Oh, Get "Lost!"

You know that I have covered so, so many disaster and "airliner in distress" flicks here over the years, but somehow this one escaped me. It fell through the cracks in the mire of so many others and I think I also somehow got it confused with The Doomsday Flight (1966.) Now I've seen Lost Flight (1970), but it was a long, long time ago in a very poor quality print. Recently, though, I rediscovered it and thought I'd give it a shot. A reasonable rendition of it can be seen right here. The project had a long gestation period before anyone saw it. Initially, there was a script for a 1966 TV series pilot called "Stranded." It didn't go anywhere but eventually the concept found its way into a new pilot telefilm to be called "Lost Flight." It was shot in 1968 for the 1969 TV season, but it was determined not to proceed with a series and the piece was shelved, finally getting a release in cinemas when Airport (1970) was dominating the box office. Airport was a blockbuster, the top film if the year. Lost Flight only fluttered around in the wake of its jet stream. 

The idea of disparate individuals plunked on an uninhabited island and forced to get along sounded like a great format for a show, but CBS didn't go for it.

ABC felt differently about it in 2004 and debuted Lost, about a passenger jet that crashes on an island, leaving the survivors to struggle their way along. I was all in for that first season, but once I realized that personal drama and action weren't going to be enough and that sci-fi, supernatural and "master plan" schematics were going to be involved, I was immediately out. But the show was a big, Emmy-winning hit and ran until 2010.

Lost Flight concerns a (fictional) Trans-Pacific airliner en route from Hawaii to Australia. Before the departure, we first visit the hotel seen in the inset. (I include it because that pale blue stripe is the track for the scenic elevator! I would be all over that.)

Lloyd Bridges plays a pilot slated for the journey. A no-nonsense semi-hothead, he isn't one to stifle his feelings if he determines that something isn't right.

In the hotel bar is nightclub entertainer Bobby Van. He's singing THE most horrific and atrocious rendition of Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual" that anyone could ever conceive. Van's real-life wife Elaine Joyce has a brief cameo as the only person on the planet's surface who could truly enjoy this performance...

She's with another man, but Van attempts to pick her up anyway. Since the other man is a pal of Bridges', the whole thing leads to a squabble, setting up antagonism between Bridges and Van.

The following morning at the airport we begin to meet some of the many passengers who will be aboard the flight. Here Joseph Bernard is attempting to deal with his bitch-on-wheels wife Kasey Rogers.

The triad of passengers shown here aren't together. William Mims (his role is listed as "Fat Man!") is traveling alone and is not married to the pregnant (natch!) Dee Carroll. The kid in the back (Michael-James Wixted) is en route to see his father and is also by himself.

Arrogant business executive Ralph Meeker is seen here with his private (and we do mean that) secretary Anne Francis.

She seems taken with friendly pilot Bridges, which leads Meeker to try humiliating her by basically announcing that they room together in hotels.

Also waiting to board are surfer chick Jennifer Leak and serviceman Billy Dee Williams. It's not fully visible, but you can just make out the expression of the man on the other side of her, expressing pleasure over her shapely gams!

Late arrival Andrew Prine, a coworker of Meeker's and a party animal, also takes notice of Leak's attributes and isn't happy when he sees her with Williams.

Things hit a serious bump when airline official Linden Chiles begins needling Bridges over his temper and behavior with other employees. His pencil-pushing, new-fangled ways irritate Bridges to the point where he turns in his wings and quits!

He's going through all his belongings in the locker room and packing up what he wants to keep when an associate, desperate to keep the fully-booked flight from being canceled, talks him into rethinking his decision. Bridges relents and agrees to eat crow.

"Looks like I picked a bad week to quit smoking..."

That settled, Bridges and his fellow crew members board the plane and prepare for takeoff.

The passengers get situated as well. Virtually every seat is occupied.

Once in flight, it's meal time. Get a load of the rolling cart with sliced beef!!

The man in first class (roomy!) seems pleased with his dinner tray.

Not so much catty Rogers, who exclaims, "All right, stewardess... I give up. What is this?" When she's informed that it's filet mignon...

...she stubs out her cigarette into it, declares it "inedible" and wants it removed. I despise people like this in real life, but for some weird reason find them irresistible in movies! (Maybe it's because so often, they either change or get their comeuppance before the film is over.) Rogers had played an ill-fated bitch way back in 1951's Strangers on a Train, but by this time was installed on Bewitched as Larry Tate's not-always-easygoing wife Louise.

Rogers' stormy mood is well matched by the weather outside the plane.

