She won Best Supporting Actress as Ada Quonsett - an mischevious elderly stowaway. I thought she was delightful, and gave a great perfromance. Any thoughts?
"Ahhh!...and boom goes the dynamite."
She's atrocious. One of the worst Oscar recipients ever. Granted, the role as written is awful and contrived, but Hayes doesn't even bring any "Old Lady Charm" to the character. Jean Arthur had tested for the role, and would have been soooo much better.
And 40 years later, it still galls me that the Mannered Miss Hayes defeated Karen Black.
The winners of the best supporting actress during that period were atrocious. Ruth Gordon for Rosemary's Baby to Goldie Hawn for Cactus Flower. What were they thinking?
shareI thought it was high camp and embarassing. I expected her to pull out a clown's horn... with all due respect.. I plan the writer, producer, director etc..
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I think she was delightful but not Oscar-worthy.
shareWe're watching this and making fun of it. It makes me see Airplane! in a whole new light. Then my husband said "I think it won awards." I was sure he was wrong but there it is. The whole movie is so campy. Helen Hayes is fun to watch - but Oscar? Nah.
shareIf you can, watch the real inspiration for Airplane!. A movie called Zero Hour!. Yes, the exclamation point is supposed to be there.
In Airplane!'s trivia section:
The film is mostly a parody of Zero Hour!, a film that had a main character named Ted Stryker and such famous "not meant to be funny" lines like "We have to find someone who can not only fly this plane, but who didn't have fish for dinner."
As well as a line about the wrong time to give up smoking.
This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here.
There was more than just a couple of things ripped off from Zero Hour!. Check this out. Exact same scenes in both.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q__vuyH1JEI
This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here.
First off, I'll admit bias here, as "Airport" was one of my all time favorite
films. Secondly, there were so many great supporting actresses in this film
Helen, Jacqueline, Maureen, Jean (yes,even her), all were equally good, so
to choose only one would be extremely difficult.
I often remember a supporting actor or actress more than the leads. That was
definitely the case with this film.
Two other examples:
1. Emily Blunt was brilliant in "The Devil Wears Prada."
2. Tom Hanks "stole the show" from Leonardo DiCaprio in "Catch Me if you Can."
It wasn't a rip-off, Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker had the studio purchase the rights to Zero Hour so they could directly use those lines, albeit in a comedic context so from a certain point of view, Airplane was a remake of Zero Hour.
shareIf it was anything, it was a parody of Zero Hour!.
This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here.
Absolutely not. Boring and not funny.
shareAbsolutely. I know she was seen as comic relief but she played a critical part to the story.
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