Zero Hour, a movie later remade and parodied into Airplane!
Airplane! is indeed a spoof of the disaster movie genre, but it cribs mostly from one film: Zero Hour!. This 1957 low-budget airplane suspense film has the same plot, characters, and much of the same dialogue. Both films even feature a former pro-athlete in the cockpit (the 50s version being footballer Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch). No wonder that Leslie Neilsen style of acting worked so well - the original is pretty much all in that same awkward mater-of-fact brusque attitude.
None of this is surprising when you find out that the producers of Airplane! purchased the script and remake rights to Zero Hour! after accidentally catching the film on late night television. Airplane! is half parody - and half loyal remake.
Watch the video at the link. It's Airplane!, done straight.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop smoking.
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