Fly Me (1973)

One of dozens of similar movies put out in the seventies under the auspices of Roger Corman's New World Pictures - some followed the exploits of nurses, other young female teachers, international fashion models or, as here, air stewardesses - these are sort of the US equivalent to British sex comedies.  Fly Me (1973) is typical of thee format, following a trio of stewardesses, one of them new to the job, on a series of adventures in Hong Kong and the Philippines, (in actual fact, virtually all of it was filmed in the Philippines).  Each of the main protagonists go off on separate plot threads: one searches for a missing boyfriend, one gets kidnapped by white slavers, (she had been smuggling drugs for the gang, but had 'lost' part of a shipment), while the rookie is romanced by a doctor she meets as a passenger while  having to deal with her interfering mother who has gone along for the trip.  The wildly differing nature of the three plot threads gives the film a decidedly uneven tone, veering from grim drama with violence and threats of rape in the white slaver storyline, broad comedy in the rookie stewardess' story and some bizarre action sequences feature in the other stewardess' attempts to find her missing boyfriend.

To be fair, the film does finally bring all three plots together for the climax, with the new stewardess getting kidnapped by the white slavers who, of course, are led by the missing boyfriend, with the infatuated doctor and an undercover cop coming to the rescue for with some more King Fu fighting.  All in less than seventy five minutes.  In reality a Philippine production masquerading as American, Fly Me was directed by the prolific Sirio H.Santiago, who turned out many similar pictures put out by New World.  Of note is the fact that the seemingly random Kung Fu fights that punctuate one stewardess' search for her boyfriend, (gangs of Kung Fu killers keep appearing seeming from nowhere to assault her as she wanders around Hong Kong and Manila - luckily, she too is a martial arts expert), were supervised by Johnathan Demme.  Ultimately, Fly Me is cinematic fluff, a film of no real consequence.  But it goes down so many unexpected byways and includes so much bizarre action in its short running time that it is always entertaining. Pure exploitation - it has all the required elements: captive women, sex, nudity, violence and prostitution - and is none the worse for that.