Thursday, November 19, 2009

AS SEEN ON TV: ULI DERICKSON

ULI DERICKSON

AS SEEN IN:
"The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story"

AS PLAYED BY:
Lindsay Wagner

Here is Hal Erickson's capsule synopsis of the historical event and the TV movie inspired by it:

In June of 1985, TWA Athens-to-Rome flight 847 was seized by two fanatical, grenade-wielding Hezbollah Moslems. The hijacking was dragged out for 17 days, during which time several of the terrified passengers were beaten and one was killed. Written by Norman Morrill, the made-for-TV The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson stars Lindsay Wagner as courageous American purser Uli Derickson, whose knowledge of German enables her to communicate with the chief hijacker, a Shiite Lebanese who calls himself Castro (Eli Danker). When the ordeal was over, Derickson was credited with saving many lives and preventing the crisis from becoming far worse than it already was. It is a tribute to Lindsay Wagner's acting talent that, although most of the film's dialogue is spoken in German, the audience never has any difficulty following the story. The Taking of Flight 847 first aired May 2, 1988.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

I'm running this ASOTV today in tribute to the film's director, Paul Wendkos, who passed away just the other day.....

BCnU!

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