TheMegaCritic2000 . OK, I didn't get to watch this movie until after I'd already seen 'Airplane!' and that means that the whole way through the film, I kept hearing Robert Hays' Stryker in my head. Some of the lines are lifted word-for-word. Once you manage to get over that, this is an entertaining movie. An average rating of 6.6 (at the time of writing this review) is a tad harsh, IMO. Dana Andrews and Linda Darnell both turn in solid performances in the cockpit as the mid-air disaster unfolds. Sterling Hayden, the guy who has to talk Stryker down through the landing procedure, also does a good job, but I just can't help seeing and hearing Lloyd Bridges the whole way through.It's a shame that 'Airplane!' has become such an iconic movie because anybody who watches 'Zero Hour' now will end up laughing because they've seen 'Airplane!'. In it's day, this was regarded as a tense, gripping movie. I think it's an all-round good movie, so just try to see it in it's own context and you'll enjoy it.

Martin Bradley "Zero Hour" is the movie that inspired "Airplane" which not only copied it's plot but even took the leading character's name. However, watching Hall Bartlett's picture we are meant to keep our faces very straight indeed, if this is at all possible, (it isn't). I remember seeing this as a kid and loving it and it does hold up pretty well. It also comes as no surprise to see Arthur Hailey's name on the credits. He was the man who gave us "Airport" which touched on similar ground. Unfortunately, this particular hour is hardly Dana Andrews' finest; his po-faced performance is almost a parody in itself. It helps a little that Linda Darnell is on hand, not as the stewardess this time but as Andrews wife who helps him fly the plane while Sterling Hayden huffs and puffs on the ground in the role that Robert Stack and Lloyd Bridges sent up so brilliantly. It's no classic but it is hugely entertaining though I wonder if I would if I would be enjoying it so much if "Airplane" hadn't come along.

JasparLamarCrabb A film so stupid it's become a camp classic and the subject of ridicule for many years. AIRPLANE lifted entire portion of this insanity finding it a goldmine of ridiculousness. After the crew is put out of commission with food poison, PTS basket-case Dana Andrews takes the helm and, along with his icy wife Linda Darnell, attempts to land the plane. They're helped along from the ground by Sterling Hayden. Directed by Hall Bartlett and with a script by none other than Arthur Hailey, this has to rank as one of goofiest serious films ever. Elroy 'Crazylegs' Hirsch and Jerry Paris co-star. Hayden actually utters the line "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit smoking."

collie-12 OK, I know this is a minority report, but this film deserves to be taken seriously and enjoyed on its own merits. I hate that the makers of the spoof "Airplane!" have apparently ruined this film for most viewers. If you like the more famous parody, which I do not by the way, I suppose it is hard to keep from comparing this film to its spoof--and that is a pity since this film is actually pretty good for a tense little B-picture. And no, it is not full of clichés because although it seems clichéd now, it was actually pretty fresh at the time it was made. While it's not the first of the airplane disaster genre--actually that honour might go to "Five Came Back" (1939)--and it very well could have been trying to cash-in on the A-list "The High and the Mighty" (1954), it certainly predates all the big "Airport" movies of the 1970s which at some point did become clichéd. Any way, this film is not inherently funny--neither intentionally nor non-intentionally. True, it doesn't even come close to being the greatest film ever made, but it is a nice little suspense film and deserves to be taken seriously in that respect.