Hey_Sweden Review of Fly Me

Fly Me (1973)

I believe I'll take these stewardesses up on that offer.

[7/10 · 31 January 2012]

Reasonably engaging drive-in concoction about three extremely delectable stewardesses - Toby (Pat Anderson), Andrea (Lenore Kasdorf), and Sherry (Lyllah Torena) who have misadventures comedic, dramatic, and action packed in various exotic locales. It starts out as a pretty lightweight romp but gets more serious - well, so to speak - as it goes along, as Sherry is revealed to be part of some criminal activities that soon involve Andrea as well. Meanwhile, sweet and naive Toby tries to have a love life, as she is pursued by a handsome bone specialist doctor (Richard Young) but her enormously overbearing, stereotyped mother (Naomi Stevens) keeps spoiling all of her fun. Now, the mother character is funny for just a bit but wears out her welcome before very long, detracting somewhat from the entertainment value, but overall "Fly Me" is decent, breezy exploitation fare from the prolific Filipino director Cirio Santiago, as it works the element of intrigue into its rather busy story and juggles its assorted story threads for a reasonably well paced 73 minutes. It gets off to a great start with luscious Anderson in a hurry to get to the airport and giving a cab driver (Dick Miller, in a great cameo) an eyeful as she dresses during the (eventful) ride. We all get an eyeful of the lovely ladies along the way, so there are absolutely no complaints in that department. The movie is clunky and crude, but then that actually adds to its charms. The martial arts scenes (credited to David Chow) are amusingly inept. Towards the end, Santiago and company treat us to concurrent scenes of climactic action. The performers - for the most part - are fun to watch, especially the three starring babes. (Anderson and Santiago would work together again on "T.N.T. Jackson".) Young, whom you may recognize as having also been in "Friday the 13th: A New Beginning" and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" is likable enough, and actors Ken Metcalfe and Vic Diaz, familiar faces to fans of Filipino cinema, make brief and welcome contributions. Maybe not particularly memorable, but that doesn't really matter; the movie is perfectly acceptable entertainment while it lasts. Trivia note: Jonathan Demme (credited with "film direction") was the second unit director, and Joe Dante is credited as dialogue director. Seven out of 10.