The Night They Took Miss Beautiful (1977 TV Movie) User Reviews

Hokey Fun

[ReelCheese · 5/10 · 19 April 2007]

As the title implies, THE NIGHT THEY TOOK MISS BEAUTIFUL offers up some hokey enjoyment. This obscure made-for-television effort introduces us to two dim-witted terrorists who hijack a charter plane full of beauty contestants and, unbeknownst to them, a pilot secretly carrying a deadly biological agent!

THE NIGHT THEY TOOK MISS BEAUTIFUL is not exactly grade A suspense, but nor is it boring or lacking in merit. In some ways it's just another lame '70s film, complete with cardboard characters, but in others it's surprisingly ambitious. Some scenes, particularly Mrs. Barrett's urging her daughter to give in to a horny terrorist, are painfully awkward; while others, especially those surrounding the much-feared biological agent, are quite fun.

It's a mixed bag, to be sure, and those with an appetite for cheesiness will appreciate it more than most. Watch for TV legend Phil Silvers in one of his final roles.

"What I'm About To Tell You Is So Secret, I Could Go To Jail Just For Thinking It!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 14 June 2021]

In THE NIGHT THEY TOOK MISS BEAUTIFUL, a gaggle of beauty pageant contestants are loaded into a chartered airplane. Along for the ride is a former winner, played by Stella Stevens, as well as Victoria Principal. Piloting the plane is Gary Collins, while Chuck Connors himself is in the control tower!

Oh no!

Ruthless hijackers (Gregory Sierra and Jonathon Banks) have taken over, forcing an unscheduled landing! They herd the passengers into an abandoned warehouse, where they meet up with their diabolical cohort, played by Sheree North! It must be said that Ms. North plays the best character, and is the best part of the movie! She's a loose cannon with a habit, and boy, does she ever need a fix!

Oh no, again!

It seems that someone aboard the plane was carrying a biological weapon! The tension grows exponentially from this point, with Ms. North's character becoming more unglued by the minute!

For its time period, this is an excellent made-for-TV thriller. Highly recommended for lovers of such fare...

Dumb-how the not-so-mighty have fallen even farther

[Hitchcoc · 2/10 · 28 November 2006]

I suppose at some level this is a little bit appealing. A group of beauty contestants forced to be holed up in a sheet metal shed, awaiting a ransom. But it's all exploitative and dumb and pointless. Poor Chuck Connors; poor Gary Collins, poor Henry Gibson. Don't you feel for them? They were pretty important in their own worlds at one time. Not much left to say. They must have needed a few bucks. The girls are nice to look at and that maniac woman with her machine gun waving endlessly is sort of amusing, but it's all claptrap. It also suffers from one of the dullest decades in history, the 70's. It has that vapid look about it. Add to the do not resuscitate file.

BETTER than you'd think, but the title is dumb!

[[e-mail] · 7/10 · 26 March 2003]

This is a pretty good film, really. If you review the cast list, and like them, then you should find this tv movie better than average. Except for Victoria Principal's accent (which you get over once the movie gets going), and Gary Collins, this turns out to be a decent story, with a credible script and an some enjoyable action to it. Sheree North is outstanding, playing against type as one of the Hi-Jackers. Stella Stevens is always good, though her part is rather small. I'd like to get this on tape or dvd someday. Just some fun, mindless suspenseful entertainment. Enjoy!

I Guess It Was An Intriguing Idea

[richard.fuller1 · 9/10 · 10 August 2013]

I remember this movie and thought it was good. It seems like I saw it years later and it was rather dry.

It stood out to me most as we would sing the Groucho Marx song here and that the very Marx Bros movie the song is from also aired in primetime around that time, as a special or something.

Very surprised to see it was Victoria Principal in the agent-posing-as-a-contestant role as she seemed very good, but again, it's been a long time since I've seen this now.

The whole setup, from Marcia Lewis' stagemother to Sheree North's hijacker was quite a rounded up situation, then the deadly virus as well.

Throw in Phil Silvers as the emcee and Stella Stevens as an unlikely beauty contestant (While still beautiful, she was over forty, wasn't she?) It seemed fun but almost TV episode drama-like. I wouldn't mind seeing it again.

