Murder on Flight 502 (1975 TV Movie) User Reviews (31)

One Of Those "Light Entertainment" 70's Made For TV Movies

[sddavis63 · 6/10 · 15 September 2009]

Back in the 70's all the major networks would put out these made-for-TV movies, usually featuring a collection of unknowns and a good number of well known actors and actresses and for the most part they were always enjoyable, even though they were't as sophisticated or as big budget as a major motion picture. This movie was no exception. I stumbled across it on a DVD and for $2 figured it was worth a look see. I can't remember if I ever watched in on TV in the 70's, but it brought back memories of enjoyable enough nights in the living room watching the set.

This is probably most notable for a pre-Charlie's Angels performance from a very lovely Farrah Fawcett as a stewardess on a flight from New York to London that has a murderer on board. In some ways it's rather preposterous. There are far too many coincidences - far too many people in the First Class section who just happened to know each other and have grievances with each other. The intent was obviously to give a large stable of possible suspects to keep the viewer guessing. In some ways it didn't work. I had the murderer figured out pretty early, and if you didn't figure it out well before it was revealed then you missed something pretty obvious. Mind you, the same could be said for the plot twist involving Fawcett's character at the end, and that took me off guard. I also couldn't figure out why the man who tried to kill singer Jack Marshall (played by Sonny Bono) is never restrained, but ends up back in First Class with his wife as if nothing had happened - he just tried to kill a guy with a knife!

This was clearly made by Aaron Spelling as lightly entertaining TV mystery to keep people occupied for a couple of hours in front of their TV screens. With folks like Robert Stack, Walter Pidgeon, Danny Bonaduce, etc., it's pretty good fun. 6/10

A Bumpy Ride

[jjamison-1 · 4/10 · 24 January 2005]

My husband bought a copy of this movie from a bargain bin for $2.00 so I wasn't expecting much. Actually, it was so campy it was fun. And in today's world, very naive. Danny Bonaduce, one of the passengers, leaves a package in the boarding area and after he gets on the flight the package starts to smoke. Security rushes in, takes a casual look, and pronounces it a practical joke. Times sure have changed ! Bonaduce is in a number of scenes at the beginning of the movie, but although he is in the same section as the rest of the passengers on the plane, he is not seen anymore during the second half of the film. I guess they had to cut the budget.

This film is not about a "terrorist" as we think of them today. It was about one man, planning to kill another man, just a vendetta thing. The acting was awful, for the most part, but like I said, if you don't mind that-- the movie was worth $2.00. Obviously made for TV-- every twenty minutes there was a blackout for commercial insertion. And it was strange that the plane was carrying hundreds of passengers (according to the pilot), but we only saw about a dozen. From scene to scene, the number of extras would change. The cabin would be almost empty in one scene, then the next scene, there would be someone in every seat. Oh, well. It was fun. Not funny--- just fun.

Good for what it is - a 1970s TV movie

[Entertainment-Buff · 5/10 · 6 August 2017]

This is well worth watching for its all star cast. It's like "Airport" and other 70s disaster films but on a tight budget. Aaron Spelling was one of the executive producers, and he once again proved that he knew how to give the public what it wanted. No one will confuse this film with art, but it's good for what it is - an entertaining, fun TV movie.

Fun to watch, but not great

[dtucker86 · 13 September 2003]

