"The Towering Inferno"

I saw this with my dad when it first came out and I still have the high quality corresponding program (which they used to sell near the concession stand).

Susan Flannery, jumping out of the window on fire in a flaming swan dive.

A word from the BREECHES BUOY.

One of the worst films to receive an Oscar nod for Best Picture. The characters are flat, and the disaster doesn't begin until 40 minutes in. It's a human barbecue. A tedious 2hrs45mins

I watch this every few years. It never gets old. Simply can't get enough of those 70s-era disaster epics with the all-star casts...

Even though this has some dated look to it and you can clearly see the stuntman during Robert Wagner's death, I still enjoy this film. Irwin Allen films were a favorite of mine when I was a boy.

R4, I have to agree. We watched this back-to-back with Poseidon Adventure.

There is no comparison.

I cried when Jennifer Jones was knocked out of the elevator!

Steve McQueen was delicious. I love the pettiness between Steve and Paul insofar as lines. Paul’s hot dead son played one of the firemen, by the way. There are a couple of decent shots of him.

Did anyone say remake?

R10- The remake premiered in New York City on September 11, 2001.

R2 Have to admit that always disturbed me and when I watch that scene now I think of people jumping out of the towers on 9/11.

[quote][R10]- The remake premiered in New York City on September 11, 2001.

Awww, I was hoping for The Trump Tower Inferno.

As the bland, star-laden drama gets swallowed by fiery special-effects setpieces, it feels like one type of big-budget mediocrity giving way to the next.-The A-V Club

Movies like The Towering Inferno appear to have been less directed than physically constructed. This one is overwrought and silly in its personal drama, but the visual spectacle is first rate. You may not come out of the theater with any important ideas about American architecture or enterprise, but you will have had a vivid, completely safe nightmare.-NY Times

R5 I agree. The Poseidon Adventure is my top disaster movie followed by INFERNO, EARTHQUAKE, AIRPORT '75 (Love Nancy).

That party was on fire!🔥

R8 I cried too. Not LISOLETTE!!

We once had a thread devoted exclusively to Faye Dunaway’s dress in this film.

Saw this with the family when I was ten at a local drive in movie screen, loved it. Also a big fan of 70s disaster films, Irwin Allen, etc. My mother loved both Steve McQueen and Paul Newman, she was over the moon, and constantly commented on how good they both looked for their "age" at the time (1974). An all star studded cast, and a blazing inferno, that's what I call entertainment. :-)

Airplane! and the Poseidon Adventure are the two best disaster movies. The towering inferno was dreck

R20 Did you actually mean the comedy spoof AIRPLANE or one of the AIRPORT movies - AIRPORT '75 is the best of the series with Karen Black as Nancy the frightened yet courageous flight attendant.

I meant Airplane! of course! The Airport movies were so bad they had to be spoofed. Sure is a parody but it was still a disaster movie

It needed me for the camp value!

I still don't know what the fish of the day is.

O.J. Simpson was casted!

Ir stars no one's favorite, Faye Dunaway!

Watching it right now on HBO Max.

[Quote]Saw this with the family when I was ten at a local drive in movie screen, loved it. Also a big fan of 70s disaster films, Irwin Allen, etc. My mother loved both Steve McQueen and Paul Newman, she was over the moon, and constantly commented on how good they both looked for their "age" at the time (1974). An all star studded cast, and a blazing inferno, that's what I call entertainment.

and you mother could feel safe that none of the big stars would die in the disaster

I never cared about Airport '75 - but I loved Airport '77. A superior cast and a c-r-a-z-y plot which includes Lee Grant trying to get out of the plane, which UNDER WATER in order to be with her now dead husband Christopher Lee. Thank God Brenda Vaccaro was there to punch Grant's face!

^ JUSTICE FOR AIRPORT ‘77!

DL legend Olivia De Havilland gets soaked!

....

Inferno had Faye, but Earthquake had Ava Gardner (hilariously cast as Lorne Greene’s “daughter”). I conflate the two movies in my mind and can’t remember if a scene occurred in one or the other. Poseidon had Shelley Winters, of course, so it wins by a nose.

I was in Die Hard, it also stared a building! I think.

Then we have De Havilland in another horror/disaster campfest, "The Swarm," in 1978.

The Swarm is where Irwin Allen lost his touch.

But it did give us this minute of indelible movie magic.

Help! I'm falling out of a large, scenic elevator!

R36 The last scene I shot. Then I got back to my EXTREMELY rich husband Norton Simon, ignoring my children, holding weekly Saturday night dinner parties, and having a stylist make a house call to do my hair every single day of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.

But nothing beats The Concorde: Airport 79 with Charo, Cicely Tyson, Sylia 'Emmanuelle' Kristel, Martha Raye, Alain Delon, Susan Blakely, Bibi Andersson, Jimmy 'JJ' Walker, John Davidson, Robert Wagner, Susan Blakely . . .

Last night I was so hot I felt like an extra from The Towering Inferno.

I nearly burst into flames 🔥

You would think Susan Blakely would learn her lesson. It's like she went from the frying pan into the fire!

The Concord:Airport ‘79 is an unwatchable, inchoate mess. The plot seems to be improvised on the spot, and the George Kennedy sex scene is unforgivable.

It took just under a decade to ruin that franchise.

Faye looked fan fucking tastic in this.

R38 That has to be one of the oddest cast lineups I’ve ever read.

Reads like an SCTV sketch.

[quote]Reads like an SCTV sketch.

Did you say SCTV sketch, in a Towering Inferno thread?

Ugh, the YouTube link starts in the wrong place. Fast forward to 9:44.

My brother and I went to this movie several times as kids. Our city had a couple old theaters with balconies that included opera seats on the side that were built in the late 1800s. Both were converted to movie theaters in around the 1940s or 50s. At the one showing The Towering Inferno, the balcony area was closed off, but we knew the usher because he was also our paper boy. He let us watch the movie from up there every time we went to see it.

We were very young, so we thought the special effects were awesome for the time. I remember we'd run around the balcony and go to the snack bar for that first 40 minutes or so until the action picked up. Watching it back as an adult, Faye Dunaway was stunning in this. I remember even as a kid thinking Newman and McQueen didn't look like they cared for each other. Their mutual dislike bled through the screen.

We used to make fun of the scene where Jennifer Jones was knocked out of the elevator because her body banked off another part of the building on her death drop. We'd play it out with Fisher Price family figures using something to be the building. We also hated Richard Chamberlain's character, who was a smarmy asshole and major coward. He and some others gain control of a breeches buoy strung between the Towering Inferno building and another building, which had been working to ferry people across, but it's destroyed in an explosion after he and some others hijack it and fall to their deaths. The theater cheered when Chamberlain dropped. He played that character so well everyone hated him.

Ah, the memories!

I eagerly awaited for this movie before it came out and was massively disappointed after I saw it. This movies drags on and on until the fire starts. Newman and McQueen have no memorable scenes or characters to speak of. There are a couple of really good death scenes, Susan Flannery and Jennifer Jones, but that's it, everything else is movie mush. I even forget how the others died because their deaths are just not as spectacular as those two. OK, so maybe Robert Wagner but not really because you can tell it's a stuntman in a fire resistant suit. Faye looks tremendous but all I remember is her ushering people in and out of the elevators. She was at the height of her stardom and just two years later we'd watch her roll around under the sheets with her Inferno co-star William Holden in Network but here all she's asked to do is look fetching and by God she does.

So, this is DataLounge, let me just say, "you bitches are slipping! Pamela (of DYNASTY fame) Bellwood is in the underwater cast of Airport '77! Hence it is the DL-classic of all disaster movies!" It has Gil (bare-chested Buck Rogers) Gerard! A blind piano player - Tom Sullivan (take that Ms. Maureen - Morning After - McGovern). Elizabeth Montgomery's widower Robert Foxworth and more!

