The story behind the making of Blazing Stewardesses is actually much more entertaining than the film itself, so it’s a good thing our ol’ exploitation superproducer pal Sam Sherman is on hand to provide rambling, drunken uncle anecdotes on the supplemental audio track. You see, “Blazing” was Adamson’s game but doomed attempt at cashing in on the success of both Blazing Saddles AND the three-girl sexploiters that ruled the drive-ins in the early 70’s (Swinging Cheerleaders, Nightcall Nurses, etc), so he wrangled every over-the-hill has-been he could find and cobbled this Mad Mad World-style “comedy” together, dividing the inaction neatly between ancient oater scenes and wince-worthy community-theater performances. Oh boy, and you should hear the stories about this thing. They almost had a half-dead wheelchair-bound Larry Fine in the movie! Sam Sherman was second in command for this ‘un, and his hilarious Mcgruff narration will safely glide you through the slow parts. And there’s lots of slow parts.

The story…well, Yvonne DeCarlo runs a brothel/dude ranch, and there’s hooded evil cowboys, and there’s three stewardesses, none of ‘em actually blazing. Adamson’s wife Regina Carroll is one of the stews. She’s supposed to be playing the ‘ditzy blonde’ type, but she pushes it all the way into ‘completely fucking retarded’. Also, at this point, she’s a good ten years past prime stewardess age – especially the blazing variety. So it’s got that going for it.

Then there’s the Ritz Brothers, two rail-thin, creaky ex-Vaudevillian grampas who dance, eat a giant sandwich, bicker, and bug their eyes out a lot. Hi-larious.

Oh, and Yvonne DeCarlo kills any momentum the movie might have had going for it dead with an awkward, snooze-inducing musical number 20 minutes in. I’d say that the film never recovers after that, but it actually wasn’t going anywhere before then, either.

Which is not to say that you won’t enjoy Blazing Stewardesses, because you probably will. Just not in the way they intended. More in the picking-a-scab-with-a-ballpoint-pen kinda way.

PS: no tits? What is this, the not-so-friendly skies?

But wait, there’s more!