I am a Sergeant in the Army and had to go to a school called BNCOC at Fort Jackson, South Carolina recently and I found this tape in the base px, it was only $3. Robert Stack wrote in his autobiography Straight Shooting that this picture was a rather poor copy of The High And The Mighty. He said the only reason he took it was to work with his wife and daughter. This is one of those movies of the week they used to make back in the 1970s featuring old time stars in the fading twilight of their careers. Aaron Spelling used them on shows like Murder She Wrote, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat and Hotel. Ralph Bellamy and Walter Pidgeon are both on board and its always nice seeing them (Bellamy was probably the greatest FDR ever in Sunrise At Campbello). This was also one of Farrah Fawcett's first films and even Sonny Bono has a part in it. I have to admit the sets look cheap. There are supposed to be 200 people on the plane but you only see a few. The dialogue is really funny because they deadpan it. The funniest part is where Robert Stack lectures Danny Bonaduce on playing practical jokes. I always love airplane pictures and this one is fine, just not great. SPOILER ALERT!!!I will tell you one thing about the ending when Hugh O'Brien flips out and reveals he is the real killer and he shoots into those oxygen tanks in the lounge and starts a fire. There wouldn't just be a fire there would have been a massive explosion! Oh well like they say its only a movie. By the way, the night after I watched this film I heard on the news where Robert Stack had died at the age of 84. He was a great actor who made Unsolved Mysteries such a wonderful show. He was also a true gentleman, someone of whom you can say they don't make em like that anymore. I was lucky enough recently to obtain a rare copy of The High And The Mighty with him and John Wayne. It is an awesome film and I feel like I have a treasure in my barracks apartment.

So Bad It's Great

[gfast · 2/10 · 5 April 2007]

This film falls firmly in the So Bad You'll Love It pile of bargain-bin wonders, a TV feature film, of the type made for audiences assumed to have an IQ equivalent of a retarded chicken.

The corny Dialogue reaches new heights of hilarity only matched by the Airport series, and its spoof Airplane! (Flying High). Cheap sets - an "airport lounge" that looks like the set of a cheap office where some equally cheap 70s show had just been filmed, the "aircraft" with impossibly wide expanses, giant square door, "hundreds" of passengers of which we only see a handful and sometimes the cabin seems empty, the TWO, yes TWO stewardesses, disappearing passengers (Danny Bonaduce stops appearing in the cabin half way through) a cockpit where nothing ever seems to happen except hilarious radio exchanges, a plane that takes off and in the next shot is shown landing (different models, different colour schemes even used in consecutive shots of the supposed airliner taking off), not to mention the impossibly ridiculous "script". Its hard to believe that this film was intended to be taken seriously. One of the priceless lines (about a bogus priest who wears nail polish - what???!!!)comes from a psychologist attempting to analyse why someone would impersonate a priest: "A clinical manifestation of religious hysteria!" - I kid you not. See it and prepare to laugh yourself silly.

Welcome to an airplane where the first class section looks like Aaron Spelling's private theater!

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 8 January 2015]

Yes, I laughed. No, I could not turn my head away. What was I laughing at? Robert Stack as the very serious pilot? (Don't call him Shirley...) Sonny Bono as a rock and roll star passenger? Danny Bonaduce as a prankster passenger who responds to Polly Bergen's acerbic comment about the fact that she bites, "Don't worry. I've had my shots." Then, how about cute old lady Molly Picon, the Jewish Helen Hayes? Farrah Fawcett (then Majors) in the ugliest sweater/stewardess uniform I've ever seen? A priest who apparently wears nail polish? A white-haired Fernando Lamas in a tacky outfit? I could go on with details of this all-star "Airport" rip-off (probably forgotten by the time that the Zucker brothers got to "Airplane" 'till Robert Stack reminded them about it) but I wouldn't want to spoil the fun of what you get to see.

The basic plot line of this Aaron Spelling tele-feature is actually pretty suspenseful, dramatizing the efforts of Stack to discover which of his passengers sent a warning that there would be murders on his flight. It's the execution of this "Motel 6" variation of the "Grand Hotel" theme that makes it silly, although there are a few tense moments concerning doctor Ralph Bellamy treating a heart attack victim (Theodore Bikel) he discovers has been sending him threatening letters and the parents (Laraine Day and Dane Clark) of a deceased girl and the rock star (Sonny) they blame for her drug-overdose. Bergen's dipsomaniac character gets some of the best lines (all bitchy of course), but she exposes through hints in her eyes that the character is pathetically lonely and miserable. Lamas's outfit is so '70's tacky that his character is very difficult to take seriously, especially in the memory of Billy Crystal's later impressions of him.