It SHOULD be a DL-classic (Olivia de Havilland's in the cast) and be #2 behind The Poseiden Adventure in disaster movie rankings.

I remember Jones' death plunge described as "a sad little tampon bouncing off a Lego tower."

I scratched my cunt while watching this flick for the first time. Hee hee I flicked myself silly.

[Quote] Faye looks tremendous but all I remember is her ushering people in and out of the elevators.

Exactly. The film is so static with repeated shots of people boarding the glass elevator and or plunging to their deaths and there's not a character you give a damn about.

Wow, R35. It looks like both Irwin Allen and Olivia lost their touch there!

Tom Sullivan was one of Betty Whites BFF’s

These pictures did a lot for veteran actors back then. It gave them a second wind in the public eye and a few of them even got awards attention for their work.

Jennifer Jones and Fred Astaire were nominated for their work. Astaire was even expected to win but lost to DeNiro

Reminds me of the democrat's United States, doesn't it?

Natalie should have played the Faye Part, found the script wobbly and declined. Yet she agreed to do METEOR....scratch scratch

R54, how the fuck are we supposed to know what it reminds you of?

Reminds me of yo' momma's gash!

"It's startin' to burn, y'all!"

Richard Chamberlain has never been more butch than in this movie. He even convincingly gets laid with a woman which in anything else would always suspend my suspension of disbelief. Hilarity would ensue.

I'd always had a special love tor When Time Ran Out, the one about the volcano erupting on the tropical resort, also starring Newman and Holden, but with Jacqueline Bisset on hand as the hot piece. But you want to talk about a boring first half - I tried to rewatch it recently and it's a super slog

What about MY disater movies, AVALANCHE and HURRICANE ?

There's nothing like Irwin's The Swarm in the annals of disaster flicks with its exploding trains. Make that the annals of cinema.

[quote]I scratched my cunt while watching this flick for the first time. Hee hee I flicked myself silly.

Sometimes my cooter gets itchy, too.

Pauline Kael's all time greatest line was in a short review if the film: "McQueen and Newman mutter heroic sentiments, and through it all Faye Dunaway looks goddessy-beautiful, wandering through the chaos in puce see-through chiffon."

It's a classic.

[quote]Richard Chamberlain has never been more butch than in this movie. He even convincingly gets laid with a woman which in anything else would always suspend my suspension of disbelief. Hilarity would ensue.

Hear that? I'm Butch!

Why in particular did Steve McQueen hated Paul Newman during the making’?

The staggered billing?

Pauline Kael on Inferno:

> The plot in characters are retreads from the producer Irwin Allen's earlier Poseiden Adventure.

> What was left out this time was the hokey fun.

>When a picture has any kind of entertainment in it viewers don't care much about credibility, but it when it isn't entertaining, we do

>And when a turkey bores us and insults our intelligence for close to three hours it shouldn't preen itself on its own morality.

> it asks us to accept Richard Chamberlain as a rat-fink electrical contractor and as the city's leading roue.

> best surprisingly is Faye Dunaway as Newman's girl.

> her porcelain world weary face becomes wounded by the fear of falling apart and she's more beautiful than ever.

> Perfection going slightly to seed is is the most alluring face a screen goddess can have.

[quote] it shouldn't preen itself on its own morality.

R66 I remember no morality.

R41 my mom said she burst into loud laughter in the movie theater seeing George Kennedy having sex

[Quote] I remember no morality.

Wagner and his secretary getting hideously burned as expiation for their little fling as the camera lingers on their agony.

[quote]r18 We once had a thread devoted exclusively to Faye Dunaway’s dress in this film.

Which was [italic]divine,[/italic] of course!

[quote]R42 Faye looked fan fucking tastic in this.

Yes. They give her that lux, “conventional leading lady” photography in the movie and she shines.

You could also tell that it was a man in drag portraying Susan Flannery when she gets blown out of the window.

It really is a wretched film.

It wasn't bad enough that Jennifer Jones falls from the building but then her body smacks into it as she's falling down.

Also one of the Brady kids is in this as well.

For campy death scenes, nothing could beat the elevator scene in Earthquake. And the ketchup splatter on the camera lens at the end was an exquisite touch!

I'm ashamed to admit I LOVED this movie. Richard Chamberlain was a hoot as the Snidely Whiplash villain, kicking people off that makeshift rescue chair. Wasn't the fat socialite Irwin Allen's wife? My favorite tense moment didn't involve any of the big stars, but that unknown actor playing the poor fireman trying to rescue people off the broken elevator. Like all minor characters, I was sure he was toast, but he survived! (Cute, too!)

All the hoopla was about who would get top billing. I know they found a creative solution, with McQueen getting first billing, but Newman getting higher billing. Still , if you waited for the rolling ending credits, it's Steve who gets first credit (which amazed me, since most people think of Newman as the bigger star).

Was this the only Oscar nomination Fred Astaire ever received? It was obviously an appreciation nod, but he was heartbreaking in the final scenes looking for Jennifer Jones.

[quote]r78 Wasn't the fat socialite Irwin Allen's wife?

Yes.

She was his muse.

R72 I’m fairly certain Susan Flannery has always been a man in drag.

Legend has it that Steve McQueen counted how many words Newman had in his script and demanded he be given the same amount.

The scene where Sheila Matthews Allen and her husband the mayor carry furniture around is incredibly moving drama.

R79 Neither of them had roles which required ANY thespianic talent.

[quote]R80 The scene where Sheila Matthews Allen and her husband the mayor carry furniture around is incredibly moving drama.

That’s footage of Mrs. Allen trying to steal furniture from the set.

OJ started the fire, years before he murdered Nicole.

I remember (for real) when Liza went on Larry King after 9/11 and she said a friend called her and told her to turn on the TV and hung up. So Liza turned on CNN and thought she was watching a remake of The Towering Inferno.

Is this the movie where a fat Ava Gardner gets trapped in the sewer?

DL fave Merideth Baxter turned down the Susan Blakely role for some reason.

The way Miss Dunaway's dress blows in the breeze as the elevator dangles from the building is pure art.

Faye's tits were sublime in this film. They were also great in Network. Her over the top acting, however, was not so sublime.

The apartment that Paul Newman and Our Faye fuck in is fabulous.

[quote] Faye's tits

I was in constant anxiety about them during this 3 hour movie.

They're as tiny as two hen's eggs and were in constant danger of being exposed in that silly lingerie dress.

Criticism of Miss Dunaway is not permitted on DL r88.

But I said her tits were sublime R91.

Faye who?

I absolutely love this movie. It shows a glamorous side of San Francisco decades before the current craziness.

The entirety of the short version of Pauline Kael's hilarious review of "The Towering Inferno":

[quote][bold]The Towering Inferno[/italic] (1974) -- Disaster blockbuster with each scene of someone horribly in flames presented as a feast for the audience's delectation. The picture practically stops for us to say, "Yummy, that's a good one!" These incendiary deaths and the falls from high up in the 138-floor tallest skyscraper in the world are the film's only feats. Paul Newman and Steve McQueen mutter heroic sentiments, and Faye Dunaway manages to look goddessy-beautiful through it all, wandering through the chaos in puce see-through chiffon. John Guillermin directed and Irwin Allen produced. Stirling Silliphant wrote the series of bloopers that make up the script, which is base don two books--Richard Martin Stern's [italic]The Tower[/italic] and Thomas M. Scortia's [italic] The Glass Inferno[/italic] --that were sold to Hollywood studios,The plots were so similar that the two studios--20th Century-Fox and Warners--got together and jointly financed this one expensive (and highly profitable) movie. The picture asks us to believe that the tallest building in the world--a golden glass tower that's a miracle of flimsiness, as it turns out--would have been set down in San Francisco, of all places. With William Holden, Susan Blakely, Robert Vaughn, Jennifer Jones, Fred Astaire, Robert Wagner, O. J. Simpson (he gets to rescue a pussycat), and Richard Chamberlain as a rat-fink electrical contractor--can you imagine him negotiating with the electricians' local? Cinematography by Fred Koenekamp. (160 minutes.) color.

