(Photo by Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images) 3) The Towering Inferno marked the final film appearance for Jennifer Jones. Earlier in her career, she reached a career zenith with a Best ...

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.