A cute pairing is Picon with Walter Pidgeon, almost a nod to "Funny Girl" considering that after Fanny Brice, Ms. Picon is the most famous Jewish female comic and that Pidgeon played Florenz Ziegfeld to Barbra Streisand's Fanny. As each of them reveals an aspect of themselves, you see a spark growing. I dare any anti-Semite not to watch Ms. Picon and not fall in love with her. She is just so adorable, but it is obvious that she was cast for this novelty part both on the strength of her success as Yente in the movie version of "Fiddler on the Roof" and her slight resemblance to "Airport's" Helen Hayes.

The identity of the villain is not surprising considering how they are introduced, and there is where the inadequacies of the teleplay come into being. Even in mid 1970's travel, the TSA (mentioned here) would be more capable in identifying possible criminals. However, with that cast and a script filled with more bad lines than a "Mystery Science Theater", this ends up becoming a guilty pleasure that the audience can have a delightful time laughing at and yet feel nostalgic at the same time.

Defines the word "generic."

[rmax304823 · 3/10 · 23 June 2014]

This is really terrible. With a few exceptions, it's the kind of place that provides a stop over for actors who are on their way to the retirement home at Woodland Hills. The direction is flat footed. And I believe the dialog was written by a Magic 8 Ball.

No need to go into the plot. A Boeing 707 takes off from New York, bound for England. A threatening letter shows up. There's a bomb on board. (Gosh.) Everybody seems to be a suspect except Robert Stack as the pilot and the refulgent Farrah Fawcett as the kind of attendant we all need. Stack was a strange guy. Lively and animated in interviews, he turned into a totem pole when the cameras rolled. It's one of the reasons he was so successful in the "Airplane" parodies -- he seemed serious about everything.

The guilt for this piece of unspeakable garbage lies with Aaron Spelling.

Unintentionally Hilarious Airplane Murder Mystery

[jonspader · 7/10 · 1 February 2005]

If you've seen Airplane!, enjoyed Airplane! and perhaps wondered where Airplane! got some of its inspiration from, check out Murder on Flight 502. My brother found it for the astounding price of one dollar American, and for that single bill you get Robert Stack, Farrah Fawcett, Sonny Bono, and...Danny Bonaduce? Oh, but yes. And there's more.

As the film tepidly moves along, begging you to find the murderer among the passengers before anyone is actually murdered, you'll be treated to outrageous mid-70's fashion (brown is IN!), bizarre character backgrounds, and the hottest burgeoning romance this side of Harold and Maude, an elderly Jewish woman and an elderly Methodist known only as Uncle Charlie. "Ah...I know half the story already!" says the elderly woman slyly after Uncle Charlie introduces himself, and believe me, you will know every sundry detail of Uncle Charlie's hard knock life, even though it's probably better that you didn't.

You will see Sonny Bono sing, and you will realize why Cher was much better on her own. Robert Stack will make Bruce Willis in Die Hard look bad with his endless barrage of hard-boiled, sarcastic one-liners. But most of all, you will figure out who the murderer is, and you will be satisfied when they get their comeuppance.

No, there is no singing stewardess, no jive-talkers, no inflatable auto-pilot, no Leslie Neilsen. But unless you are unable to mock the earnest, but futile work of many to make a taut murder mystery shot almost entirely on a plane full of large, orange seats, you will like Murder on Flight 502. I promise.

Cheap murder mystery antics on a Transatlantic flight

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 12 December 2016]

MURDER ON FLIGHT 502 is an Aaron Spelling-production murder mystery TV movie from 1975. It's an ultra-cheesy and dated tale about a flight from New York to London and the situation that arises when it becomes apparent that one of the passengers is intent on committing murder. Like one of those cheesy disaster movies from the decade, this features an all-star cast of faces (B-list this time around) and no less than four red herrings and one real murderer.

The convoluted script from veteran TV writer David P. Harmon is the worst thing about this low rent and obscure movie, because it's really long-winded and lacking in interest. You're supposed to care about the characters involved in a film like this but you never do here; the tale is merely episodic, solving one mystery sub-plot before moving on to the next. Director George McCowan had previously made the fun B-movie FROGS but can do little with this film's story.

