In Old Chicago

MGM famously mounted the West Coast's most notorious earthquake in 1936's San Francisco, so rival studio Fox came up with their own equally spectacular disaster flick in this impressive re-creation of the 1871 Great Fire of Chicago. With a star-filled cast and a fitful sense of drama, it's pretty much the same old recipe as the equivalent cycle of megabudget '70s exploiters, but the climactic conflagration - shot on the backlot under such dangerous conditions that no women were allowed on set and stuntmen in dresses took all the female parts - is certainly worth the wait.