365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 111 - Danger In The Skies - Part IV: Airplane

In 1980 Paramount Pictures released Airplane and afterwards every movie genre was open for ridicule. Mel Brooks invented the movie spoof with comedic takes on westerns, with Blazing Saddles and horror movies with Young Frankenstein, but when Jim Abrams and David and Jerry Zucker created Airplane they perfected it. This writing and directing team pulled out all the stops and threw every kind of joke they could  think of into the movie.

As I mentioned earlier this week, the film is a direct remake of the 1957 film Zero Hour. But then they added in rifts from Airport, The High And The Mighty, Airplane '75, Jaws, From Here to Eternity, Saturday Night Fever and even Knute Rokne, All American. There is no joke too stupid or sophomoric that they won't give it a try. The movie actually needs to be watched multiple times to get every visual gag and verbal pun that is thrown at the audience.

The movie also works well because of the brilliant casting. Instead of casting the movie with popular comedians, they hired well known actors famous for their dramatic roles. Robert Stack, Peter Graves, Leslie Nielsen and Lloyd Bridges were all cast against type. In addition, they played their roles with deadly earnest, delivering comedic lines in a deadpan manner, oblivious to the chaos around them and that made them even funnier. Nielsen had his career rejuvenated because of his part in Airplane and went on to play many comedic roles.

The jokes come a mile a minute and the film ended up with many signature catch phrases including the famous "Surely, you can't be serious? I am serious. And don't call me Shirley!" The films reputation has grown over the years and is on the AFI list of best American comedies.

I recommend a double feature of Zero Hour and then Airplane.

At the Movie House rating **** stars