Befitting its title, the movie revolves largely around the people and events taking place at fictional Lincoln International Airport - a fact which serves to create one of its many problems. The first half (and maybe a little more than that) is nothing more than a soap opera as we discover that pretty much everyone in this movie has marriages that have fallen or are falling apart. We get introduced to the tensions between the Bakersfelds (Burt Lancaster and Dana Wynter), to the extra marital romance between pilot Vern Demerest (Dean Martin) and stewardess Gwen (Jacqueline Bissett) and the only guy who seems happy in his marriage - maintenance man Joe Petrone (George Kennedy) - gets called away from a make out session with his wife to help with the disaster as it unfolds. Then we discover Mrs. Quonset (Helen Hayes) who is discovered as a stowaway and who explains how she manages to pull it off time and time again - a sweet little old lady who has no qualms at all about breaking the law. Of course there's the personal angst of the man who plans to blow the plane up (Van Heflin.) Put bluntly, the first half of the movie is only for those who like a good soap opera. None of their various escapades make any of the characters (except perhaps Petrone) particularly likable, although Hayes does inject some humour with her portrayal as Mrs. Quonset.
The second half of the movie really isn't that much better. Although the setting shifts from time to time now to the stricken airliner, the film is still split at least half and half between the plane and the airport. The difference is now that both lack any real excitement. For a plane on which a bomb has just gone off everyone seems remarkably calm and there just isn't any real sense that there's really any danger of this plane not landing safely. At the airport the focus of attention is on clearing Runway 29 so that the big 707 can land. Except there's not a lot of drama there either. How exciting is it, you ask, to watch a bunch of men dig an airplane out of the snow? Not very. How dramatic? A little given the circumstances - until we discover that there's a simple way to get the plane off the runway anyway. Sure it might damage the plane and cost the airline a lot of money but there's a planeload of people who need the runway, folks! Once we discover that it can be easily done we know it's going to be. So, take away any drama - unless you find it dramatic to watch George Kennedy try to ease the plane out of a snowbank, which isn't much different than watching your average Joe try to get a car out of a snowbank.
Add on some special effects that are so bad they're funny. In a movie that spent enough money to get a high profile cast of actors you'd think they could have come up with something a bit more realistic than using an obviously plastic toy plane being dragged against a black backdrop with white dots - as stars - to simulate flight. I know this was 1970, but this was the best they could do?
Basically, this is not a great "disaster" flick. It isn't itself a disaster, either. The acting is decent enough, Hayes is funny enough. But it's a truly mediocre film. 4/10
The second half of the movie really isn't that much better. Although the setting shifts from time to time now to the stricken airliner, the film is still split at least half and half between the plane and the airport. The difference is now that both lack any real excitement. For a plane on which a bomb has just gone off everyone seems remarkably calm and there just isn't any real sense that there's really any danger of this plane not landing safely. At the airport the focus of attention is on clearing Runway 29 so that the big 707 can land. Except there's not a lot of drama there either. How exciting is it, you ask, to watch a bunch of men dig an airplane out of the snow? Not very. How dramatic? A little given the circumstances - until we discover that there's a simple way to get the plane off the runway anyway. Sure it might damage the plane and cost the airline a lot of money but there's a planeload of people who need the runway, folks! Once we discover that it can be easily done we know it's going to be. So, take away any drama - unless you find it dramatic to watch George Kennedy try to ease the plane out of a snowbank, which isn't much different than watching your average Joe try to get a car out of a snowbank.
Add on some special effects that are so bad they're funny. In a movie that spent enough money to get a high profile cast of actors you'd think they could have come up with something a bit more realistic than using an obviously plastic toy plane being dragged against a black backdrop with white dots - as stars - to simulate flight. I know this was 1970, but this was the best they could do?
Basically, this is not a great "disaster" flick. It isn't itself a disaster, either. The acting is decent enough, Hayes is funny enough. But it's a truly mediocre film. 4/10