Sometimes the things you can find on Amazon Prime Video surprise you. Buried in the C level drive in movies and made for television dramas of the 1970s I found this gem. It impressed me enough to write a review. Considering I've rated thousands of movies on here and this is maybe my 3rd review, it made a lasting impression.

If you're a fan of any of Roger Moore's work as James Bond, invest some time into watching this movie. The locations, underwater footage, fight scenes and chases are just as spectacular as anything to come out of Pinewood Studios. What impressed me most is that this movie achieved the same result with a budget that is likely the smallest fraction of the cash the British threw at 007 movies of the era. The plot is honestly slightly more plausible than anything James Bond faced at the time.

Now it's also no masterpiece. It's never been restored so video quality is subpar, it's also rather poorly dubbed when compared to a Hollywood movie. Compared to 1960s Spaghetti Westerns, however it ain't bad at all.

Arch villain Joseph Cotten was apparently either being kicked out of his nursing home or was running out of incontinence pads, but either way must have needed a paycheck VERY badly. In every scene he looks like he was just dragged outta bed to sit behind a desk and mumble nonsensically. Although I'm rather certain this applies to all of Joseph Cotten's work after 1965.

I can't really fault Van Johnson's portrayal of the Concorde pilot either, he knew he was there for nothing but a cameo and seems to have had fun with the part. James Franciscus did well with his starring role as well. It's almost a shame they were unable to turn his high intrigue investigative reporter character into a franchise. It's almost as believable as a high intrigue archeologist and that seemed to pay off for Indiana Jones. Perhaps Franciscus's early death played a part in the character being forgotten.

I think another factor that hurts this film is the similar title to the literally horrible film Airport 1979. Now I'm certain the Italian film makers did this on purpose without actually seeing the film. They were hoping the popularity of the previous 3 Airport movies would help their box office returns. However with how poorly Airport 1979 was made and performed, I think it's only hurt the film.

I don't consider it a spoiler to say: This is NOT an airplane disaster movie. It's a low budget James Bond movie that did a great job with little money. Perhaps you could call it a "Spaghetti Spy" movie. If you got a kick out of Roger Moore as 007, then count on having a smile on your face when you finish this film.

It was foolish of me to think that the Italian film industry wouldn't have a go at the old disaster genre, and here it its: the Italian version of Airport. Kind of.

Evil businessmen are wishing to destroy the Concorde by sabotaging it and causing it to be decommissioned. Using evil henchmen Venantino Venantini and Ottavia Dell'Aqua, they bring one aircraft down in the Antilles. It's a shame that air hostess Mimsy Farmer survived though, because she could blow the whole conspiracy wide open. It's kind of a mixed blessing that the henchmen get a hold of her, because although they already know about the conspiracy, they always start blackmailing the evil businessmen. Where's the loyalty these days in avational espionage?

Journalist James Franciscus gets involved when his wife phones him from the Antilles and annoyingly doesn't tell him anything over the phone, which is rather selfish because by the time he flies there from New York she's dead and he's not got a clue what she's on about. Luckily he's got a guardian angel looking out for him, because Venantino and Ottavia reckon they'd be better off minus a nosy journalist.

There's a lot of scuba diving looking for sunken Concordes and amazingly Mimsy nearly escapes the ship she's being held on just as James was passing by. By the time this all happens you'll be wondering when the disaster element is going to arrive - it does eventually, involving another plane piloted by Van Johnson. The same device that took down the first concorde is on board this one, but only Mimsy Farmer and her amnesia can save everyone on board...

When not murdering animals for a laugh, Ruggero Deodato can actually produce a good film, or at least an mildly entertaining one like this. There's a whole load of shenanigans going down between James trying to convince the authorities of the conspiracy and people trying to kill him, but those looking for Deodato gore will be let down, save for the bit where a diver is shot in the face and about ten gallons of blood pours out. Van Johnson does well as the stressed out pilot and you can't beat a bit of Joseph Cotton being evil, so that's not so bad either.

What's good for a laugh are some of the effects - the emergency cars at the end of the film are clearly toys, and so are several shots of the concorde itself. I'm no expert in disaster films but as a quick time waster it was okay. Dakar from Zombie Flesh Eaters gets his head run over by a boat.