BEFORE: Day 4 with Richard Burton, re-united with Liz Taylor in this film, the 2nd (?) one they made together, though it was released before "Cleopatra", the first film they made together.
AFTER: If there's one thing I know about travel - whether business or pleasure - it's that things are bound to go wrong. This was seen recently by me in the films "My Life in Ruins" and "The Night of the Iguana" - and in Hollywood films, trips tend to feature EVERYTHING going wrong, like in "Just Married" or the "Vacation" films. This is another film in that vein, or it may also be considered a pre-cursor to the "Airport" movies.
The famous London fog makes it impossible for any planes at Heathrow to take off - initially for an hour, then later for a whole day. Which would only be a problem if people didn't have important business contracts to sign in New York, or were leaving their spouses to run off with someone new. Oh, that's exactly what does happen - you've got to figure that every airport delay is screwing up somebody's life, right? Statistically, if there are a few thousand people at the airport, a few of them desperately, desperately need to get out on a tight timeframe, and this film is about all of those people.
It feels like Burton and Taylor were always breaking up with each other or getting back together with each other on screen, and you have to wonder how closely art imitated life, or the other way around. Were they constantly separating and reuniting in real life, or was is just one or two times? Or maybe by playing couples that were always separating from each other, that was a form of marriage therapy for them? It's tough to say.
There's also a duchess who's flying to America to greet people at some resort so she can save her family's estate (it's so terrible that the aristocracy in the 1960's had to go to - ugh - work...), a tractor company mogul who NEEDS to sign that business deal in New York before somebody finds out that his checks won't clear, and a film producer who's also in some financial trouble until his business manager comes up with an ingenious solution that also gets him some free publicity. And it's kind of neat that not only do they all have problems that are caused by the airport delay, but hanging out in the VIP lounge with the other characters enables those interactions to help solve some of their problems, too. A little TOO neat, perhaps.
Behind the scenes, the story is allegedly based on a real incident, with the actress Vivien Leigh trying to leave her husband, Laurence Olivier and fly off with another actor, Peter Finch, only to have their flight delayed by fog at Heathrow. More behind the scenes stuff - the lead actress role was originally going to feature Sophia Loren, but Liz Taylor was reportedly jealous of Burton acting with Loren, or perhaps afraid that he'd cheat on her, so she persuaded the director to hire her instead.
This is a film from a different time, when air travel was considered an extravagance, and people who could afford to fly expected a certain level of treatment, like the airline covering bills at expensive hotels if their flights didn't take off on time. Back when you could get a MEAL on a plane, not just a package of pretzels and half a can of diet ginger ale. Back before they took out the reclining seats and leg room so they could cram three more rows of cramped passengers on to every flight. Back when you could SMOKE on a plane, and not be concerned about the other passengers' distaste for that. Back when there were like 5 airlines that serviced New York, and there was no JetBlue, Priceline, Orbitz or Expedia.
Same NITPICK POINT as "The Bachelor", though - not everyone waiting for the flight to New York ends up flying to New York, but we never see anyone get a refund for their ticket, or complain about the cost of a non-refundable ticket that they then don't end up using. But hey, some of these people are so rich that they may not give a crap about the cost of an unused ticket, especially if they're happy to not be flying. Again, this is back when planes were known to crash, before the airlines solved all of their problems to create the stress-free, no-worries airport environment we all enjoy today...
Also starring Elizabeth Taylor (last seen in "The Sandpiper"), Louis Jourdan (last seen in "The Swan"), Margaret Rutherford, Rod Taylor (last seen in "The Train Robbers"), Maggie Smith (last seen in "From Time to Time"), Orson Welles (last seen in "Start the Revolution Without Me"), Elsa Martinelli, Linda Christian (last seen in "Show Boat"), Dennis Price (last seen in "Ten Little Indians"), Richard Wattis (last seen in "The Prince and the Showgirl"), Ronald Fraser (last seen in "The Flight of the Phoenix"), David Frost (last seen in "A Liar's Autobiography"), Robert Coote (also last seen in "The Swan"), Joan Benham (last seen in "The Grass Is Greener"), Michael Hordern (last seen in "The Taming of the Shrew"), Martin Miller (last seen in "I Was a Male War Bride"), Peter Sallis (last seen in "Anastasia"), Clifton Jones, Moyra Fraser, Richard Briers, Lance Percival, Stringer Davis.
RATING: 5 out of 10 "pep" pills
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