[quote]R88 Faye's tits were sublime in this… Her over the top acting, however, was not so sublime.

Keep my name [italic]out of your mouth,[/italic] little homosexual boy!

And to think it could have been ours!

[quote] [italic]A Faye Dunaway dress from The Towering Inferno: Beige chiffon gown with a deep v-neck, ruching at the center, and panels of fabric at each shoulder that drape down the back, bearing a red-lettered Western Costume Co. label inscribed in black ink, "Faye Dunaway / No I.”.

I cried when Jennifer Jones was knocked out of the elevator!

I saw The Towering Inferno at a huge and luxurious Century Theatre with my parents. It’s a wonderful childhood memory. I always watch it when it’s on television. I love it when Jennifer Jones dies. That bitch killed Robert Walker.

Am I the only one who thinks Miss Towering Inferno from the premier party looks kind of trans?

[quote] So Liza turned on CNN and thought she was watching a remake of The Towering Inferno.

"Where'sh Shteve McQueen..." I shaid, "or Jennifer Jonesh... or the shenic elevator!?"

Miss Dunaway was frequently late to the set as hours were spent getting her primped and preened to look like a Grecian goddess. Sometimes she didn't show up at all. Her perpetual tardiness angered her castmates, especially fed-up Bill Holden, who supposedly shoved Our Faye against the wall and threatened her. Fortunately, they were able to move past this and got along famously in their next venture together, "Network."

^ You know the other actors were hoping that Faye would've been the one to fall out of that glass elevator.

just wait until I get my fat ass on that dress, r97!

My favorite part of the movie is how they put the fires out.

Of course, there was a cut rate television version…

All that backdraft blowing glass and furniture and adulterous secretaries into the air...and then no debris at the foot of the building whatsoever.

Flames at every window - and no column of smoke obscuring everything (and smothering those trapped in the rooftop ballroom).

Somehow two women in evening dress running towards a helicopter will make it crash.

It is possible for a human body to fall twenty stories, hit a skyscraper ledge and bounce lightly off, completely intact.

The best place for a 130 story skyscraper is San Francisco. Also, it is implied that they tore down the Palace Hotel for this thing.

Although there's not a staircase intact or an elevator working, the survivors are at ground level that same night.

More and more firetrucks arrive and are promptly parked in an alternate dimension, so that the streets remain clear.

An entire floor is in flames before two people in an office on that floor smell smoke or notice any other thing out of the ordinary.

Richard Chamberlain is a straight contractor who beats up other men.

Shelia Allen looks her best in an Empire tiered hairstyle and pink chiffon.

Other than that, this was completely believable.

[quote]All that backdraft blowing glass and furniture and adulterous secretaries into the air...and then no debris at the foot of the building whatsoever.

In the book, r106, the Susan Flannery character gets blasted out the window and lands impaled on a large pointy sculpture in the plaza.

Fred Astaire?

Is it a musical?

Does he dance?

He does Too Darn Hot, Rose.

Was 10 when this came out, so maybe that is part of the charm for me. I love it and still do. And the practical effects make it SO much better than any remake would be. The modern day movies overdo the special effects since they're all digital, but it makes it look more fake for some reason.

I watched this a few years ago and I didn't like it at all. I was expecting a action paced adventure with a bunch of stars but it was way more graphic than I thought it would be and kind of depressing.

[quote]but it was way more graphic than I thought it would be and kind of depressing.

Maybe the disaster movie genre isn't the one for you, r111.

Please, use this in the remake!

R112, it isnt a genre that has, imo, contributed to the greatness of film, but I have seen others I have enjoyed far more. Like I said, needlessly graphic, characters not particularly likeable (except Fred Astaire, he was nice) and without a satisfying or at least somewhat uplifting ending to counteract so much death.

R93, J Lo has one of those bodies/faces that either look amazing or very hard and masculine depending on the angle. Faye looks much better in her dress in my opinion.

Plus JLo has stumpy legs compared to Faye.

Jlo is phat, I'm not.

[quote]I meant Airplane! of course! The Airport movies were so bad they had to be spoofed. Sure is a parody but it was still a disaster movie

The Airport movies had little to no inspiration for "Airplane". It was a comedy spoof of a 1957 potboiler called "Zero Hour!" as IMBD describes "during a commercial flight, the pilots and some passengers suffer food poisoning, thus forcing an ex-WWII fighter pilot (Dana Andrews) to try to land the airliner in heavy fog. Sound familiar?

Try watching Zero Hour and you will never think of Airplane! the same way again.

It's a ridiculous movie, but a lot of fun to watch. And yes, Faye looked ravishing. In the scene when she's on the roof waiting for the helicopter, she got the full "glamorous movie star treatment" with dramatic lighting, flattering camera angles and the wind machines blowing her chiffon dress all over the place.

I liked it, when I was a kid.

But the best of these movies is Airport (1970).

[quote]The Airport movies had little to no inspiration for "Airplane".

The nun and sick girl in need of an organ transplant were clearly inspired by Airport '75.

R76, I believe the fireman is also the man who famously falls into the celing light in "The Poseidon Adventure".

Do hotties Newman & McQueen survive?

Who's looking at Faye, R120, when Newman is on the scene?

Yeah, r124, those fuckheads survive.

This is the 9/11 movie the public wants to see. Not the samitized versions with violins.

Airport 75 is fantastic to watch. Karen Black is pure camp genius as the stewardess, and Helen Reddy clearly looking for an oscar nomination playing one of the nuns.

[quote]The Airport movies had little to no inspiration for "Airplane".

Again, r118, Airplane! borrowed liberally from them all. One of my favorites of the Airport genre...

^Jan got a nom...

Katharine Ross was dropped by Universal Pictures for turning down AIRPORT. They used the equally placid Jacqueline Bisset instead.

I like Jackie in Airport

I was 7 years old when we went as a family to see this in the cinema. I remember my father went ahead to the Showcase Cinema to get the tickets for the 6 of us on a Saturday afternoon. I thought Jennifer Jones actually died in the film and was very sad and disturbed by it.

Later that evening, I was so disturbed I couldn’t watch Randolph Mantooth in Emergency!

It’s odd because I’d seen The Poseidon Adventure and didn’t think any of those people died. I think it was the way she fell and then doesn’t she hit another rooftop on the way down? I guess it really made me think about death.

R122 Originally Linda Blair's head spun around when the nun started singing. The original song was supposed to be "That Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady"

Important Trivia:

Jean Seberg detested the drab costume Edith Head designed for her character in AIRPORT, bitching that it made her look like “a puppet.”

[quote] it made her look like “a puppet.”

Silly woman.

For that is EXACTLY what she was. A limp, dull, wooden-headed puppet to be used by men.

Dana Wynter and George Kennedy cut & paste

Apparently Jean’s bitching paid off. This is the original sketch for her final costume. The finished version seen on screen is much more flattering.

Jean would have been an interesting choice for a Hitchcock movie at the time- maybe Marnie or The Birds.

Airport has some great acting by Maureen Stapleton. That final scene of hers is heartbreaking.

[quote] Katharine Ross was dropped by Universal Pictures for turning down AIRPORT. They used the equally placid Jacqueline Bisset instead.

I think she also turned down Towering Inferno.

R140 As far as I can tell those two stick figures you allude to were identical as puppets.

Katharine Ross was a terrible actress and had no business turning down anything.

Ross was great in The Stepford Wives.

I will agree with you there. It was the one time she really seemed to mesh with the role. (And I don't mean that sarcastically, I truly think she was good.)

I thought Ross was terrific in The Stepford Wives. The scene with the psychiatrist was outstanding.

I thought she was also really good in The Legacy. She seemed well-suited to horror films.

Ross has the most beautiful eyes.

The DL will NEVER forgive Ross

Interior shots of the building were of San Francisco's Hyatt Regency.

