such as his assurance to passengers everything is just fine, or his initial moment wherein he confirms that, yes, he is a doctor. Nielsen was known to be a prankster off-screen, and with his role in Airplane! he finds the perfect outlet (essentially his Hamlet) to translate his joie de vivre to film, after initially finding success in more standard 1950’s roles in Forbidden Plant and Tammy and the Bachelor. Robert Stack, returning to the skies after 1954’s The High and the Mighty, followed by major television success as Eliot Ness in The Untouchables, also does terrific tongue-in-cheek work as Captain Rex Kramer, a former war associate of Ted who tries to assist his younger colleague in avoiding disaster for the title vessel, while Peter Graves finds himself as far afield from Mission: Impossible as possible as Captain Clarence Oveur, who carries some un-PC persuasions onboard, along with his helming duties. Finally, Lloyd Bridges, switching from below-deck Sea Hunt adventures that brought him fame to focusing his attentions skyward as control tower supervisor Steve McCroskey, puts over much of the ground-level hijinks with flair, throwing himself into the progressively maniac circumstances with inspiring hamminess.

                Others making distinct impressions while grabbing their share of laughs include Stephen Stucker as Johnny, the colorful, mischievous air traffic controller; Karem Abdul-Jabbar, insisting he is not himself as copilot “Roger Murdock”; Lorna Patterson as Randy, the sweet, musical flight attendant concerned about the lack of marriage at 26; Maureen McGovern as the nun intrigued by a copy of Boy’s Life, as well as other familiar faces, such as Joyce Bulifant, Jill Whelan (just before her breakthrough role on The Love Boat), Jimmy Walker, Kenneth Tobey, James Hong, David Leisure, with newcomer “Otto,” the automatic copilot, showing up to save the day and garner some big laughs in the process. However, the most indelible work from the secondary players may come from Ethel Merman, cast in her final film in an unexpected turn that allows her to put over one of the best gags using her vocal brio in its full undiminished glory, and the also-imaginatively cast Barbara Billingsley, who brilliantly trades in on her fame as one of television’s ideal mothers, the proper June Cleaver, by going ghetto and earning street cred as a jive-talking grandma who knows exactly how to lay it down with the homies in one of the movie’s most classic moments. Nearly every other performer gains a laugh or three, from an indignant old lady who refuses a drink in favor of hard drugs, to the hysterical female passenger and young coffee drinkers lifted, then revised directly from Zero Hour, indicating the remarkable consistency the Zuckers and Abrahams were able to maintain in their dynamic, humor-ladened script.

                Released in early July 1980, Airplane! proved to provide the perfect light touch for summertime audiences yearning for escapism, after a launch on The Merv Griffith Show wherein the amiable host correctly stated the film would be one of the year’s blockbusters (ranking 4^th for the year in rentals, according to Variety), while also gaining some positive reviews along with some from critics who weren’t quite sure how to take this new go-for-broke approach to film comedy. The movie would lead to a less-successful sequel, but also start a genre of similarly- themed comedies, often helmed by some combination of the Zuckers and/or Abrahams, featuring “out-there” humor, including Top Secret!, Hot Shots!, and The Naked Gun series starring Leslie Nielsen, who found his career revitalized with his new role as one of cinema’s chief funnymen. The appeal of Airplane! has proven lasting through several subsequent generations, with “Don’t call me Shirley” becoming part of pop culture’s lexicon and placing on the AFI’s 2005 list of top movie quotes (at #79), while the film ranked a lofty #10 on the AFI’s 2000 list of top comedies and made the National Film Registry’s 2010 list. The author once briefly spoke to David Zucker after a screening of Airplane! and queried him regarding if he knew the film would be such a hit. Zucker simply stated “Yes,” indicating he and his gifted cohorts had exactly the right degree of confidence and wit to bring off the risky undertaking with their unique off-kilter brand of comic sensibility, granting Airplane! a style and verve that allows the movie to remain fresh and hilarious for a wealth of viewers, both old and new.