The actors do the best with the material they've been given. Old-timers Ralph Bellamy and Walter Pidgeon supply old-timer advice. Theodore Bikel does shifty and sweaty very well (as anyone who saw his Columbo appearance can testify). Farrah Fawcett-Majors and Brooke Adams supply glamour as the stewardesses. Danny Bonaduce is incredibly annoying as the red-haired joker. George Maharis is the guy on the ground trying to solve things. Sonny Bono plays himself, essentially. The unravelling of the mystery isn't very interesting, but I do have a soft spot for TV movies from this era so it wasn't all bad for me, and the more dated a film is the more fun I find it to sit back and enjoy the fashions and attitudes from the era.

You can do WHAT to Whistler's Mother???...

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 31 January 2021]

... I am referring to something Sonny Bono's agent says as they head towards his flight to board. And he says it very loud. And nobody even stops and stares. What a time capsule this is.

If you are under 40 I'm not sure you will really appreciate this. But if you remember the 1970s at all this is terrific and hilarious for reasons never intended. It is about an international flight headed for London. After take-off a smoke bomb goes off in the first class lounge. As a result of this, an airline executive gets a note a day earlier than he normally would have, and it apologizes for the murders on flight 502, the flight that just took off. So now it is a race to figure out who is the murderer before he can kill.

There are all kinds of furtive glances and obvious grudges between the first class passengers to stir the pot. There are some married couples on the flight, but there are also lots of people flying alone, and they strike up conversations with whoever is sitting next to them. It reminded me of Love Boat, and that should be no surprise since Aaron Spelling, who produced Love Boat, also produced this film. Of course, today, bothering a stranger next to you with conversation would get you rebuffed because you would be interrupting their game of Candy Crush on their phone. But in 1975 people were OK with casual conversation and were accustomed to occasionally being bored.

What's funny about it? Robert Stack as the pilot five years before Airplane, playing it straight. That setting a smoke bomb off in an airport doesn't get you shackled by the TSA upon arrival and sentenced to 40 years in the basement of a federal prison. That the killer on the plane just ASSUMES certain movements of passengers whom he targets. Farrah Fawcett as a stewardess (that is what they called flight attendents then) who at this point in her career has very limited acting talent. That changes a lot over time.

What's great for classic film buffs? Larraine Day, Dane Clarke, Walter Pidgeon, and Ralph Bellamy making appearances as passengers.

I had a hard time rating this film. I'm rating it as a time capsule that is certainly not boring. Thus my rating will probably be higher than those of other folks.

Tacky whodunit at 38,000 ft.

[moonspinner55 · 2/10 · 7 June 2009]

747 en-route to London from New York is discovered to have a psychopath on board. Spelling-Goldberg TV-movie apes the theatrical plane-disaster films which were all the rage throughout the 1970s. The cast is a bizarre mixture of old and new faces, with Farrah Fawcett-Majors and Brooke Adams as stewardesses, Sonny Bono as a has-been musician, Polly Bergen as a flirtatious, drunken writer, Molly Picon and Walter Pidgeon as chummy oldsters, Hugh O'Brian (looking like Hugh Hefner) as a police detective, Danny Bonaduce as a 13-year-old prankster, and Robert Stack in the Charlton Heston role of the no-nonsense pilot (there are two other Stacks listed in the credits, perhaps making this a family affair). The low-budget doesn't allow the performers much to room to emote, with most of the in-flight action confined to First Class and the cockpit. There's also some hideous stock footage of emergency vehicles on the ground, as well as tiresome sidebars to George Maharis playing a security chief at Kennedy Airport with a toothache. The mystery surrounding stolen money gets muddled up alongside chatter about a bank robbery and a cop who was murdered, and a plot twist involving Farrah's character is just shucked off at the end. There's dumb-fun in watching this thing play out--if you're not too demanding--though one persistent question remains: why was the priest wearing fingernail polish?