Exterior shots used the Bank of America building (at 555 California St.), with an additional 50 stories of matte paintings added.

.....

Maureen Stapleton in Airport. Yes! That's acting. The best performance by a mile in all these movies.

Just bought the movie on Amazon prime and it's a cropped, pan-and-scan HD version. The unmitigated gall. I feel like I got "burned".

I wonder why Ross turned down those movies. Clearly she wasn't against doing all-star disaster movies, because she did Voyage of the Damned around this time and inexplicably won a Golden Globe for it (She has almost nothing to do in it).

How Helen Hayes won over Maureen Stapleton's brilliant performance is one of the biggest Oscar injustices. Helen Hayes was cute but she did absolutely nothing extraordinary, while Stapleton was magnificent and clearly should have won her Best Supporting Actress ten years earlier.

Maureen Stapleton was a brilliant actress.

I guess there WAS no morning after, this time.

Voyage of the Damned was more in the vein of Ship of Fools. There was no physical/phenomenonal disaster in it, just disastrous consequences for its passengers interned in concentration camps.

I was 11 when I saw The Towering Inferno on a huge screen in its first run at an old Century Theatre multiplex built for Cinerama spectacles. Earthquake was playing in Sensurround at the theater next door. The sound was so loud that it shook the chairs in both theaters. My friends and I snuck in to Earthquake afterward. The chairs rumbled and our ears rang by the time Ava Gardner was swept away in the sewer.

R156, and kudos to her for having the courage to play blowsy mothers and grandmas before her time. She played Dick Van Dyke's mom when she was only 38!

Maureen Stapleton looked like a blowsy grandma even in her early 30s.

Maureen Stapleton stole The Fan away from Lauren Bacall. You cared more about Stapleton's character than the bitch who couldn't even sing Hearts, Not Diamonds on key.

[quote] It is possible for a human body to fall twenty stories, hit a skyscraper ledge and bounce lightly off, completely intact.

It doesn't matter. I loved how the body starts spinning all the way from the 75th floor to the street. It's actually quite an accomplished special effect.

Why is Fred Astaire"s name right there in the bottom in tiny letters?

I agree with the posts about how Maureen Stapleton stands out in Airport, but let's not leave out Barbara Hale, who played Dean Martin's wife. She also at the airport at the end of the movie and is left behind/not seen by Martin when passengers and crew are deplaning... Dean is too concerned about his mistress (kind of sort of appropriately - but still) and Hale is left standing alone. She's very good...

Fags, this thread is about me, Faye Dunaway!

Fuck this Stapleton person!

I thought the exterior elevators were shot at the Bonaventure Hotel in LA.

These

It looks a lot like the one from the movie, 167.

In my defense, I used Google to get that information.

[quote]r165 Fags, this thread is about me, Faye Dunaway!

Gurl, your appearance in “Voyage of the Damned” was ON POINT!

Pauline Kael dismissed the movie as a whole but wrote, “Dunaway must have figured she had to give the audience [italic]something, [/italic]and ends up looking fabulous in jackboots and a monocle.”

[quote]R154 I wonder why Ross turned down those movies… she did Voyage of the Damned around this time and inexplicably won a Golden Globe for it (She has almost nothing to do in it).

This is an interesting blog entry by some gay guy. He likes Ross’ performance.

————————

[italic] [bold]A few favourite things[/bold] ...... both scenes featuring Katharine Ross, who won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress before Oscar decided against her altogether, really sing. Practically a whole movie has passed by the time she shows up but she's worth the wait. Her first scene is a stereotypical hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold introduction but she plays it beautifully, leaning away from trope-mandated goodness and more into genuine confusion and improvisation... she's trying to figure out how to act in this confounding scenario she did not see coming even if you can still tell that her heart is gold. She's even better in her second (and only other) scene where we learn she is secretly Jewish and that her parents are onboard the ship that can't dock. It's the most exquisitely acted scene in the entire film with all three actors (ever reliable Yentl papa Nehemiah Persoff plays her father) delivering a gut-wrenching estranged-family mini-movie against the ticking clock of three absolutely inadequate minutes.

Faye was gorgeous back then. A shame she fucked up her face with horrible plastic surgery.

Wasn’t it an academy award nominated movie??

R173 I couldn’t stand more than 30 seconds of those stupid bitches commentary.

I love VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED. The natural power of the story overcomes any of the flaws in the film. Lee Grant was superb.

PS - just like in THE LAST VOYAGE, they used a real ship as a floating set, although they didn't sink it like they did in TLV.

Believe it or not, R173, it won Oscars for best cinematography, editing and original song, and received 8 nominations, including for best picture.

There was a filmed reading of a spoof of the 70's disaster movies. It was a COVID fundraiser, Hilarious.

[Quote] I couldn’t stand more than 30 seconds of those stupid bitches commentary.

which is how I feel about the 2h45m Inferno. Even the set is boring.

^ and tacky looking

The Big Bus

Is The Big Bus worth watching? I wish they would show it on TV for free.

R183 watch the trailer and you'll get an example of the low brow humor and Stockard's eyebrows.

But Big Bus DOES have DL fave Vic Tayback, so it might be worth watching.

The Big Bus is horrible.

The opening sequence is one of my favorite of all time! Because the editing is THE WORST THAT HAS EVER EXISTED!!! Seriously, look at this, look with a hard eye. The helicopter is flying to San Francisco from somewhere north along the coast, and...

The helicopter is flying from north to south along the coast. The helicopter flies out to sea, then it's inland... going from south to north! Then it flies back out to sea, then it approaches the Golden Gate Bridge from the north, then is approaches the Golden Gate Bridge from the west! If you have any idea what kind of landscape they're supposed to be flying over, it's nonsensical.

Here's the opening sequence.

This is one of those rare films that need to be remade... and set in some place like Dubai, not San Francisco! Some capitalist playground of the rich, where the goal of the authorities is to be rich and to impress other rich people, and where people who aren't rich are considered worthless and expendable, where there are no building codes or safety regulations, where the construction is done by slave laborers who'd be happy to see the building and everyone in it burn. That's where the next skyscraper-fire disaster is going to happen.

The only problem with that extremely realistic setup is finding a few sympathetic characters to be the stars of the film! Nice, admirable, and likeable people don't go to Dubai.

That's a great idea for a remake r189.

Dubai, Shanghai, Miami, set the remake anywhere that money is everything, life is cheap, and the authorities are totally corrupt!

As for leading characters, make the lead man a subsidiary architect (Ryan Gosling) who's done a lot of the work while his boss took the credit, and whose first trip to Dubai (or Shanghai or Miami) horrifies him, and a hard-drinking female obstetrician (Tessa Thompson) whose clients include everyone from enslaved prostitutes to billionaire's wives. Together they team up to save the nicer party guests and livestream the truth about this hellhole city to the world...

[quote] helicopter is flying from north to south ... from south to north … from the north … from the west!

That would never happen in a David Lean movie.

His movies are always logical.

I watched The Big Bus while riding the short bus with my sister.

Did you lick the windows R193?

No, but my sister did, r194!

Fuck. This thread is going to make me re-watch The Towering Inferno.

Susan Flannery really did butch it up in her later years.

R197, Yes, kind of hard to imagine what this glamorous "Dallas" beauty would end up looking like in a few decades.

I couldn't stand Susan Flannery as Leslie Stewart on Dallas. Most of the males on the show were inexplicably attracted to her. I got JR's thing since she presented herself as unattainable, which was a challenge for him. I always loved after JR finally got her in bed through his machinations, he basically told her it wasn't worth the wait. Ha! It would have been awesome if she did her Towering Inferno fiery death jump out of a high-rise window after he told her that.

You can't really remake movies like this anymore, because there are hardly any big genuine "stars" left anymore that would attract people to it. Dunaway, Holden, Newman and Astaire were iconic figures at that point.

