A crisis ensues when Air Force One crashes while on a flight out west, apparently killing all those aboard, including President Jeremy Haines (Tod Andrews). The United States is in the midst of a confrontation with China that could lead to a nuclear war between the two countries, and the government is now in the hands of Vice President Kermit Madigan (Buddy Ebsen), a not too intelligent or sophisticated man, who was deliberately kept out of the loop. His confidence on foreign policy issues virtually nil, Madigan seeks to carry out Haines's intended policy in confronting the Chinese but gets two completely different accounts of what that policy was to be. Secretary of State Freeman Sharkey (Raymond Massey), a career diplomat, claims that Haines was pursuing firm but peaceful containment of the problem, while National Security advisor George Oldenburg (Rip Torn) says that Haines was ready to go eyeball-to-eyeball with the Chinese and go to war if necessary -- and Oldenburg quickly picks up on how to gain Madigan's confidence. As if Madigan doesn't have enough problems, the stunned Washington community cannot help but openly doubt his competence, while his ambitious wife (Mercedes McCambridge) sees this unfolding tragedy as a way for herself and her husband to finally get some respect and settle a few scores with those who belittled the Second Couple. Even more troubling, as the search teams comb the wreckage, another mystery ensues -- they can't seem to find the president's body. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Review
The President's Plane Is Missing benefited from a good cast and a decent plot (derived from the novel by Robert Serling, Rod's brother), but mostly from impeccable timing. The Watergate scandal was starting to boil over in the fall of 1973, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew had resigned just a couple of weeks before the movie's broadcast, and the subjects of presidential succession and who really runs the government in a crisis were on the mind of just about everybody. The original impetus for the production was almost certainly the success that NBC had enjoyed with its two-part mini-series broadcast of Vanished, in March of 1971 -- that production had used a mix of veteran and familiar performers (led by Richard Widmark in his first television feature role), augmented by the presence of some real-life Washington news figures to give it verisimilitude. The President's Plane Is Missing had no star of Widmark's stature in its cast, and only Howard K. Smith to represent the real-life Washington press corps, but it almost made up for these shortcomings with its cast. Between veteran troupers like Raymond Massey and Arthur Kennedy, and Buddy Ebsen in an unusually non-benevolent role for this period in his career, plus the presence of Rip Torn (in a role that seemed to have overtones of Henry Kissinger's image in the public mind), as well as Mercedes McCambridge doing a modern day Lady Macbeth turn, there was a lot of acting talent assembled here, most of it well utilized. The production still looked a bit threadbare, and its relatively optimistic ending seems too pat today, but at the time it made for two hours of diverting viewing with a topical edge, and it's still an enjoyable artifact of the early 1970's. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
James Hulsey - Art Director, Daryl Duke - Director, John F. Link - Editor, Gil Melle - Composer (Music Score), James Hulsey - Production Designer, Richard C. Glouner - Cinematographer, Mark Carliner - Producer, Mark Carliner - Teleplay By, Ernest Kinoy - Teleplay By, Mark Carliner - Screenwriter, Ernest Kinoy - Screenwriter, Robert J. Serling - Book Author
