SLAPPED SILLY: ACTRESS LEE BRYANT RECALLS 'AIRPLANE!'

Lee Bryant with Nicholas Pryor in AIRPLANE!

"The reason AIRPLANE worked so well was that everyone played it completely serious," actress Lee Bryant tells Cult Film Freak. "The minute you indicate that something is going to be funny, it isn't funny anymore. The earnestness was what made it absurd."

And so, following our review of the 1980 comedy classic AIRPLANE!, we go inside the "big Tylenol" shaped fuselage with Lee, who played Mrs. Hammen, a name that might not ring a bell at first: But remember the kid who gets special attention from Peter Grave's pilot? And the man who never wants a second cup at home, and is the first to become ill from bad fish? Well Mrs. Hammen was that boy's mom, and that man's wife... She also makes the single blonde stewardess cry, pointing out: "To be honest, I've never been so scared... At least I have a husband." But the scene centered on is her most memorable: being violently subdued by Leslie Nielsen's Dr. Rumack, followed by a line of other passengers...

Actress Lee Bryant

LEE BRYANT: The way that scene was originally written was me being shaken by the flight attendant and then some passenger. The writers/directors had written an hysterical script, but were also open to suggestions and improvisation from the actors... 

I suggested that it might be funnier if I were slapped and then perhaps also by the doctor and the nun, etc. They loved it and then put in tire chains and brass knuckles, etc. So, we laughed a lot and had fun.

[And upon her return as Mrs. Hammen, the scene redone in court for AIRPLANE 2: THE SEQUEL, the residing judge being "Perry Mason" himself]: Raymond Burr was lovely and got into the spirit of things very nicely. It was great seeing yet another iconic actor having such a good time.

Leslie Nielsen and Lee Bryant in the skybreaking classic AIRPLANE!