This movie follows various people in a mid-sized American city. An angry employee sabotages the refinery located in the middle of the city.

It takes a half hour before the sabotaging happens and even longer for the fire to get started. This spends way too much time introducing all these characters. The best and most important character is the fire. They really need to start blowing up stuff sooner. The audience don't care about the human characters, no matter how great the actors. They want explosions, destruction, and mayhem. There's a bit of that but it's not enough. This is before CGI so it's questionable if they could do more. The composite shot of the fire in the city skyline looks very fake. This uses a lot of stock footage to fill out the destruction. It doesn't have nearly enough action. I appreciate some of the stunt work but it's all not enough. It's also ridiculous but I'm less concerned about that.

It is obvious from the moment that she steps out of her car in her glamorous designer outfit and matching hat that Ava Gardner is trying to emulate Tallulah Bankhead. She's a boozy reporter with a penchant for drama and divorce, described as a dragon Lady by those who work with her, basically that is all you need to know about her because she really doesn't get to do anything but look Haggard as if Tallulah's character from "Die Die My Darling" had all of a sudden become a news reporter. even her character's name, Maggie Grayson, reeks of a 1940s bad soap opera heroine.

Then there's Shelley Winters, whose head nurse at the brand new city hospital (an unnamed city of course!) Is certainly no Jessie Brewer ("General Hospital"),barking orders and complaining that the hospital is undergoing many deficient. That's no time for a citywide fire to break out, but that's what happens, and if you count the sneers and smirks of city mayor Leslie Nielsen and have a shot each time, you'll need a doctor yourself! Nielsen's presence alone, the year before "Airplane!", is playing a serious character, but you can't help but laugh simply by a quiet close up on him.

Henry Fonda, once again getting special billing with his character's name (as he did with "Rollercoaster" and "Tentacles!"),is wasted as the fire chief. What is not wasted our special effects as evidenced by The stills that show nothing but burning structures and running people. Gary numan as the chief of staff has a credible performance and Susan Hayward is commanding as his ex-wife, lake of the two most developed characters in the film which isn't saying much. There's a villain who apparently starts the fire at the refinery out of some twisted need for revenge, but his motive is never explained. Late and no substance, so while you won't be bored, you won't be impressed either.

I hope too much of Montreal where City On Fire was shot didn't burnn too much in the making of this film. Noting that this was where this was shot you can see many French language signs in this ostensibly American city.

I'm sure a lot of fire newsreel footage got cobbled together to make City On Fire. It's a poor person's version of The Towering Inferno. A few big Hollywood names like Ava Gardner, Henry Fonda, and Shelley Winters who comes out best as a concerned nurse.

Best in the cast is Leslie Nielsen who had the bright idea to build an oil refinery in the middle of his city and when it leaked into the sewers, one spark and BOOM. Leslie is the mayor of this metropolis and is all ready thinking of how best to come out politically.

City On Fire is one mess of a conflagration.