By JUDY SLOANE

Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD-Robert Stack began his acting career in the Deanna Durbin movie “First Love” in 1939, giving Deanna her first on-screen kiss. He went on to do many films including “The High and the Mighty,” “1941” and “Written on the Wind,” for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. But he’s probably best known for his portrayal of Federal Agent Eliot Ness in TV’s “The Untouchables,” which won him an Emmy for Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

Recognized for all of his dramatic roles, Stack was approached by Jim Abrahams and Jerry and David Zucker about playing Captain Rex Kramer in their madcap comedy “Airplane!”

I spoke with Robert Stack in 1996 about the movie. Unfortunately, he passed on from a heart attack in 2003. He was a lovely man and a joy to talk with. This is part of my interview with him about the movie “Airplane!”

Judy Sloane: How did you get involved with “Airplane!”?

Robert Stack: I was approached by Jim Abrahams and David and Jerry Zucker. I read the script. I thought it was quite mad. I said, “Where’s the money?” They said, “We haven’t got any money yet.” Then I said, “Who’s going to direct it?” They said, “All three of us.”

I said, “All three of you are going to direct the picture that doesn’t have any money? That’s a good start! It sounds like Mickey Rooney turning to Judy Garland saying, ‘We can put the show on in the garage!’’’ But my wife read it, and she’s much smarter than I am. She said, “I think it’s very funny.” I said, “I think it is funny too. It’s going to be made for 15 cents, and they haven’t got 15 cents.” But they kept coming back. The irony to the story is nobody, including anybody who was in the movie, thought it was going to be that good.

Judy Sloane: Were you surprised when they came to you in the first place, as you’re not known for comedy?

Robert Stack: If I were going to do it I would have done the same thing (use dramatic actors.) None of us knew what the hell we were doing. They did have an avant-garde sense of comedy that nobody else has.

The question I usually get is, “Were you playing Eliot Ness in “Airplane!” That’s dead wrong; it’s nothing like Eliot Ness. Ness came from the streets. I was playing every captain on every airline. They all have a halo over their head, and they walk different, their chest is out and their spine is dead straight and nothing bothers them. They’re creatures to be adored. He’s the king.. These people are royalty. This is Rex Kramer. He’s got everything but a crown on him.

Judy Sloane: Were you allowed to improvise on the set?

Robert Stack: The first thing I heard from Lloyd Bridges was, ‘Geez, you can’t change a line, everything has got to be exactly the same.’ [The Zucker brothers] were absolutely right because this had the precision of good blackouts, good burlesque, like Jack Benny who said “My improvisations are the things that I rehearse for a week!”

Judy Sloane: One of the most memorable scenes in the movie is when your character Rex is walking through the airport beating up everybody that comes up to him.

Robert Stack: After having my back worked on, which is stiff anyway, the stunt guy told me the fight was going to be 10 moves. I said, “10 moves, what are we going to do it in, a week?” He said, “No, we’re going to work it out in about 10 minutes.” I said, “In “From Russia with Love” it took them 3 months for them to work it out.” And he said, “Yeah, we ain’t doing “From Russia with Love.””  I was convinced it wasn’t going to work out. [The audience] would see the hits and misses. And it looked like we rehearsed it for three weeks. It had no right to be that good! In fact, Jim (Abrahams) played one of the characters I punched in the stomach.

Judy Sloane: Another Rex Kramer moment is when he takes his dark glasses off and there’s another pair underneath.

Robert Stack: It’s a terribly funny gag. This came directly out of a Charlton Heston [war movie.] He’s got these glasses on and he says, “Alright, take them over there to the landing ship,” and he takes off the glasses and he points, but he doesn’t have any glasses on underneath. So I was kind of doing my old friend Chuck Heston.

Judy Sloane: In retrospect, what do you think of “Airplane!”?

Robert Stack: It managed for the first time, which I think is very important, with a certain amount of joy, innocence and love to insult everybody, the Jews, the Catholics, the Protestants, the whites, the blacks – everybody got it, but nobody got mad. You talk about genius, any other movie done like that would have been picketed. This little picture goes out and breaks all existing records. All I can tell you is, the ‘gentleman upstairs’ has an ironic sense of humor.

 

Portions of the article were first published in Film Review Magazine