Ryan Gosling and Tessa Thompson are not instantly recognizable to a vast majority of the public, much less iconic stars.

Plus the shitty CGI would overwhelm everything like it does in 90% of these movies and ruin the experience.

Look at the difference between the original and remake of Murder on the Orient Express and (especially) Death on the Nile if you need examples.

R191 You forgot NY

Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo faces new lawsuit alleging 'unmitigated greed' contributed to nursing home deaths Story by Adam Shaw • Yesterday 4:04 PM

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is facing another lawsuit over nursing home deaths in the state during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the plaintiff alleging that Cuomo’s pride and "unmitigated greed" had led to needless deaths.

Cuomo got a book deal and an Emmy

[quote] Voyage of the Damned was more in the vein of Ship of Fools. There was no physical/phenomenonal disaster in it,

But there WAS a disaster in Ship of Fools....

They remade Poseidon with a charisma-free cast of people nobody cared about and the CGI was so transparent.

They could never remake Towering Inferno with a big movie star cast. Julia? George? Brad? Even they would be boring.

I re watched TI during lockdown , along with all the 70's disaster flicks, it 's the best of the bunch and holds up well. I remembered how sad I was as a kid that the nice cat lady has fallen off the elevator to hell. I burst laughing out loud when the two unhinged whores crash the helicopter on the roof. I hated Newman though. He 's such a glass closet bottom whore. He's foolin' no-one.

[Quote]They could never remake Towering Inferno with a big movie star cast. Julia? George? Brad? Even they would be boring.

Actually, pretty the stars in the original Inferno were boring. There characters were 1 dimensional and uninteresting and they had nothing significant to do other than provide BO names and Faye brought the glamour.

Jennifer was fab, and she brought her own wardrobe, like a true star should

they should do a remake with Viola Davis in the Mc Queen role. Now that would be something to behold. And she would win an oscar

R204 R205 I think you’re both right. Are both of you older (like me)? It makes sense that we’re not going to empathize with characters, many younger than us, in today’s movies. Part of it because of the reputation of Millennials and younger. I think the other issue is bad writing. Also, inserting politics into these movies doesn’t help. Even with the one-dimensional characters in A Towering Inferno, we could project ourselves or other familiar characteristics on the characters in the movie. The Poseidon Adventure remake (2006?) was awful.

Ooh. Viola and Angela Bassett reprising the McQueen and Newman roles! They could do a multi-part documentary alone on the fight over who gets top billing and who's name appears first in the opening credits, AND the script word count!

R204 It is not the best of any bunch of anything. The pace is shot and the performances are awful.

R210 did you see HURRICANE ?

[quote][R204] It is not the best of any bunch of anything. The pace is shot and the performances are awful.

In your *most* unhumble opinion, r210.

I'll slap your little faggy face, r210! You have no taste.

WAY TO GO , FAYE .THROW SOME LETTUCE AT THIS PEASANT

The film's greatness lies in its awfulness. It's not quite as consistently hilarious as "The Poseidon Adventure" or "Airport 1975," but the gratuitously horrible deaths of Susan Flannery's and Jennifer Jones's characters, the entire overwrought situation, Faye Dunaway's unforgettably glamorous dress, and the ridiculous title all make it worth seeing.

[quote] Ooh. Viola and Angela Bassett reprising the McQueen and Newman roles!

Also, with Laverne Cox as Liselotte!

r93 JLo is the Towering InfernHoe.

[quote] Also, with Laverne Cox as Liselotte!

Will his fake tits burst when he hits the building midway down?

R215 I love Airport ‘75. Helen Reddy as the nun won best newcomer at the golden globes.

Linda Blair as the sick teen who strums her guitar and thinks everyone is soooo interesting.

One of my favorite Christmas movies...

When can we move on to other "disaster" movies? Doesn't anyone remember that the recently departed Anne He-He was in "Volcano" with Tommy Lee Jones?

Man, was the movie a disaster in its own right. Absolutely ridiculous.

And don't forget, "Dante's Peak"... Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton. O-o-o-f.

R221 You didn’t like Dante’s Peak?! Dante’s Peak was my my first disaster movie as something of grownup. Watching Linda Hamilton (of Terminator fame) and Pierce Brosnan (Remington Steele, James Bond) contending with Mother Nature was healing for me. Somehow I knew everything would be ok, lol. Not a fan of Volcano.

I like Dante's Peak. Volcano was okay but I prefer DP.

[quote] Linda Blair as the sick teen who strums her guitar and thinks everyone is soooo interesting.

She does think everyone is soooo interesting, but it's Helen reddy who strums the guitar.

The combined hotness of Newman and McQueen is what caused the fire.

Volcano was stupid because they had the volcano be the La Brea Tar Pits. Now, they are correct that the La Brea Tar Pits are geologically active, but they're no one's idea of what a volcano looks like. The screenwriters were just lazy and wanted everything to happen in LA, because they themselves are so obsessed with LA.

Think of the crises that could've been avoided if that old bitch grandma in Dante's Peak had come down off the mountain when she was told to. At least the old hag got her legs burned off in the acidic lake-HA HA!

I can't stop thinking about Maureen Stapleton in Airport (1970).

I love disaster movies and have seen The Towering Inferno many times.

( Note Paul Newman's son Scott Newman as the young fireman who is afraid to rappel down the elevator shaft from the roof of the elevator after the power is cut off. Fire Chief Steve McQueen listens and replies, "OK, then you better go first so that if you fall, you won't take any of the rest of us with you.")

So, since we are talking of disaster movies, here is my list. Some are not very good, but nevertheless, from my collection...

2012

Abandon Ship (1957)

Armageddon

Beyond the Poseidon Adventure

The Cassandra Crossing

Contagion

Dante's Peak

The Day After Tomorrow

Daylight

Deep Impact

Fire! (Irwin Allen) (TV Movie 1977)

Flood! (Irwin Allen) (TV Movie 1976)

The Hindenburg

Juggernaut

The Last Voyage

A Night To Remember (1958) (about Titanic)

Outbreak

Poseidon

The Poseidon Adventure (Irwin Allen)

Titanic (1953)

Titanic (1997)

The Towering Inferno (Irwin Allen)

Twister

When Time Ran Out

Any disaster movies about air travel is a separate category.

The Rock seemed to be trying to bring the disaster movie genre back with San Andreas and Skyscraper. I actually enjoyed both of them despite too much CGI but they were not as good as the '70s disaster flicks.

Let her go, r228...

[quote]Any disaster movies about air travel is a separate category.

Yet you include Hindenburg on your list. Air travel disaster belongs in the same category as ocean travel disaster.

In 2018, Dwayne Johnson starred in Skycraper which is sort of inspired by Inferno. As was the original Die Hard.

Skyscraper!

r229, you forgot:

Meteor

Raise the Titanic!

Also don't forget:

Deepwater Horizon

The Hurricane (1937)

The Hurricane (1979

The Impossible

Melancholia

The Rains Came (1939)

The Rains of Ranchipur (1955)

Transatlantic Tunnel (1935)

When Worlds Collide (1951)

MAME (1974)

It seems I must be the first to put in a good word for "Volcano" (1997)! And my good word is genuine and heartfelt, it's a very entertaining movie and a bit campy! How can you bitches fail to appreciate seeing all those LA landmarks torched or blown up? Or seeing Anne Hehe trying to be taken seriously in a ridiculous film? Or seeing Tommy Lee Jones struggle to keep a straight face?

FYI I first saw it in a theater with a horsewoman, who leaned over and whispered "That 'volcanic ash' is a kind of horse bedding made out of shredded newspapers!". How can a movie where the La Brea Tar Pits turns into a volcano that spews horse bedding NOT be considered a camp classic?

If we're going to consider Volcano then we have to consider our sister Roland Emmerich's disaster movies:

Independence Day

2012

The Day After Tomorrow

San Andreas was pretty good too.

The grandmama of disaster films - DELUGE of 1933!

