Movie Trailers

• Directors: Peter Yates
• Producers: Philip D Antoni, Robert E Relyea
• Writers: Novel, Robert L Fish, Screenplay, Alan Trustman, Harry Kleiner
• Genres: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
• Actors: Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, Jacqueline Bisset, James Hagan

Ambitious politician Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn), is holding a Senate subcommittee hearing in San Francisco on Organized Crime in America. Hoping that by bringing down mobster Pete Ross (Vic Tayback) with the aid of key witness Johnny Ross, Pete’s brother, Chalmers’ political standing might improve. The story takes place the weekend before the hearing, from Friday night (during the opening credits) to Sunday night.

Following the theft of $2,000,000, and his escape to San Francisco, Johnny (actually Albert Renick) (played by Felice Orlandi) is placed in the San Francisco Police Department’s protective custody for the weekend. Chalmers requests Lieutenant Frank Bullitt’s (Steve McQueen) unit to guard him.

Bullitt, Sergeant Delgetti (Don Gordon) and Detective Carl Stanton (Justin Tarr), give Ross around-the-clock protection at the Hotel Daniels, a cheap flophouse near the Embarcadero Freeway. Before Ross enters the hotel, he makes several phone calls. Late Saturday night, while Stanton is guarding him, the desk clerk calls and says Chalmers and a friend are seeking Ross. Stanton calls Bullitt, who tells him not to let them in, as Chalmers would not show up at 1:00 in the morning. Meanwhile, Ross takes the security chain off the door. Suddenly, a pair of hitmen, Mike (Paul Genge) and Phil (played by stunt driver Bill Hickman), burst into the room and shoot both Inspector Stanton and Ross, seriously wounding them both.

…

Bullitt returns home to find Cathy asleep. He enters the bathroom to wash his hands and looks into the mirror, quietly contemplating his future. The final shot lingers on Bullitt’s gun and bullets.

• Directors: George Seaton
• Producers: Ross Hunter
• Writers: Arthur Hailey, George Seaton
• Genres: Drama, Thriller
• Actors: Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Jean Seberg, Jacqueline Bisset, George Kennedy, Helen Hayes, Van Heflin

This film was based on the best-selling novel by Arthur Hailey. With considerable attention to the details of day-to-day airport and airline operations, the plot of the movie concerns the response to both a paralyzing snowstorm and to an attempt to blow up an airliner. Demolition expert D.O. Guerrero (Van Heflin), down on his luck and with a history of mental illness, purchases a life insurance policy with the intent to commit suicide by blowing up a Rome-bound Boeing 707 Intercontinental jet from a snowbound Chicago airport. He plans to do this while he is on board using a self-made bomb hidden inside an attache case, while in flight over the Atlantic Ocean. Guerrero does this in the hope that his wife, Inez (Maureen Stapleton) will benefit from the insurance money. The explosion causes explosive decompression but only Guerrero is sucked out of the plane. The plane returns to Chicago where it makes a successful emergency landing – all while the airport is in the midst of a snowstorm with one runway closed from a stuck-in-the-snow airliner.

In the movie, Dean Martin who plays checkride pilot Vernon Demarest, calls into Cleveland Center on his way to Chicago. Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland Center is a reference to the ARTCC or Air Route Traffic Control Center in Oberlin, Ohio. This center is the busiest control centers because of air traffic.

The film is characterized by ensemble acting in which many different personal stories intertwine, and through emphasis on the decisions which must be made minute-by-minute by the airport staff.