Classic 70s garbage that you really should see.

[ericjcant-1 · 10/10 · 27 May 2006]

From the maker of Love Boat, Melrose Place, and T.J. Hooker comes the made for TV movie, Murder on Flight 502! I love made for TV movies like this because it portrays a special blend of mindless cheesiness found only in 70s and early 80s TV plots that are pretty much extinct today. Have no doubts, this show sucks, but its entertaining because it's so corny and unbelievably minimal in content. There's a comforting sort of charm in realizing that TV creations like this were big hits in popular TV viewing of the time. All the characters are campy, cookie cutter stereotypes that over react and over explain everything so that we the viewers will not be confused due to misfortunes caused by subtlety finess. But its the lame plot that brings it all home. I can just imagine the TV execs of the day sitting around smoking pot and "brainstorming", when suddenly one them stands from his seat and announces, "Let's make a show about a bunch of people on an airplane!", and that was it, that was the plot and history was made. Long gone are the days when idiot proof plots and acting like this would engross a nation wide TV viewing audience. I won't ruin it for anyone (even though there's nothing to really ruin), but you pretty much know how the story is going play out within the first five minutes. The whole show is basically like watching a game of Clue (the board game) where the viewer tries to figure out who has the bomb on the plane. There's lot's of insipid comedy relief that's not really funny, and drama that has no depth. But don't get me wrong, it's white bread, mindless entertainment all the way. Truly a prime example of a lost art that produced this piece of 70s TV crap. Enjoy!

Typical 70's Flick, But Fun Nostalgia

[KJones131313 · 7/10 · 17 January 2017]

Cheesy and common to the times, still there's a nostalgia to watching these old flicks from the 70's, it was worth the watch for that alone. A little snapshot of the bad/campy/predictable TV of the day, but somehow fun anyway.

As for holes and errors in the scenes, one could pick apart all the discrepancies, and most been done here. I'd add that I've never been on a flight, nor seen one from those days where all the seats are oriented backwards to the nose of the plane, not to mention the rest of the seat layout, fanning in towards the aisle as they do. Maybe they did, but first class, flying backwards the whole way? Might make some people more ill if they're prone to that.

Some mention the variation in quantity of passengers in some scenes (coming and going of passengers), but there's the bathrooms, and not staying in your seat would be normal back in the good old days when a lounge was available, though they showed the lounge mostly empty when shown at all. (I'm all for bringing the lounge back, especially for long flights). "Skyjackings", as they were called, were in the news a fair bit in those days, yet dogs seemed to do just fine in deterring trouble, no need for today's excess. If only people could watch the news these days with as discerning an eye for discrepancies as they do with films, they may notice a few things. At any rate, a good little film if you want the flavor of how that genre of TV was back then....

The film that inspired Airplane!

[last-picture-show · 1/10 · 2 September 2005]

This is one of several movies that surely inspired the 1980 Jim Abrahams-David Zucker-directed disaster movie spoof Airplane!. But being a cheap made-for-TV affair this has to be the worst, although boasts an impressive cast.

It's all here: the cheap sets, the phony dialogue, the over-applied make-up (too much eye-liner and tinted hair and thats just the guys) and the stereotypical characters all with their own personal demons to deal with. The gin-swigging, hard-bitten crime writer, the grief stricken parents, the old guy with months to live, the jive-talking pop star (Sonny Bono sporting a hideous shirt and massive flares), the rugged, no-nonsense Captain (Robert Stack - amazingly also in Airplane!), the glamorous stewardess (a pre-Charlie Angels Farah Fawcett-Majors), the guy who has a heart attack but refuses to be treated by the only doctor on board because he blames him for his wife's death, the practical joke-playing precocious kid (Danny Bonaduce from The Partridge family) and the harassed ground staff including the airport manager with an air disaster AND toothache to deal with, and the psychologist bought in to give a profile of the passengers who gets more and more unconvincingly disheveled as the movie proceeds (see Lloyd Bridges in Airplane!).