Bridges and his crew try to figure out the best way to navigate through what is a pretty nasty storm.

Prine, perhaps trying to navigate his way to membership in the "Mile High Club" is all over Leak once more, wanting her to join him. But she's deep into a book... War and Peace!!

Things begin to come apart when little Wixted appears to be rather seriously ill.

There's no doctor on board, but med student Michael Larrain, as the closest thing, informs Bridges that the kid is in bad shape and that an emergency landing at the next available spot is called for. "Looks like I picked a bad week to quit amphetamines...!"

Now the shit really hits the fan! Lightning strikes one of the plane's engines and it catches fire!

The passengers are given a good shake during tremendous turbulence.

The 22 year-old blonde shown here is Playboy Playmate Connie Kreski in her first acting gig. It's a wordless role (she wasn't hired on for her thespian talents!) and that's not her dad next to her, but her character's husband!

Okay... Pregnant lady: Check! Sick child: Check! A Pair of Nuns: Check!

An already alarming problem goes from bad to worse when the fiery engine falls off (!) and then part of the wing goes as well!

Bridges manages to maintain control, but it's soon evident that they're going to need to set the plane down. Anywhere!

Chief stewardess Nobu McCarthy demonstrates the use of life vests while the passengers are instructed to fold their arms and lean forward. Another stew requests that people be un-self-conscious and remove any dentures, which one man does!

"Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue...!"

Aiming for an island they've spotted, Bridges manages to put the plane down in the water, but atop a coral reef. This affords a few extra minutes before it sinks and helps to provide a skosh of stability as the passengers disembark into rafts.

Inside the craft it's a melee, with people hollering, panicking and one numbskull inflating a raft INSIDE the cabin - meaning it can't then be put through the hatch and into the water! Bridges has to fire a gun to get them all to cease.

Most disaster flicks I've seen don't allow the passengers to take things like purses and briefcases with them during emergency exits, but some of these folks do. (And the ladies are going to need their false eyelashes for the island!)

The rain pelts these people as they struggle to get into the life rafts.

Francis flops around on the reef, eventually falling into the ocean, but Bridges (who spent 1958-1961 on Sea Hunt!) handily dives in to save her.

By morning, the weather has improved and the survivors are gathered on the shore of the island.

Not everyone seems to have made it, however. Most of the crew and quite a few passengers are unaccounted for.

Fans of Star Trek will enjoy seeing several of that series' guest stars here and there. The (now-missing) copilot was played by Paul Comi and the brunette here is Maggie Thrett, who was one of "Mudd's Women" in a key episode.

Bridges assembles everyone to attempt to explain the situation. It seems they were about 250 miles off course (thanks to damaged equipment) when they crashed, so search parties can only go by where the last radio contact happened. There's a transmitter in the water, but it's no guarantee of being found.

Thank God someone thought to pack a sailor, at least...!

And God bless whichever costumer decided to relieve this young man of his shirt.

Enough cannot be said about how great the location is and how much verisimilitude it lends the story. No Gilligan's Island sets here. (And, mercifully, CGI had yet to be invented!)

Big-mouthed Meeker is always on hand to dispute whatever Bridges has to say.

More helpful is Williams, who shows Mims how to use the reflector of a flashlight to speed up the process of obtaining fire. With the crew mostly MIA, Bridges asks Williams if he will assist him with various duties.

Somehow, even having survived the deadly crash and ocean voyage, Leak is still in the mood to swim! A leering Prine is on hand to watch her.

The Hawaiian island of Kuwai serves as the uncharted island and it is full of wonderful, visually-arresting locations.

Williams and Bridges look around as much as they are able to for signs of other inhabitants. They don't find those, but they do locate a fresh waterfall.

They also come upon this (real) cave, which will serve as a home base for the survivors from now on.

A makeshift hospital is put together and finally Bridges can collapse and get some rest. Or can he?

Some dissatisfied passengers have their own ideas about getting rescued.

Of course Meeker is the ringleader. He tries to overrule Bridges' authority until Bridges lets him know that he is the one in charge. And it's deemed that way by maritime law!

But we just have to check out this guy one more time... even with the Mary Ann Summers top he's fashioned for himself.

That's not enough. Larrain informs Bridges that sick little Wixted needs an appendectomy. Right now!!

As he contemplates the little boy's fate, Francis tries to offer him some comfort. She's discovered that his own wife and son are dead. But he's not yet open to her goodwill. Nonetheless, she assists with the appendectomy along with one of the stewardesses.

The next morning, some of the men have decided that they want to take one of the rafts out with a second transmitter, thinking they will be picked up and rescued that way and can send help back.

