This is a totally wacky 70s flick with "stewardesses battling kung-fu killers". The story follows the misadventures of three flight attendants as they travel to the far east. Toby (Pat Anderson) is a newbie going on her first overseas trip (her prior flight experience was the Des Moines-Omaha route... crop dusters have been known to travel greater distances!). She tries dating a doctor she met on the flight, however her overprotective mother (Naomi Stevens) tags along and runs interference every chance she gets. Andrea (Lenore Kasdorf, a lovely Jaclyn Smith prototype) searches Hong Kong, Tokyo and Manila for her boyfriend and is constantly tailed by kung-fu thugs. Sherry (Lyllah Torena) is kidnapped after a yacht party and held captive for a prostitution ring. Everything (bizarrely) comes together in a quick 71 minutes, with numerous fun moments sprinkled throughout. These include Toby going straight from the beach to the airport and stripping to change into her uniform in the back seat of a taxi, providing a pleasant "distraction" to the cab driver (GREAT way to start a flick, by the way!); Andrea fighting off several attackers, including a blind man firing a deadly poison dart from his cane; Toby's numerous attempts to sneak away with her love interest, and a hysterical sequence where Toby's mother goes to great lengths trying to get themselves booked onto a "charter flight tour", not realizing the company is really a front for the prostitution ring at the center of everything. One other note... some of the music might sound familiar to anyone who has seen THE STUDENT NURSES, PRIVATE DUTY NURSES or NIGHT CALL NURSES (three earlier New World Pictures releases). Totally goofy fun that any 70s exploitation/cheesy drive-in movie fan will enjoy.
Fly Me
(1973)
Your seat bottom cushion isn't the ONLY thing that can be used as a flotation device
31 January 2009
Warning: Spoilers