Without giving too much away the most jaw-dropping moments are the corny dialogue between the Captain and the cabin staff (all two of 'em), the sequence where it's revealed that the priest is an imposter because he's wearing nail polish (nail polish?) and the bit where Robert Stack promises to show Danny Bonaduce round his cockpit a few minutes after threatening to spank him. But the most memorable scene is where a bomb-disposal officer (Pepper Martin) arrives in the airport departure lounge to diffuse a bomb which turns out to be a hoax. He sports some rather unwieldy protective clothing which he clearly didn't wear during rehearsals (assuming they did any) as he bumps into a pot plant when he exits. He also has some of the worst lines in the movie: "I was in a motel room when I got this call. I thought it was my wife!". Watch it at your peril!

Typical 1970's Made-For-TV Film

[Lechuguilla · 25 May 2006]

An ensemble cast of familiar Hollywood faces act, and attempt to act, in this low-budget whodunit, about a New York to London flight that has a psychopath on board. Polly Bergen hams it up as an alcoholic writer, and is fun to watch. Robert Stack plays the pilot, consistent with his serious, take-charge persona. Danny Bonaduce plays himself, more or less. Laraine Day's acting is fine but she needs more makeup. And hip looking Sonny Bono shows why he was wise to earn his living as a singer.

The film's sets look cheap, and the stereotyped characters are too perfunctory to spark much interest. The film's visuals look dated.

Given the suspects and the obvious red herrings, the whodunit puzzle is not that hard to solve. However, the plot twist at the end I did not see coming.

Even with a couple of obvious plot holes, "Murder On Flight 502" held my interest as a whodunit puzzle. But it has a "Producer Aaron Spelling" look and feel to it, with those cheap sets, bland dialogue, cardboard characters, and nondescript elevator music, all rather typical of assembly-line 1970's made-for-TV movies.

A talented chimp might have been able to write a better script than this one!

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 18 September 2014]

In the 1970s, airplane disaster films were a dime a dozen. So, the fact that they'd make a film like this one isn't a surprise. It has the usual star-studded cast, it has the allure of death and mayhem and it has some very nice acting (at times). What it doesn't have is a decent script!

The film plays almost like an old B-mystery film like one from the Charlie Chan series--but without the Chan! A 747 bound for the UK is the setting and it's full of Hollywood greats of the past--folks who by the time this was filmed were all but forgotten (including the likes of Walter Pidgeon, Ralph Bellamy, Dane Clark and Polly Bergen) or who were on Hollywood's B-list (including Sonny Bono and Farrah Fawcett--- just before she became famous). The Captain (Robert Stack) learns that someone issued a death threat--saying that they planned on killing someone during the flight! Who that could be and their intended victim or victims are unknown and apart from some incompetent folks on the ground, the Captain is assisted by an off-duty detective (Hugh O'Brian). Soon, you learn that LOTS of folks had reasons to kill people on this flight and there are at least three folks aboard who might commit murder!! One actually attempts to kill one of the other passengers--and after being subdued, isn't arrested nor is he handcuffed or tied up. In fact, he just goes back to his seat and everyone seems to forget that he just tried to stab someone! However, the real murderer is afoot and soon bodies start piling up--and it's amazing just how easy this all is! And, it's amazing that somehow the Captain knows that one of his crew members is a criminal--even though there is no evidence to support this! The bottom line is that despite some occasionally nice acting (such as that done by Ralph Bellamy), the film is 100% stupid. It NEVER makes sense and seems as if no one cared whether the script was written by a chimp or not....and I can only assume it was! A total waste of talent but perhaps worth watching because it IS so bad!

Worst murder case of the XXth century

[jvdesuit1 · 1/10 · 15 April 2014]

When you watch this movie, you wonder if the guy who wrote the script has ever taken a flight in his whole life, if he knows what are flying regulations for take of and landing; what happens for passengers after a shock of this magnitude when arriving at a national or international airport.

How can any sensible producer accept to finance such a stupid, unbelievable story and how can a director accept to have his name attached to such a nonsense of a production.