Bridges feels it's both foolish and futile and tries to halt them, but they knock him around and take the boat.

Three men in a tub (one of them nightclub singer Van) row out to the far reaches of the ocean.

Meanwhile, the more obedient and constructive members of the group begin to fish.

"And what are YOU giving up for Lent?"

One of them even comes up with a sea turtle! No mock turtle soup here, folks. It'll be the real deal!

Williams and Prine have a set-to when Prine starts to offer Leak some breakfast that turns out to be poisonous! Williams knocks it away and gets knocked himself in the process.

The strides they've been making seem paler one evening when Bridges is able to hear, on the one radio they have, that the search has been called off! Pieces of the plane were found and it's been deemed that no one could have survived. They are on their own!

By the way, the man in the blue shirt with long sideburns (Ray Ballard) was a passenger in both Airport (1970) and Airport 1975 (1974), too. DO NOT fly with this man! LOL

There's a lot of hue and cry after this horrible news, but Rogers goes ballistic on Bridges over it. Someone on the staff of Airport '77 (1977) saw this movie for sure. Apart from the evacuation scenes, this moment also recalls Lee Grant's bitchery with Jack Lemmon from the latter film.

The next morning, Francis and Bridges are collecting eggs and begin to share some of their burgeoning affection towards one another. She announces that she and Meeker are through for good.

They don't get a chance to get too awfully chummy because suddenly they spy something on the water.

Bridges begins peeling out of his clothes and racing down the hill where he undoes his trousers. We think it may be all, but...

...soon enough he's down to his flimsy boxers and goes pounding out to the water!

It's the raft! Three sunburned, dehydrated, exhausted men are strewn within it.

He manages to tow it to shore himself where he's aided by some of the other survivors.

Making his way back to his clothing in his dripping drawers, he suddenly realizes something... 

His much-needed handgun is no longer among his belongings!

His one decisive weapon is not in his possession any more and he doesn't know who took it.

It's been a few minutes since the last crisis, so naturally Carroll begins to go into labor!

Out in the wild, Prine is having a great time watching Leak take a naked shower under the waterfall.

While drying herself off and airing out her hair, she realizes that she's not alone.

She begins running frantically through the brush, with Prine in hot pursuit.

He finally corners her, but it doesn't go the way he'd hoped.

The movie wraps up with conflict and unfair blame, followed by a sense of justice and the hint of a new beginning. But as I said, the intended series was not to be.

Bridges began working in movies way back in the mid-1930s! As a young man he played students, soldiers, taxi drivers and many other sorts of small parts for Columbia Pictures. He got busier and busier as the 1940s came along, though he still had no billing in most films. In action films concerning war or adventures in the American west, he kept gaining experience and recognition. Having served in the U.S. Coast Guard during WWII, he continued in supporting roles at Universal, winning leads by the end of the decade. An unhappy brush with the HUAC found him leaning more towards television. After winning praise for various live teleplays (and the occasional movie), he was cast in Sea Hunt, which made him a household name. Always busy, be it on TV (with parts in many hit miniseries) or in a movie, he landed a hilarious role in 1980's Airplane!, which ultimately led to a sequel and then to the similar Hot Shots! (1991) and its sequel. He deftly managed to juggle comic parts with dramatic ones. He was twice nominated for the Emmy, first for The Alcoa Hour (which went to Jack Palance on Playhouse 90) and then for Seinfeld (which went to Mel Brooks on Mad About You.) Married only once, for over 50 years, he died in 1998 at age 85 of natural causes. His sons, Jeff and Beau carried on highly successful acting careers of their own.

Beau, Lloyd and Jeff Bridges.

 

Francis was a professional actress from the earliest days of her life. She was a child model and was on Broadway by age 11! Almost supernaturally pretty as a young, with big blue eyes (similar in some ways to the first Barbie dolls), she easily found work in movies of the late-1940s, winning leads by the 1950s. Some of her key movies included Bad Day at Black Rock, Battle Cry, The Blackboard Jungle (all in 1955) and the 1956 sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet. The 1960s brought more television to her resume, though she did costar in The Crowded Sky (1960) about an airline collision. She was Honey West in 1965, which broke ground in terms of female adventurers. (Nominated for an Emmy, the award went to Barbara Stanwyck for The Big Valley, though she did pick up a Golden Globe.) Countless TV movies, guest roles and the occasional movie followed well up into the late-1990s. Pancreatic cancer claimed her in 2011 at age 80.

