Film of the Day: 54
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| By Love Possessed (1961) |
Then there's the duty free shopping (for a nice bottle of rye), then after all the checking, I get on board and find my seat, get comfortable and pray there's no crying babies around me. Then I wait for my two favourite parts of the flight, the in-flight meal and the movie.
The first in-flight movie to ever be shown was The Lost World from 1925, but By Love Possessed was first in flight movie that kicked-off the program and shown on TWA (which has now joined with American Airlines). Director John Sturges, who is most famous for Bad Day at Black Rock, The Magnificent Seven & The Great Escape adapts this 1957 novel by James Gould Cozzens.
It's the story about a woman named Marjorie Penrose who ends up having an affair with her husband's law partner, as her husband is impotent. This however is not one of Sturges best films nor is it one of his most memorable films. It seems very much like a Douglas Sirk film from the 1950s and they forgot Rock Hudson. Maybe that's because they originally wanted Sirk to direct but after his 1959 film Imitation of Life, he had fled Hollywood.
The film will always be remembered as the film that started the in-flight film program and also as one of the first film performances by Jason Robards.
Click here for the trailer
Hi Joseph....this is an interesting feature about in-flight movies. I remember the in-flight movie on my first ever flight to Canada....I believe it was called 'The Double Man', and this was April 1968!
ReplyDeleteYou probably never see a blockbuster film on a plane, but it's still a good idea on long haul flights, especially for people who hate flying....like me!....good work.