By Erin Free
In this regular column, we drag forgotten made-for-TV movies out of the vault and into the light. This week: the 1975 airborne thriller Murder On Flight 502 starring Robert Stack, Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Sonny Bono and Hugh O’Brian.
When it comes to high turnover American television of the 1960s through to the early 2000s, Aaron Spelling is pretty much a king among men, a creative juggernaut with a list of credits that reads like a high-energy tour through the very annal of American pop culture itself. Spelling played point-man on iconic TV series including The Mod Squad, Charlie’s Angels, SWAT, Starsky & Hutch, Vega$, Fantasy Island, Hart To Hart, The Love Boat, TJ Hooker, Dynasty, Beverly Hills 90210 and many, many more. His achievements, however, didn’t end there. Though receiving far less credit for this aspect of his long and storied career, Aaron Spelling was also a vital factor in the creation and continued success of the telemovie. He produced some of the earliest examples of the form (1969’s The Over-The-Hill Gang, 1970’s Run Simon Run, Crowhaven Farm, Wild Women and a host of others), and continued his run of small screen cinema for decades after, producing notable works like Savages (1974), The Boy In The Plastic Bubble (1976) and The Best Little Girl In The World (1981).
As well as these more thoughtful productions, Aaron Spelling also produced a lot of telemovies that could politely be described as “pure entertainment” and more pejoratively as cheesy trash. Nestled in comfortably amongst the likes of other thrillers such as 1976’s Death At Love House and 1978’s Cruise Into Terror is 1975’s Murder On Flight 502, a flashy affair that melds the “locked room” mystery trope with the 1970s trend of movies set on aeroplanes, kick-started by the popular Airport franchise in 1970 and eventually parodied to ingenious effect in 1980’s Flying High. Like many of Aaron Spelling’s small screen (home-popped) popcorn entertainments, Murder On Flight 502 is great fun, and comes packed with name stars, both of the on-the-way-up variety (Farrah Fawcett-Majors) and the on-the-way-down kind (Walter Pidgeon, Polly Bergen). It’s slickly and expertly directed by prolific TV helmer George McCowan (who also directed the notorious 1972 nature-strikes-back big screen horror flick Frogs) and cannily scripted by hard-working TV scribe David P. Harmon, whose name appears on episodes of everything from The Brady Bunch and Hawaii Five-0 to Hotel and Star Trek.
Murder On Flight 502 kicks off with a smart-arse kid (played by, yes, The Partridge Family’s Danny Bonaduce) leaving a smoking toy in the airport lounge as a prank. Needless to say, this doesn’t go down well, and it also sets the scene for what is destined to be a far-from-typical flight from New York to Europe. Once the plane is in the air, a note is discovered stating that a passenger will be killed during the flight. Naughty Danny Bonaduce is quickly cleared as a suspect, and then disappointingly pretty much disappears from the movie entirely, even though he’s on board the plane. With take-charge pilot Captain Larkin (Robert Stack’s macho, clipped, hyper-no-bullshit performance amusingly foreshadows his future work in the aforementioned comic masterpiece Flying High) and coincidental passenger cop Detective Daniel Myerson (old school western and action stalwart Hugh O’Brian) ruggedly across the potential on-flight murder, the audience is left to unfasten its seatbelt and settle in for the ride.
As tension slowly mounts, a succession of potential suspects and victims is introduced. Coincidentally but happily for the smoothly unfolding narrative, a number of the passengers are not only familiar with each other, but also hold grudges and have various skeletons clanging around in their proverbial closets. Surgeon Dr. Kenyon Walker (Ralph Bellamy) failed to save a potential patient’s life, and may very well be a target; Paul Barons (Fernando Lamas) is a criminal with his own nefarious motivations; Mona Briarly (Polly Bergen has an obvious ball and easily steals all her scenes) is a boozy, popular crime author who could possibly be orchestrating the whole scene as fodder for one of her books; and Jack Marshall (Cher’s one-time main man Sonny Bono exudes easy, laidback charm) is a popular singer shooting for a comeback who has a few secrets too. On the ground, security guy Robert Davenport (George Maharis) digs for clues, while in the air, flight attendants Karen White (Charlie’s Angels icon Farrah Fawcett-Majors at her most engagingly resplendent) and Vera Franklin (the lovely and ever-underrated Brooke Adams, who would break through a few years later in Terrence Malick’s Days Of Heaven) try to maintain a steady sense of calm.
From its thickly carpeted, oh-so-1970s aeroplane set to its funky fashions and colourful sense of style, Murder On Flight 502 plays out like a true hit of nostalgia for those old enough to remember the heady time when movies like this premiered in prime time to much fanfare. Director George McCowan and screenwriter David P. Harmon keep things moving at a steady, involving pace, offering up an unfolding mystery plot and strong sense of characterisation that effectively draws in the audience. The final reveal is surprising enough to prompt viewer satisfaction, while a twisty sting in the tail adds further zip to proceedings. Though marketed in the years after its release on the back of the participation of relatively minor player but eventual superstar Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Murder On Flight 502 is more appropriately a testament to powerhouse TV producer Aaron Spelling, who built his long career on crafting rock-solid, highly entertaining telemovies just like this one.
Availability: Released on DVD at various times since its first broadcast on November 21, 1975, Murder On Flight 502 is also currently available in a fairly clear but slightly washed-out presentation via YouTube Movies, which you can enjoy “free with ads.”
If you enjoyed this review, check out our other vintage telemovies Moon Of The Wolf, The Secret Night Caller, Cotton Candy, And The Band Played On, Gargoyles, Death Car On The Freeway, Short Walk To Daylight, Trapped, Hotline, Killdozer, The Jericho Mile, Mongo’s Back In Town, and Tribes.