Meeker has a tribute here, thanks to his early career as a dangerous antihero, which was followed by tough, sometimes belligerent roles like the one essayed in Lost Flight. Take a look at the link for some pictures of him in his hey-day! 

Prine began as a New York actor, initially playing thoughtful, sensitive types of roles (as he did on Broadway in Look Homeward, Angel and later in 1962's film version of The Miracle Worker.) Able to act in a variety of genres, he and Earl Holliman costarred in a western series called Wide Country, which lasted one season. An occasional movie like Texas Across the River (1966) was balanced with many TV guest roles on popular series. This continued into the 1970s as he did Chisum (1970) and Grizzly (1976) while keeping busy on television. In time, he began doing low-budget thrillers such as The Centerfold Girls (1974) and The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976), among others. To help promote the former prior to release, he did a fully-nude pictorial for Viva magazine, donating all his earnings from it to Save the Children. Always a busy actor (as well as man about town!) he was first married briefly to Sharon Farrell, followed by a tumultuous period with Karen Kupcinet which only ended for good when she was found murdered! Next, he married and divorced actress Brenda Scott THREE times...! Finally, he enjoyed a lasting union from 1986 to his death in 2022 of natural causes. He was 86. 

Practically born in a trunk to Vaudeville parents, Van was appearing with them at age 4! He emerged as a singer, actor and very skilled dancer, eventually heading to Broadway. Soon enough, MGM picked him up and used him in musicals like Skirts Ahoy!, Because You're Mine (both 1952), Small Town Girl and, most famously, Kiss Me Kate (both 1953.) Never graduating to starring parts on screen, he began a nightclub act and also choreographed numbers for movies. Returning to Broadway in a successful revival of No, No Nanette, he was soon cast in another movie involving a plane crash (though the remainder of the movie proved to be as disastrous!), Lost Horizon (1973.) Van and his wife Elaine Joyce barely survived a Vegas wedding (he soon filed for an annulment) before eventually settling into a happy relationship, often popping up on Match Game and Tattletales. But in 1979, he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. He was dead by 1980 at only age 51. His final stage role was in a 1979 production of Damn Yankees with Van Johnson, the star from whom Bobby Van selected his stage (last) name. (Having gained inspiration from a poster in his sister's room, he later quipped that he was grateful she didn't have a poster of Maria Ouspenskaya on her wall!)

Another member of this cast who began their career quite young was Williams. He appeared on Broadway at age 7! An early role came with 1959's The Last Angry Man, filmed in New York, but his screen career began in earnest when he moved to California in the early-1960s. Airing before Lost Flight, but shot after, was another project similar to this, The New People, about crash-landed college students. He guested on the series. It was 1971's Brian's Song which truly put him on the map, with Lady Sings the Blues (1972), The Take (1974) and Mahogany (1975) following. In 1980, his immortality on screen was assured with The Empire Strikes Back, followed by Return of the Jedi (1983.) Since this, he has continued to appear in movies and on TV, the most recent being a guest part on And Just Like That... this year. He is currently 86 and enjoys painting, an early career choice that was sidelined when his work as an actor took off.

Wixted, naturally, also started out at a very young age. His parents were minor actors James Wixted and Constance Cavendish. From 1968 up through 1977 he was a busy little actor, working on many hit shows like Adam-12, Ironside, It Takes a Thief, Gunsmoke, Family Affair and more. By 1971, he was a regular on The Smith Family, which was a short-lived attempt by Henry Fonda to star in a sitcom. After quite a few more parts, including one on Little House on the Prairie and the feature film Islands in the Stream (1977), he exited the screen, turning to writing instead. By now he would be somewhere around 60 years old.

Lastly, we come to McCarthy. The daughter of a Japanese diplomat, she studied ballet as a youth and eventually became Miss Tokyo in a beauty pageant. Moving to Los Angeles in the late-1950s, she worked in bit roles until being discovered by a talent agent who helped her land a featured role in Jerry Lewis' The Geisha Boy (1958.) Though opportunities were limited, she nonetheless won roles on a variety of TV shows including Bridges' Sea Hunt. Movies like Two Loves (1961) and guest roles on Laramie, Wagon Train, Perry Mason and other shows followed. She appeared on many hot series from Tarzan to The Wild Wild West to The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and even Batman. Later, she had parts on Kung Fu, Hawaii 5-O and others. She also became director of the East West Players theater group after Mako departed the position. She and Mako costarred in The Wash (1988.) Two years prior, she'd played Pat Morita's love interest in The Karate Kid II (1986.) Sadly, an aneurysm took her life in 2002 while she was in Brazil filming a project. She was 67.