"The first Fight-For-Your-Lives beauty contest is now on!"

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 25 July 2010]

Well what can you say about this flick? This one really has that train wreck quality going for it, especially once the hijacked beauty contestants land on the isolated island with the International Liberation Army. You think they only had those three members, plus the guy on the boat? Here's what has me really scratching my head (like the rest of the movie didn't) - why did Layla (Sheree North) agree to the million dollar ransom near the end of the story after they already negotiated the five million? Anyone?

But you know, the film did have it's moments. Most memorable was Victoria Principal doing her Groucho impression; very good, but how did she get her face cleaned up so well afterward? In a different movie, the showdown between Big Momma Barrett (Marcia Lewis) and daughter Cindy Lou (Karen Lamm) over Omar's lust might have qualified for some kind of award, but buried here it loses all it's significance. Did you catch that sneering 'Do it' when Momma trampled her daughter's dignity? For a brief moment, it made me forget all about Layla's histrionics with the machine gun.

There are others, but this picture's right up there with one of the most eclectic and disparate casts in cinema - Chuck Connors, Phil Silvers, Henry Gibson, Victoria Principal, Stella Stevens. Whenever I see Connors in a tight spot, I keep waiting for him to pull out that tricked out Winchester from 'The Rifleman"; I think it might have done some good here. Silvers and Gibson - very painful to watch. Silvers was basically doing himself but too long past his prime. While after watching Gibson on 'Laugh-In' back in the day, anything he tries to do serious just falls flat with me.

You know, the writers missed an opportunity at the finale after playing with the idea of feeling beautiful versus being beautiful, the theme of Cindy Lou's character. Remember how she broke down and felt ugly after the Omar incident. She could have really crushed Momma deciding not to participate in the final contest by declaring that finally, 'I feel beautiful'.

Not very good ....

[welshNick · 8 August 2011]

I saw this some years ago early one morning when unable to sleep as part of ITV's through the night entertainment. You could tell why it had such a graveyard slot quite early.

Phil Silvers, in a rare departure from Bilko, plays the host of a beauty pageant. Him along with 5 beauty queens and one overbearing Mother all get kidnapped and put up for ransom by a group of terrorists. What the terrorists do not know is one of the pilots is carrying a deadly highly contagious biological nerve agent.

It all gets rather dumb and the Mother urges her daughter to give herself to one of the terrorists to help them escape. In a thoroughly predictable ending all the terrorists and one of the pilots die and the beauty queen gets away from her overbearing mother.

Victoria was Great

[garyldibert · 10/10 · 23 July 2012]

The Night They Took Miss Beautiful was released on television on October 24, 1977 starring Victoria Principal, Gary Collins, and Chuck Conners.

Summary: The movie opens with five women in a beauty contest that's being shown on national TV. Marv baker who had a little too much to drink is announcing the five winners of the beauty contest. The next morning the 5 winning contenders are at the airport waiting to take a flight to NASA. While contestants are waiting, two men go up into the plane dressed as mechanics. Rolly Royce who is the director goes to Mike O'Toole wanting to know why he's not letting the fans go out to the plane to cheer for the contestants. O'Toole is worried about people getting hurt at his airport and that's why he forbid the people to go to the plane. While the contestants were boarding the plane they were greeted by the media and there camera's. As the women went up the ramp they posed for pictures in there each and unique way. Once the airplane gets into the air, the two men dressed in mechanic outfits come out and enter the cockpit of the airplane. The two men tell the pilot to drop the plane to under two hundred feet. When one of the pilots tries to contact, the tower he is shot.

Questions: What was the two men dress as mechanic doing on the plane? Did the pilot who contacted the tower live? Why did the two men want the plane to fly under two hundred feet? Where did the men want the plane to go? What happen to the contestants that were on the plane? Where did the plane land?

My Thoughts: I bought this movie because of Victoria Principal and I wasn't disappointed. I thought she played her character very well. I also thought that Sheree North was great in her character as Layla Burden. She played the role of a whacked out crazy person with a gun. The movie was slow getting started because of the beauty contest. However once the contest was over the movie took off and it kept my attention. Because of Victoria and Sheree, I give this movie 10 weasel stars. If you're interested in this movie you can buy it at Amazon.com