Airport

[Graham Ritchie]

This is one Super 8 film I have had lying around for a few years, but up until now, not bothered screening. I gave the print a clean and ran it through the projector this weekend. "Airport" I think, was an early Universal 8 release, not sure of the year, however the editing of the digest was well done, so thought I would make a quick video showing some of the highlights.

[Douglas Meltzer]

Graham,

I consider this is one of U-8's best cutdowns. Universal 8 also released a scope version of this which looks terrific.

Doug

[Carter Bradley]

Hi Graham, Thank you for sharing such an interesting clip. You and Doug are both correct, "Airport" was released in Universal 8's first year, 1977. It was one of 25 400' new digests released at the time (not including the few 400' titles which merely combined 2 - 200' existing digests, such as "Abbott and Costello in Society" which combined Castle edits of "Champs of the Chase" and "Knights of the Bath.") "Airport" was available in 400' "pan and scan," 400' CinemaScope (which cost an extra $10, retail price $59.95), and the infamous 100' "Great Scenes Series" which was not popular, and no new titles (except for expanded, unedited cartoons) were offered after 1977. The 100' version runs 4:30 minutes, and ends just as the plane is descending after the bomb explosion. The U8 catalog description is as follows: "Airport (1970) Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Jacqueline Bisset, George Kennedy, Van Heflin, and Helen Hayes lead an all-star cast in one of the most popular pictures of all time! Based on Arthur Hailey's best-selling novel, this suspenseful tale interweaves the stories of passengers and crew on an ill-fated jet plane threatened by an unknown saboteur. Tension mounts as a bomb blast cripples the plane and causes a near-panic among the survivors who can't tell if they'll ever make it to the ground in one piece! Helen Hayes won an Academy Award for her memorable performance as a "little old lady" with larceny in her heart, in this box office smash."

[Graham Ritchie]

Thanks Doug and Carter.. a Scope print would be great The Super 8 film stock I think might be technicolor as stated in the leader. I could be wrong, but the print does look a bit better than what is shown in this short video.

[Edward Nicielnik]

I have the flat and scope of Airport and Airport 75 scope and Airport 77 AND 2X 400 Feet The Concorde 1980

[Brian Fretwell]

Technicolor on the leader might just indicate Technicolor Labs using other stock. Even so I think those Technicolor labs did produce better prints.

[Eberhard Nuffer]

Reading Arthur Hailey's book at the moment and having seen the full movie again at a 70mm festival in October, I pulled out my scope digest yesterday: There is not much of the original story left of course, and Burt Lancaster doesn't play the lead any more. But it's a nice sharp anamophic print with good sound and some colour fade. The fading proves that this is not real Technicolor (just a few super 8 prints, if any, were made using the original dye-transfer Technicolor process) but printing was handled by Technicolor labs.