In memory of Charlton Heston, I proclaim this to be Heston week here on The Rollerblog.

So hold on to your hats, ladies and gents - this week is going to be chalk full of Charlton Heston goodness. And by “goodness” I’m not talking about his work in epics like Ben Hur or The Ten Commandments. I’m talking about his lesser known seventies films (yes, the very ones that USA Today referred to as a bunch of stinkers). But what can I say - I like those “stinky” movies.

To kick off Heston Week, we begin with the disaster classic Airport 1975. (Don’t let the title of the movie fool you. The movie is actually from 1974.)

The movie stars Charlton Heston as Alan Murdock, a cocky businessman and ace pilot who is gun shy at committing to a serious relationship with his girlfriend, Nancy (played by Karen Black). Karen is the lead stewardess on the ill-fated Columbia Airlines Flight 409. The star-studded cast also includes Gloria Swanson as herself, Helen Reddy as the guitar-playing nun Sister Ruth, Erik Estrada as a flight engineer, Jerry Stiller as a drunk passenger, and Linda Blair as a young girl in need of a kidney transplant.

The plot isn’t terribly complicated. En route from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles, the airplane is diverted to Salt Lake City due to bad weather. Then, disaster strikes. The 747 is struck by a private single-passenger plane, which rips a hole in the front of the aircraft. The three pilots on board are either killed or maimed, leaving no one to fly the plane. Enter our heroine, Nancy. She radios in to the control tower, and bravely keeps the plane on course with the help of a pep talk by Charlton Heston over the radio.

But Nancy’s limited experience is not enough to actually land the plane. She needs help from an experienced pilot. A true-blooded hero. A man’s man. That’s right, I’m talking about our man of the week, Charlton Heston. Heston’s character, Murdock, attempts a daring mid-air rescue by flying to the doomed aircraft in an Army helicopter and boarding the plane through the gaping hole in the cockpit.

I don’t want to ruin the movie for you, so suffice it to say that there is plenty of excitement, derring-do, screaming, and the occasional plaid leisure suit. Not to mention smoking on the airplane.

So, what’s the verdict? Airplane 1975 has been widely panned, but I like it. It has that cheesy seventies goodness quality that I particularly look for when viewing films from the decade. It also spawned a number of successors, including Airport ‘77, The Concorde … Airport ‘79, and the disaster movie spoof Airplane!.

Columbia four-oh-niner, over and out.