Even a debutant in the film industry would be ashamed of committing himself in such a project.

Yes the only thing you should do is to cancel your booking on this flight!

Murder Is In The Air

[AaronCapenBanner · 2/10 · 3 July 2014]

George McCowan ("Frogs") directed this obvious "Airport" & "Murder On The Orient Express" clone that stars Robert Stack as pilot Captain Larkin, who is flying a passenger jet airliner to Great Britain that is plagued by an unknown murderer who had warned the airport about the intended crime, but is discovered too early. After two murders and at least two false leads(everyone on board has issues of course!) can the no-nonsense captain find the murderer before he or she strikes again? Ralph Bellamy, Hugh O'Brian, Farrah Fawcett, Brooke Adams, and Sonny Bono costar. Woefully inept and tiresome film is clichéd and contrived beyond belief, though may well have inspired later spoof "Airplane!".

A Lazy Sunday Movie

[michfreak · 6/10 · 3 September 2005]

When watching this movie, don't watch it for suspense, or character development, or even for the mystery. This is a "make your own fun" movie. You can watch it in the Mystery Science Theater 3000 style, making fun of it as you go. You can watch it to spot all of the stars (at the time). Or you could watch it to find out what Airplane! was making fun of so much; this movie seems to have provided most of it. The pure dated-ness of this film makes it so easy to make fun of. Can you remember a time when a smoking box in an airport lounge was treated fairly lightly?

But don't hate this movie because it's, well, bad; praise it for its badness. This is one of those movies that is good to watch because it's horribly done. The acting is horrible, the script is horrible, the story is horrible. The only thing that was done right was the casting, but, as we're seeing so much these days, a good cast can't save a movie. But a good sense of humor can. Which is why I give this movie a fairly high grade: if you enjoy pretending to be a sillouette in front of a giant movie screen, you'll like this movie.

A killer puts the kibosh on a transatlantic flight

[Woodyanders · 7/10 · 11 April 2019]

A jumbo jet airliner that's going from New York to London encounters a harrowing dilemma after it's discovered that there's a killer on board.

While director George McCowan fails to generate much in the way of tension and the murderer's identity is pretty easy to figure out, several deliciously cornball melodramatic subplots, an unwieldy narrative that's rife with ridiculous heavy-handed coincidences, and the colorful array of engaging cardboard characters all give this honey a good deal of kitschy charm. Moreover, the choice cast of 70's names keep it watchable throughout: Robert Stack as the stalwart no-nonsense captain, Farrah Fawcett and Brooke Adams as perky stewardess, Ralph Bellamy as a distinguished doctor, Hugh O'Brian as a hard-bitten detective, Molly Picon and Walter Pidgeon as a couple of nice old folks, Polly Bergen as a booze-sodden writer of mystery novels (she's an absolute riot!), Danny Bonaduce as a troublemaking brat, Theodore Bikel as some angry dude, George Maharis as an ineffectual airport security bigwig, Fernando Lamas as a smooth criminal, and, in an especially astute piece of casting, Sonny Bono as a washed-up has-been rock singer (i.e., himself). A fun diversion.

Oh those crazy movies of the week

[chachadynamite · 10/10 · 22 May 2005]

You know why I gave this a 10? Because I watched it two nights ago with a friend and we laughed the whole way through. It is so deadpan that you could never accuse the cast of taking it seriously. The production values are bottom of the barrel, at the beginning of the film the cast congregate in the TOA first class lounge that is supposed to be at JFK airport in New York, however the 'Theme Building' at LAX is clearly visible out the window as well as several palm trees. I am an airplane buff so I notice when things don't match up in films involving airplanes, but anyone can see that the different shots of the plane in this film are clearly of several different airlines, and the shot of the plane taking off is actually a plane landing. I remember watching it on TV when I was younger and thinking it reminded me of an Agatha Christie story on an airplane, and that's basically what it is. the story is good, the set is so so, an earlier review mentions the lawn furniture and cheese display in the planes upper deck, that got a good laugh from us as well. On an interesting note, the stewardess uniforms that Brooke Adams and Farrah Fawcett are wearing were actual uniforms for TWA and can also be seen in 'Catch Me if You Can' at the end when Leonardo DiCaprio climbs out of the plane through the toilet. This movie deserves audience participation, or at least a drinking game.

