The Shipwrecked 747

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The Shipwrecked 747 ( Airport ’77 ) is an American film directed by Jerry Jameson , released in 1977 .

Synopsis

Philip Stevens, a wealthy American, decides to display his art collection at his Palm Beach mansion as a private museum. For the inauguration, he invites a hundred amateur art collectors and friends to the ceremony by putting at their disposal his personal Boeing 747 , driven by Don Gallagher.

Two men disguised as stewards break into the plane and poison passengers by plugging toxic gas cylinders onto the air ducts. Their goal is to divert the camera to an abandoned base in Bermuda to steal the finest pieces from the collection of the American super rich. But the fog that falls on the region changes the projects of the hijackers, the Boeing 747hits a derrick and falls to the sea, sinks, and builds precarious balance, on a sandbar, by several meters background in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle . To save the survivors, a race against the clock commits …

Technical sheet

  • Title: The Shipwrecked 747
  • Original title: Airport ’77
  • Director: Jerry Jameson
  • History: Inspired by characters created by Arthur Hailey
  • Scenario: Michael Scheff and David Spector
  • Producer: William Frye
  • Executive producer: Jennings Lang
  • Music: John Cacavas
  • Photography: Philip H. Lathrop
  • Editing: Robert Watts and J. Terry Williams
  • Cast: Beverly McDermott
  • Set Designer: George C. Webb
  • Sets: Mickey S. Michaels
  • Costumes: Edith Head
  • Budget: $ 6,000,000
  • Revenue: $ 30,000,000
  • Production Company: Universal Pictures
  • Distribution Company: Universal Pictures
  • Country of origin: United States
  • Original languages: English and Hungarian
  • Formats: 2,35: 1 | Technicolor Color | 35 mm
  • Sound: Mono
  • Genre: disaster
  • Duration: 114 minutes
  • Release dates:
    •  United States :
    •  United Kingdom :
    •  France :

Distribution

  • Jack Lemmon (VF: Jacques Deschamps ) : Capt. Don Gallagher
  • Lee Grant : Karen Wallace
  • Brenda Vaccaro (VF: Nanette Corey ) : Eve Clayton
  • Joseph Cotten (VF: Rene Arrieu ) : Nicholas St. Downs III
  • Olivia de Havilland (VF: Monique Mélinand ) : Emily Livingston
  • James Stewart (VF Maurice Dorléac ) : Philip Stevens
  • George Kennedy (VF: Raoul Delfosse ) : Joe Patroni
  • Darren McGavin (VF: William Sabatier ) : Stan Buchek
  • Christopher Lee (VF: Michel Gatineau ) : Martin Wallace
  • Robert Foxworth : Bob Chambers
  • Robert Hooks (VF: Med Hondo ) : Eddie, the bartender
  • Monte Markham (VF: Dominique Paturel ) : Banker, the conspiratorial steward
  • Kathleen Quinlan (VF: Sylvie Feit ) : Julie
  • Gil Gerard (VF: Pierre Arditi ) : Frank Powers
  • James Booth (VF: Jean Michaud ) : Ralph Crawford
  • Monica Lewis (VF: Marion Loran ) : Anne
  • Maidie Norman (VF: Marie Francey ) : Dorothée, the black housekeeper
  • Pamela Bellwood (VF: Monique Thierry ) : Lisa
  • Arlene Golonka : M me Jane Stern
  • Tom Sullivan : Steve
  • M. Emmet Walsh (VF: Antoine Marin ) : D r . Williams
  • Michael Richardson : Walker
  • Michael Pataki : Wilson
  • George Furth (VF: Robert Bazil ) : Gerald Lucas
  • Richard Venture (VF: Jean Berger ) : Commander Paul Guay
  • Ross Bickell : Johnson
  • Peter Fox : Lt. Tommy Norris
  • Charles Macaulay (VF: André Valmy ) : Admiral Herb Corrigan
  • Tom Rosqui (VF: Marc de Georgi ) : Hunter, the safety officer

Comments

The 1970s were propitious for disaster film productions : earthquakes, forest fires, shipwrecks, meteorites, avalanches, and of course air disasters. Five air disaster movies have been released in 10 years, which proves the great appetite of the audience of the time.

  • 1970 : Airport of George Seaton
  • 1972 : Bomb Threat ( Skyjacked ) of John Guillermin
  • 1974 : 747 at Risk ( Airport 1975 ) by Jack Smight
  • 1977 : The Shipwrecked 747 ( Airport ’77 ) by Jerry Jameson
  • 1979 : Airport 80 Concorde ( The Concorde … Airport ’79 ) by David Lowell Rich

In this production, Christopher Lee performs many stunts, especially in apnea, and acquires recognition in this body of trades.

Like several other disaster films of the time, a montage approaching 3 hours was exploited in two evenings on American television. Among the extended scenes were several flashbacks of the main protagonists. A prologue developing the hijacking plot was also added. [ ref.  desired]

Remake

  • Crash in the ocean ( submerged ) American TV movie released in the year 2000.

In this film too, there is an airliner several dozen meters underwater, in the ocean. Actors:

  • Dennis Weaver
  • Coolio
  • Fred Williamson in the role of Captain Masters

The film is by Fred Olen Ray . Of Stock-shots were used in this TV movie.

  • In the Supercopter series (Airwolf in VO), season 2 (1984-1985) episode 9 entitled Flight 093 (Flight # 093 is Missing) takes up the idea of the sunken and submerged 747, and elements of the film (landing and rescue) are used.

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