Produced on a budget of just over $100,000, the film grossed $25 million in 1970, becoming the most profitable 3-D film ever released. In budget-relative terms, it remains among the most profitable theatrical movies ever made. Originally self-rated "X," the film was largely re-shot and re-edited to receive an MPAA "R" rating to qualify for a wide general release. At the same time, the technology of the projection print was enhanced by means of anamorphic 3D to a larger image. This later version appeared in final form in 1971.
A single eventful night in the lives of a crew of Los Angeles-based, trans-Pacific stewardesses. The leading character is killed in a 30-story suicide leap, and the others simply "party," using drugs and engaging in various sexual encounters. One of the girls befriends and beds a returning Vietnam combat soldier.
The film was a 35mm 3D soft-sex, "skin-flick" with minimal production value during the first months of distribution. Since it was grossing extremely well, in specialty "adult theaters," Louis Sher and Silliphant decided to repackage their 3D specialty "hit" into a regular R-rated, general release 3D feature film, with a more complex, conventional storyline with reduced nudity and simulated sex activity.
The original version was filmed with only a thematic minimal plot and shown in San Francisco and Los Angeles for a year before national release. The crew was small, and the actors were unknowns, allowing for an initially small budget; as it became a local success, and profits rolled in, Silliphant and Condon would shoot additional scenes and add them to the film. New scenes were shot in both Los Angeles and Hawaii to "open up" the picture, including dialogue and characters on a newer passenger plane interior and cockpit.
The self-imposed X rating was a draw in the early stages, attracting viewers to relatively small theatres showing the 3D film. In the last year, with the official R rating, it was possible to show the film more widely, even in 70mm 3D, in houses like the 4,300-seat Boston Music Hall. Total active run extended three years and was presented in just over 800 theaters (compared to the thousands of play dates usual today). It outsold the higher budget movies in larger theaters. A definitive "R" version was released throughout 1971, and it was played in at least 30 overseas markets, eventually.
The film is also unique in that it may be the only notable film to be extensively re-shot, edited and updated as it played in theaters, according to Allan Silliphant, the Producer-Director. These changes were added as the film continued to hold on in theaters. Probably four versions of the evolving film were played over the three years that the film was in active distribution.
Writer, producer, director, and 3D technologist, Allan Silliphant was the younger half-brother of Academy Award-winning writer and producer Stirling Silliphant. He would later write or direct other low-budget films, and historical documentary films, such as The Navajo Code Talkers. Co-producer and cinematographer Chris Condon, who had founded Century Precision Optics, built innovative, relatively lightweight and portable designs of single-strip 3-D cameras. He would later work on other 3-D films, such as Jaws 3-D. Theatre owner Louis Sher was the executive producer, and used his Art Theatre Guild theatres to display the film coast to coast. Specially trained 3-D technicians would be sent to each and every theater to install the special equipment, and to teach the projectionists how to keep it running. Allan Silliphant is still active in his advocacy of 3D film and digital technology. Chris Condon has been continuously been involved in the 3-D motion picture art and technology ever since. He has lectured at USC, UCLA, and Columbia college and is considered the worlds most experienced consultant for production and projection of theatrical 3-D films. Chris Condon received an Honorary Doctorate from the Institute of Scientific Research, Naples, Italy, 1988. Silliphant continues to be active in the digital 3D world, having patented the Anachrome "compatible" anaglyph method for digital stills and 3D HD broadcast video. His 2010 effort is a line of Canon 5D Mark II-based, professional stereo camera rigs, that offer both motion picture and broadcast 3D in a very compact, and low cost package.
Silliphant and Condon's company, Stereovision International, Inc., actually started a "real life" commercial airline, Sierra Pacific Airlines, which, under different ownership, continues to operate today with a modern jet transport fleet.
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