Zero Hour! was released in 1957. Directed by Hall Bartlett, written by Arthur Hailey, Hall Bartlett and John Champion and produced by John C. Champion along with Hall Bartlett. The film was distributed by Paramount Pictures and had an estimated budget between $400,764 to $650,000. The film was adapted from Arthur Hailey's teleplay entitled Flight into Danger which appeared on the Canadian Broadcasting Network in 1956.
The film stars Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, Sterling Hayden and Elroy 'Crazylegs' Hirsch about an ex-World War II pilot who is forced to land a commercial plane when everyone on board, including the pilots, get food poisoning all while the fog is so thick that he can hardly see. The film was well received by the critics including The New York Times, but panned by Time magazine. Zero Hour! would become the basis for the film Airplane! which the producers of used the script nearly down to its smallest details, as Paramount owned the script and was distributing Airplane! The studio thus allowed the filmmakers to directly steal from it, only in a comedic genre.
