This delightful disaster soap opera started off a trend of all-star popcorn movies where some sort of tragic occurrence changed the courses of people's lives. Whether it be a bomb exploding on a plane, a tidal wave tossing a cruise ship upside down, a skyscraper catching on fire or a massive earthquake, Hollywood filmmakers became obsessed with finding new ways to toss old and new actors together to bring fun onto the screen while giving its audience something to bite their nails over as famous people fought to survive something totally beyond their control.

Of the four "Airport" films, this is by far the best, although "Airport '75" is certainly more famous as a camp classic. Here, a group of strangers are tossed together in an enclosed space where they have no idea a disgruntled man has gotten onto the plane with a man made bomb he intends to explode so his wife can get money from the insurance policy he's just purchased. It doesn't matter that innocent people will be taken out with him or that there are laws that would keep her from getting anything, he's determined to put his evil plan into motion. Yet, there's a pitiful quality about this down on his luck elderly man (a magnificent Van Heflin) that prevents you from totally hating him, and his lovable wife (Maureen Stapleton in one of her finest performances) has obviously remained loyal in spite of his shortcomings.

To off-set the tragedy, there's a cute old lady (Helen Hayes) who stows away all the time in order to go see her grown children. Yet, this time, she may not get away with it, giving away her secrets to amused airport executive Burt Lancaster and the no-nonsense Jean Seberg whom Hayes politely tells to lighten up after Seberg grills her for breaking the law. Pilot Dean Martin is involved with pretty stewardess Jacqueline Bisset even though he's married to the older and very rich Barbara Hale. Bisset has a secret however which will be greatly affected by the results of what occurs with Heflin's bomb.

Then, there's irascible George Kennedy in the first of four "Airport" appearances as Patroni, a technical genius who spouts all sorts of technical jargon to give the audience the opportunity to understand how an airport works behind the scenes of the ticket counter and the baggage claim. Kennedy's dialog in these films seemed to get sillier and sillier, and by the time of 1979's "Concorde", his appearances here were deemed as some sort of bad joke.

Veteran actress Jessie Royce Landis is amusing in a cameo as a wealthy matron smuggling diamonds in her pooch's collar and Lloyd Nolan is memorable as an aging security guard. A ton of familiar character actors pop in and out in amusing cameos, with James Nolan very funny as a priest whose patience has run out as he deals with the obnoxious passenger next to him on the plane.

While Hayes won the Oscar here for her first film in 14 years, it is Stapleton who was certainly more worthy. She would have to wait more than a decade to get an Oscar, but her performance is certainly more memorable, although Hayes is an adorable old lady. All she's missing is the tweety bird and cage and black and white cat, because ultimately, she is more of a cartoon character than a real person. This created a huge box office sensation in the early 70's and remains greatly enjoyable. The split screen sequences are a lot of fun (having been used by producer Ross Hunter a decade before in "Pillow Talk") and an excellent music score by Alfred Newman also adds to the tension. Yes, there is a bit of a lack of reality, but ultimately, when you've got so much fun on screen, who really cares?