This movie is a somewhat charming, though pretty standard, melodrama set against the backdrop of an airport crisis. The story unfolds during a snowstorm at Chicago’s Lincoln International Airport, where the manager—played by Burt Lancaster—is struggling to get a Boeing 707 unstuck from the snow while also navigating problems in his marriage. Simultaneously, another flight headed for Rome, piloted by his brother-in-law (Dean Martin), carries a passenger with a mysterious briefcase (Van Heflin). The cast includes George Kennedy as the chief mechanic, Jean Seberg portraying a customer relations representative, Jacqueline Bisset as a stewardess, and Helen Hayes in the role of a woman who snuck onto a flight. "Airport," released in 1970, essentially started the wave of disaster films that were popular during the early 1970s. It’s not quite as good as “The Poseidon Adventure” from 1972, but it's more engaging and doesn't feel as overstuffed as "The Towering Inferno" did in 1974. The initial part of the film feels like a soap opera, which then leads into the disaster sequences later on. It’s clearly designed to have an old-fashioned feel, and it was a significant success when it played in theaters. I wasn't entirely convinced during the first twenty minutes or so, but I quickly became invested in what happened to the characters and remained interested throughout the rest of the film. Years later, after disaster movies had fallen out of favor, Lancaster himself criticized "Airport," calling it the “worst piece of junk ever made.” That’s a funny comment considering how much money it earned at the box office—by far his biggest hit. The movie has a running time of two hours and sixteen minutes and was filmed in Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, Minneapolis, as well as at Universal Studios in California. GRADE: B

Source on TMDB