[quote] I hated Newman though. He 's such a glass closet bottom whore. He's foolin' no-one.

r204 As opposed to McQueen? 😂

One based on fact?

R232, thank you for your comment regarding "The Hindenburg".

My airline disaster list is really just movies involving airplanes. But I refused to include the mocking movie "Airplane!" since it mocks the actual airplane movies.

I have, though, actually seen 1957's "Zero Hour" which the makers of "Airplane!" used as the basis of their film. Starring Dana Andrews and Linda Darnell. ... "Did you have the chicken or the fish?" being the big question. I seem to remember the folks making "Airplane!" bought up the rights to "Zero Hour", but I could be wrong.

So, being on the topic anyway, here is my list of Airplane movies that I own. Not at all a complete list of all disaster movies about airplanes, but only those copies I own. I welcome any others as suggestions.

Airport (4 movie box set)

Back from Eternity (1956) Same story as "Five Came Back", both directed by John Farrell.

Con Air

The Crowded Sky

Fate Is the Hunter

Five Came Back (1939) Same Story as "Back From Eternity", both directed by John Farrell. Lucille Ball in a serious role.

The High and the Mighty

Island in the Sky

Julie

No Highway in the Sky

Pandora's Clock (TV mini-series)

Snakes on a Plane

Sully

United 93

There was also the miniseries "Asteroid" with Michael Biehn and Annabella Sciorra.

[Quote]You could also tell that it was a man in drag portraying Susan Flannery when she gets blown out of the window.

most of the bodies shown falling from the building in low angle shots looked like dummies to me

See that building?

I'm going out on a limb to say that I don't get the love for Maureen Stapleton in Airport. I don't think she did anything all that great, she certainly didn't deserve an Oscar nomination, and it wasn't anything we haven't seen any no-name actress do when playing a distraught fishwife.

Now, of course, she acted circles around Helen Hayes, but that's a different story. I think both of them should have been punted for Diana Sands in The Landlord.

Love Hal Ashby's The Landlord. Beau Bridges, Lee Grant, Pearl Bailey, Louis Gossett Jr. and Diana Sands are all terrific. If you didn't know differently, you'd swear it was directed by Spike Lee. Here's a good copy on YouTube

The Sinking Tower a great idea for a contemporary disaster film

I LOVE “The Landlord!”

Meredith Baxter wrote in her book that she was offered the role of William Holden’s daughter in “The Towering Inferno” but turned it down because she’d just married David Birney and not only did she want to be away from him so soon after the marriage, but he’d made sneering comments about the project.

Loving the love for The Landlord!

How about a NYC set skyscraper disaster set on billionaire's row

Met Mike Lookinland at CHILLER and asked him about Dunaway. They were in the levator for a week and he had nothing but nice things to say about her.

Trump Tower in flames, all the prominent MAGAts at Don's apartment for a party.

Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Steven Miller, Mike Lindell, MTG, Rudy, Jacob Wohl, Laura Loomer, Ali Alexander, all fight for their lives and lose, horribly, screaming as they burn to death.

The climax comes when the evacuation chair slung between Trump Tower and the IBM Building instigates a fight for flight. Don gets the seat and kicks Eric, Don Jr. and Jared to their deaths. Then he sees Hillary is holding the other side of the lifeline. Except suddenly she isn't.

That was fabulous R35.

Faye Dunaway chewed up ALL the scenery.

No, she definitely was Ms PacMan to Richard Chamberlain's daddy PacMan.

The Towering Inferno and other movies of the "disaster" genre were the equivalent of superhero movies today.

Even big stars began to feel like they had to do them, and were certainly paid well to do so.

No, r257, she didn't. She doesn't really *do* much at all. Again, she's only required to bring glamour and does so in spades.

Robert Wagner was at his hottest

The Blu-Ray extras show a missing scene with Robert Wagner in his office having a meeting on details of the big party. The scene fits right before the scene where RW brings the big scissors into William Holden's office.

Supposedly there was a larger story about the Robert Vaughn character too that was cut.

R261, oh ha fucking ha.

Helen Hayes won an Oscar over Stapleton because she was making a return. A return to the millions of people who had never forgiven her for deserting the screen.

So that made two undeserved Oscars for Helen Hayes.

Never been a Helen Hayes fan but she was astounding in Madelon Claudet, which I recently watched for the first time. She'd win an Oscar today for the same work.

TERROR IN THE SKY, a TV remake of THE ZERO HOUR. DL faves Roddy McDowell and Miss Lois Nettleton.

Let's see...

I will have to re-watch it. It's on TCM on demand right now. I remember her being super miscast and very strident in it.

[Quote]The Blu-Ray extras show a missing scene with Robert Wagner in his office having a meeting on details of the big party. The scene fits right before the scene where RW brings the big scissors into William Holden's office.

[Quote]Supposedly there was a larger story about the Robert Vaughn character too that was cut.

They should have kept cutting until they had a 1hr45m film. The backstories are completely uninteresting and what do they matter ultimately?

DL disaster movie historians, which Airport/Airplane movie had Phyllis Diller in the toilet the entire time trying to put on lipstick? I have a vague memory of that from childhood.

I highly recommend "Avalanche" with Rock Hudson and Mia Farrow. It's part of Mystery Science Theater 3000's lineup on Netflix. It's a must-see.

R271 it was the same thing in Earthquake with Walter Matthau playing a drunk.

[quote]They should have kept cutting until they had a 1hr45m film. The backstories are completely uninteresting and what do they matter ultimately?

Gee, what a lost opportunity. Can you imagine how successful it could have been with you guidance.

[quote] DL disaster movie historians, which Airport/Airplane movie had Phyllis Diller in the toilet the entire time trying to put on lipstick? I have a vague memory of that from childhood.

Airport '79. And it was Martha Raye, not Phyllis Diller.

[Quote]Can you imagine how successful it could have been with you guidance.

Probably more successful than you trying to write a simple sentence R274

After 40 years in film Astaire finally received an Oscar nomination for a non-performance in this dreck!

It was a career nomination, R277. Astaire did frothy musicals that were never going to get performance nominations because his acting in them wasn't really doing any heavy lifting. If they were on the stage, he'd have won close to a dozen Tony Awards (had Tony Awards been around back then) because of his dancing. But he was a film legend and this was a way to honor him. He really was the front runner for that reason, but DeNiro (who didn't really deserve the Oscar that year, either) won. (John Cazale was way better in the same film and wasn't even nominated, yet Michael V. Gazzo, who was shit, was.)

Sincerely, r270, why are you in this thread?

*You have room to talk, r276?

[quote]Actually, pretty the stars in the original Inferno were boring. There characters were 1 dimensional and uninteresting and they had nothing significant to do other than provide BO names and Faye brought the glamour.

R279 Sincerely, did it say that discussion of The Towering Inferno had to be positive?

Well, it becomes beating a dead horse at some point, r281. How many different ways can you say it was boring and too long? I guess we'll find out.

^ Irwin Allen

EARTHQUAKE!

This movie is tacky.

People are taking the negative comments about TTI personally. Their taste is up their ass. That's all.

Name a disaster movie that isn't, r285.

[quote]That's all.

We truly hope so, r286.

Actually, the stars in this movie do what movie stars do - add some star quality to a really shitty script!

Of course their ROLES are uninteresting, but that left them with nothing to do but look spectacular, strike poses, and get their camera angles just right. They're fun to watch, particularly since they aren't taking it too seriously. Okay, Dunaway is, she can't help but take things too seriously because that's just how she is, but this is as close to a light performance as she ever gave.

Great review of the movie with tons of clips.

[quote]but this is as close to a light performance as she ever gave.

Watch her Columbo episode. She actually displays charm.

I remember reading somewhere that Paul Newman screened The Towering Inferno for friend Gore Vidal.

After watching it a bit, GV supposedly said "All this movie needs is CHILDREN IN JEOPARDY".

To which, Paul Newman replied, "...Wait".

