The Hindenburg

The disaster movie whose big bang is based on the assumption that the Hindenburg airship, the pride of Nazi Germany, was in fact sabotaged when it burst into flames while landing at New York in 1937. The formula is much as one would expect - lots of switching from the dirigible to plot developments on land in the USA and Germany which are accompanied by day/time/place checks, all part of the big countdown to disaster. Special effects are reasonable, and the final holocaust is shot in black-and-white to enable the incorporation of newsreel footage. The cast, most of them under suspicion as potential saboteurs, are both more imaginatively selected and kept in better check than usual; but the picture of Nazi Germany scratches scarcely deeper than Cabaret.