The Towering Inferno takes the better part of an hour before the plot literally heats up, but the disaster was the prime attraction for this movie. People came to the theater to watch the building ...

Or if not directly caused, then aided and abetted. The culmination — the ultimate movie of its kind — was "The Towering Inferno," which opened 50 years ago this month, on Dec. 14, 1974.

The Towering Inferno, poster, US advance poster art ... LOS ANGELES - DECEMBER 20: The movie "The Godfather: Part II", directed by Francis Ford Coppola, ... [+] based on the novel 'The Godfather ...