The original TTI scene for getting one of the kids down the blown out staircase, was supposed to have Jennifer Jones putting the little girl on her shoulders and climbing down the twisted metal stair rail debris.

That would have been quite a scene.

But not a good look for Newman.

I wonder who pushed to change who carried the little girl down?

R293 That scene is so fucking endless.

Why can’t we talk more about Miss Dunaway’s ageless beauty?

Thank you R275! And I should have my gay card revoked for confusing Phyllis Diller with Martha Raye!

Faye was at her absolute peak in "The Thomas Crowne Affair". The epitome of style.

Well R297, so is the movie.

R287, The Poseidon Adventure.

It actually has strong characters that you come to care about. Plus, Gene Hackman. And a very unique premise.

How come no one’s mentioned Dabney Coleman?

Dabney Coleman is in this, people!

There’s quite a bird’s nest on Jennifer Jones’ head in this movie.

Also, given the absurdity of this film, they could’ve had Astaire dance a little at the party. Or at least do a few dance steps while he’s endlessly counting out his cab fare at the beginning. Does it turn out he’s a con man?

So is Dunaway’s character in this film just called “Hot Pussy”? Or “Horn Dog”?

Just because she’s not the only pussy saved at the end, does not make this a family film!

Does anyone know the story behind the credit “Action scenes directed by Irwin Allen”? As opposed to the Ibsen-like dramatic scenes…?

Towering Inferno should've had a lezbo makeout scene between Faye and Susan Flannery.

All things considered, this is a great DVD-streaming popcorn movie. It ranks with right up there with the best ridiculous films like The Airport series, Hobo with a Shotgun, Machete and Machete Kills.

^^^ This = The Towering Inferno ^^^^^

306 posts and no one mentions the fact that the queen of the disaster film soundtrack has a cameo in this movie?

Shame. Shame on you all.

JUGGERNAUT was another entry into the disaster movie trend of the seventies. But it is so dull and anticlimactic. And there’s no golden age actress doing a cameo in it either…

That video was posted at r31, r308.

[quote]the Susan Flannery character gets blasted out the window and lands impaled on a large pointy sculpture in the plaza.

I have fantasized about this happening on occasion.

Why have none of “The Kids” today cut Towering Inferno footage to Tina Turner’s disco hit??

Oh, what I could do with an editing program!!

And i WILL be cutting in some dance moves from THIS:

The reason the movie works is because it is real fire, real water, the elevator was hanging on a wire. Real danger, like "The Poseidon Adventure". No silly phony CGI or green screen.

Oh for fuck's sake, R313, nothing in that movie looks real!

It all looks cheesy and fake, with gas jets on the set that emit no smoke and silly sets, and the marvelously physics-denying finale. Don't overromanticize the old pre-CGI effects, bad effects can be found in any era.

It's popcorn entertainment, r314, not a documentary.

You're criticizing the special effects of a 49 year old film, r314. At the time they were state of the art (especially with two major studios behind it). You really should focus your scorn on EARTHQUAKE! which was subpar on every level and coasted on its Sensurround gimmick.

R314 needs an earthquake to shake that massive stick out of its ass.

Some people get off on being obnoxious, r317.

Don’t think I didn’t try r304…

I find it really interesting that the studios (especially Universal having two of the three) released Airport 75, Earthquake and Towering Inferno within 8 weeks of each other. A75 was first in mid-October, Earthquake came 4 weeks later and TI was another 4 weeks later.

And all three were big hits. And this was back in the days when films stayed in theaters for months on end because there were no 3000 screen releases. The few films released on 1000+ screens prior to the Jaws phenomenon (which this was) were the ones they knew were dogs but were hoping to cash in on before word of mouth spread. I would have thought these three would directly compete with each other and erode each other's box office, but for some reason, that didn't happen.

I can (vaguely) remember my parents dragging me to all three. I was six. I barely remember Airport 75, I remember Earthquake more because of the expectation of Sensurround that my parents talked about before going, and I remember TI most. We saw it about 4 months after it was released on a Sunday afternoon. When we got home, I had to take a bath before going to bed. For some reason, the film had scared me enough that I was afraid to be in the tub (who knows what I thought was going to happen) and I switched to showers soon after.

This be a terrible movie.

I have very clear memories of when they were released, r320. I was working at the Aladdin and we were getting Earthquake. The Aladdin was built in 1926 (first theatre west of the Mississippi to be built specifically for sound pictures). They had to inspect the building to make sure it could withstand the Sensurround speakers (I think there were eight of them). We doormen wore black tuxedo jacket, powder blue tuxedo shirt with a ruffle & French cuffs and a big ol' black velvet bow tie. Our manager, Mrs. Hallett, had started as a concessionaire and worked her way up to be one of only two female theatre managers in Denver at the time. She was something. She decided the doormen and concessionaires would wear Red Cross Disaster Services jumpsuits and plastic hardhats. The Red Cross obliged and that's what we wore for the Earthquake run.

I much preferred the blue jeans and Tommy t-shirts we got to wear when it opened after Earthquake's run.

OMG, R322, what an awesome theater. Great story, too! Do you still have your Tommy t-shirt?

Unfortunately not, r323. I had the powder blue tuxedo shirt, detachable ruffle and bow tie for years but I no longer have those either. It was my first job. After they tore down the Aladdin I managed to pick up a piece of brick from the rubble. *That* I still have.

2010 E. Colfax is now...a Walgreens

That's as bad as The Alhambra being demolished for a Safeway. The Alhambra was where I saw my first movie, The Trouble with Angels, subject of another DL thread...Lots of Sacramentans boycotted Safeway after that.

Damn, r325, I really had to search to find an interior photo...

Stories like r322 are why I love DL.

All that I have left of those days, r323....

It was an absolutely wonderful first job, r327. To a teenager it was like being in show business.

OJ SIMPSON was in this!! He rescues a CAT.

Deluge...

R330, see r241.

I love the Irwin Allen model of getting all the big stars to be in one movie. Imagine if they did that today, where you got Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Jane Fonda, Gene Hackman, Sally Field, Robert DeNiro, Jessica Lange, Dustin Hoffman, Michelle Pfeiffer, Morgan Freeman, Rita Moreno, Denzel Washington, Piper Laurie, Tom Hanks, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Viola Davis, Matt Damon, Jessica Lopez, Ben Affleck, Jessica Chastain, Will Smith, Regina King, Channing Tatum, Reese Witherspoon, Pedro Pascal, Bryce Dallas Howard, etc. in one big action movie. Throw in a bunch of lesser known TV, teen and child actors, and you got something truly spectacular.

So this is the Salesforce Tower, an ugly dildo of a skyscraper that's half again as tall as anything in San Francisco.

In my mind, I call it "The Towering Inferno Tower".

The only reason he could get that cast, r332, was he was backed by two major studios. Each had bought a skyscraper fire book and they decided to combine forces (and books). So a lot of the audience had read at least one of the books and had some familiarity with the characters. But anyway, that's why you got Paul Newman, Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway in a disaster movie together.

and being backed by 2 major studios explains how it received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture

It really left Airport '75 and Earthquake in the dust.

It really didn’t matter what movies were nominated for Best Picture that year since everyone pretty much knew that no movie could beat “Godfather II.”

Well, Chinatown and The Conversation were no slouches either. Brilliant films.

I was intrigued that this big budget movie was directed by an English/Frenchman who seemed to come out of nowhere.

His first real movie was an American-style police thriller which also climaxed on a tower.

It starred a brazen-looking actress that our New York DL eldergays will remember as winning the 1961 Tony Award for 'Irma La Douce'.

It also starred an English eldergay named Alec McCowen who at that time was always playing young neurotics.

[quote] So a lot of the audience had read at least one of the books and had some familiarity with the characters.

Link?

[quote] had some familiarity with the characters

These characters had no character. They were Johnny-One-Notes.

^ Starring Faye Dunaway as the lady who assists people getting on the elevator!

