"Family Flight" (1972)Rod Taylor played Jason Carlyle in this made-for-TV movie, which also starred Dina Merrill. (The two pair up again about 25 years later in "Point of Betrayal.") It's a show full of drama, life-and-death perils and family tensions. Jason Carlyle is a pilot and former Navy man. His son, David (Kristoffer Tabori) has unexpectedly returned home after a long estrangement during which Jason's wife, Florence (Dina Merrill) has quietly become an alcoholic. This happy trio and family friend Carol Rutledge (Janet Margolin) take off together on vacation, but it's stormy outside too, and their airplane crash-lands in the desert of Baja California. Taylor gives a fine performance as the tough-minded, hard-bodied service veteran who puts his survivalist training to good use. He gets his fragile group working together, battling hunger, thirst -- and the clock -- to clear a take-off strip and repair the airplane. The TV movie carries the viewer through ups and downs of successes, celebrations, catastrophes and conflict. And the suspense doesn't end till the airplane comes down for a second time. "Family Flight" also starred a rugged little airplane called a Navion, and I've learned that Navions have quite a following of their own. One enthusiast wrote, "They are tough and forgiving and just want to fly." Based on that description, I'd say the one in "Family Flight" gives a very realistic performance! The show was directed by Marvin Chomsky, who later directed Taylor in "A Matter of Wife ... and Death," and later directed the mini-series "Roots" and "Holocaust." Parts of it were shot in the desert near Apple Valley, Calif. |
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