Agatha Christie would be proud

[blumdeluxe · 6/10 · 11 June 2017]

"Murder on flight 502" tells the story of the first class of a flight from the states to London, that receives an anonymous threat, that some of the passengers are about to be murdered throughout the trip. The pilot, the airport security and a policeman on board team up to solve the case and arrest the murderer before it is too late.

The whole movie breathes the 70's. It surely wasn't produced with a very high budget and the outcome is somewhat alike. The way how the plot is built kind of reminds me of old Agatha Christie movies, where the audience is more or less trying to collect clues to find out who could be the bad guy in the end. There are some bigger logical errors in the film and generally the events don't seem to be all too realistic but if you can accept this you can actually be well entertained by the movie and have a surprisingly good time with it. The character evolution is maybe a bit foreseeable and some of the characters are brutally one-dimensional, but in exchange the film manages to keep the tension up and create some false hints that may leave some viewers surprised.

All in all this is a mediocre movie, neither bad nor anything special. It is a solid 70's crime movie that you should give a try if both elements are of some interest for you and you find the general plot appealing.

Hilarious 70's TV Movie

[paulywog · 8 April 2002]

What a cast that has been assembled as only Aaron Spelling can do! the dialogue is so corny and played so seriously, you'll be howling. The best exchanges are between a drunk Polly Bergen and a very sober Fernando Lamas. The sets are really almost "Plan 9 From Outer Space" level. The "VIP lounge" at the airport was probably a baggage office at LAX and the plane, well, the budget was only enough to show the first class section, so all you see are big blankets/curtains covering the entrances to the rest of the plane and several references by Captain Stack to the "hundreds of people back there."

The upstairs lounge of the plane is decorated in what appears to be outdoor patio furniture and during the course of the film, the scariest looking cheese and crackers fester along the back of the wall uneaten by these high-falutin' jet-setters who spout inane dialogue as the viewer tries to wade through the red herrings and Farrah's cocktail service.

The whodunnit wraps up quickly, of course. Suprises? No. Laughs? Yes!

The $5.00 DVD I got of this in the Best Buy junk pile is covered in Farrah's photos and the DVD even includes a "Farrah Quiz" at the end that even your mother could not flunk. Thanks to Barry Diller and Spelling/Goldberg for making these tacky ABC "Movies of the Week" in the 70's and for someone actually mastering these DVD coasters that provide some of us with a hilarious flashback to our youth.

OK, I'll take this flight, but I want to sit next to Polly Bergen

[Tracy_Terry_Moore · 6/10 · 5 August 2009]

A murderer is loose on board Dumbbell Airlines.

Collection of idiots on a 747 get picked off one by one as the half-wits back at the airport try to figure out what the hell is going on. Farrah stars as a ditzy stew, Sonny Bono is a goofy musician, Theodore Bikel is a spooky weirdo, Danny Bonaduce is a prank-pulling punk, and Robert Stack is Mr. Bigshot Pilot who would like to stay and chat but he's got to get back to the cockpit because, "somebody's gotta 'drive' this airplane." Polly Bergen is cute as a sexy drunken chick. I'm with her....

.... get the hell out of my seat, Fernando Lamas!

Low budget movie which has some points of interest.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 17 December 2020]

You can plainly see that it's a low budget, made for TV movie, but it's enjoyable enough. Lots of faces I've never seen before, but one that would become very famous indeed, a very glamorous Farrah Fawcett, she's quite raw here it's fair to say.

So it looks like it was made in 1875 as opposed to 1975, but somehow that adds to its charms. The sets look pretty good, that first class lounge is really quite something.

That moustache!! Is it in the Guinness book of records?

It's one of those films it would be easy to pick holes in, but take it for what it is, and you may just enjoy it. 6/10.