I heard that Faye Dunaway was going to have a much bigger part in the movie. There was even going to be a scene where Faye’s character reaches her breaking point and screams: “No fire in a high-rise building…EVER!!! Irwin Allen feared that her performance would really camp up his movie, so he dramatically cut her part.

Didn’t William Holden shove her up against the wall when she continuously showed up late to the set?

R344, Yes. See R101.

[quote]Didn’t William Holden shove her up against the wall when she continuously showed up late to the set?

He was doing the Lord's work.

Newman's biggest box office hit and he hated the movie.

They were a pair of FLAMING FAGS!

Where did you read or hear that, R347? (him hating it)

I never heard that Newman hated this movie. I did hear that he hated “When Time Runs Out,” Allen’s volcano movie.

He told Ethan Hawke he thought it was a sell out. I remember reading somewhere he never understood it's ( TTI) popularity. He called "When Time Runs Out" that "volcano movie."

'San Francisco' with Clark Gable was probably the first disaster movie and pretty much first rate all the way through. But one disaster movie that no one even thought of mentioning here and one that definitely takes the cake for weirdness: 'Elephant Walk' starring Elizabeth Taylor.

There were many disaster movies before San Francisco. Titanic (1913), Noah's Ark (1929), Deluge (1933) and so on.

[quote] I did hear that he hated “When Time Runs Out,” Allen’s volcano movie.

Did the bitch think he was remaking Teahouse of the August Moon? He knew what he signed on for.

I absolutely adore "When Time Ran Out", for all the wrong reasons! It's a ridiculous mess of a movie from start to finish, worse than "Orca".

Although I will say that some of the most ridiculous shit won't be apparent to people who know nothing about geology.

The problem I had with 'When Time Ran Out' was when James Franciscus told the guests that they'd be safer in his hotel than following Paul Newman I found him more convincing.

My god Airplane is hardly a “disaster” movie

Get a life

I watched When Time Ran Out the other night and enjoyed it.

James Franciscus was so handsome.

Would love to have seen Paul Newman do a campy cameo in Sharknado.

[quote] I watched When Time Ran Out the other night and enjoyed it. James Franciscus was so handsome.

Hmmm. Was there more than one volcano erupting that night?

Are you sure it wasn't Tony Franciosa?

R358 - James Franciscus was so handsome.

Another closeted movie star, by all accounts…

[quote]Another closeted movie star, by all accounts…

Just whose accounts would those be, r362?

[quote]On March 28, 1960, Franciscus married Kathleen "Kitty" Wellman, the daughter of film director William A. Wellman. They had four children — Jamie, Kellie, Korie, and Jolie.

[quote]After the couple's divorce, he married Carla Ankney in 1980.

[quote]They were still married at the time of Franciscus's 1991 death from emphysema in North Hollywood, California, at 57.[5]

Franciscus also took Jane Fonda's card away.

Jean would have been an interesting choice for a Hitchcock movie at the time- maybe Marnie or The Birds.

Seberg would have been the perfect Hitchcock heroine.

He did it for the paycheck. Newman sometimes took himself way too seriously. If he didn’t want to make the films, he should have turned them down. Irwin Allen movies were NOT about high art. He knew that.

Is the building used in the movie still around?

R363

Many have noted in this thread about how underwritten and one dimensional the star's characters are in TTI, and it's true, though it was not originally supposed to be that way. Originally the female lead (Dunaway) had a much larger more psychologically complex back story and was supposed to be slightly older, in her early 40s. Indeed, in pre-production the part was slated for Lucille Ball who was very excited about finally working with McQueen and Newman and having an extensive love scene with the latter. However, delays in the shooting of Mame and advice from those in her inner circle, ultimately forced her to withdraw from the project. Once Dunaway was on-board, for a number of reasons, including the powers that be's fear that Faye wouldn't have the acting chops to pull off the character as written for Lucy, the script was altered and the female lead became much more one dimensional.

If true, it’s a good thing Lucy turned down the role. It would have laughable to think of Paul Newman having an affair with Lucille Ball. And by 1974 Lucy would have been 63, too old to play a character in her early 40s.

Interesting info, R369. Thanks for sharing.

R369, you forgot to say that whatshisname made Lucy turn down the role!

*That's* your proof, r368?

[Quote] Jennifer was fab, and she brought her own wardrobe, like a true star should

Yet her role like most in the film was totally gratuitous. She's better and more interesting in her last starring role in 1969s Angel, Angel Down We Go aka Cult of the Damned.

R369 - Yes, and Ruth Buzzi was their second choice. It finally went to that nobody Dunaway in desperation.

Lucille Ball in The Towering Inferno? My first thought was that her wig must be on fire.

Newman didn't like WTRO because the movie tanked and he didn't get any percentage money. You never heard him talk shit about Inferno which was only a tiny tad better.

It would have been a hell of a lot more fun if Lucy played Jennifer Jones’ role and bounced off the side of the building! Good times.

That also would have been a fitting ending to Lucy in Mame.

We couldn’t afford to go to the movies so we had to watch the “Emergency” episode about The Towering Inferno instead.

WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

I remember they paid for 100+ extras for Inferno in San Francisco. I think they paid us $50.00 and filmed all night. Lots of hunky firemen and police. Thought they filmed at the Bank of America, too, besides the Hyatt Regency.

William Holden was also part of the billing dispute. I forget in what exact way.

R383, William Holden wanted top billing. He didn’t realize that by the 1970s his time had passed.

I think originally they were only going to give Newman and McQueen billing over the title and were going to relegate everyone else to featured billing, but Holden demanded over-the title billing with the other two, and then I think Faye did, also. Could be wrong but something like that.

When you’re doing a movie with so many A-list stars, billing can become an issue. You end up in a situation where some stars are more A-list than others.

They still managed to make it look like McQueen and Newman were the two stars of the film, using their images in large close-ups on the posters. They were really the only true box office draws at that point.

[quote]They were really the only true box office draws at that point.

They were huge at the box office. Airport '75 and Earthquake had to make do with Chuck Heston.

Holden obviously drank his looks away. He was 55 when they shot it.

My memory of Towering is McQueen stole it. Likewise, Gene Hackman stealing Poseidon, but that theft was really shocking because he was first-rate good in several scenes.

All I remember from the movie is Jennifer Jones's hairdo, a little bit of her dancing with Fred Astaire, and the very ugly burgundy tux jacket on Holden.

R390, have to disagree. Comparing McQueen to Newman is like comparing hamburger to filet mignon.

[quote]My memory of Towering is McQueen stole it

No, He and Newman were evenly balanced in star power. Faye just added the third point to the triangle. Versus Heston/Kennedy/Black and Heston Kennedy/Bujold.

This was the second movie Newman and McQueen were in together. McQueen had a small part as one of Rocky Graziano's gang in Somebody Up There Likes Me, starring Newman.

McQueen read the script, counted his lines in it and Newman's and demanded that each have the exact same amount of lines. And that is the truth. Allegedly.

R395, that was also the story about Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams on Laverne and Shirley.

[quote] William Holden wanted top billing. He didn’t realize that by the 1970s his time had passed.

He was paid in liters of bourbon.

I was so relieved to see that Lisolette's cat survived the ordeal.

I would still love to see McQueen and Newman do cameos in a Sharknado movie.

[Quote] I watch this every few years. It never gets old. Simply can't get enough of those 70s-era disaster epics with the all-star casts...

It got old during its first 20 mins for me. Dunaway and Newman have no chemistry and their bedroom scene feels awkward to say nothing of gratuitous.

Newman had no sexual chemistry with anyone on screen except with the men in Cool Hand Luke.

Told this story here before. At CHILLER I met Leslie Nielsen and I handed him "The Poseidon Adventure" DVD cover and said, "This is all your fault, you were busy flirting with the blonde" and he burst out laughing and said "OH NO! I take no responsibility for this!". Then I met Richard Chamberlain and I gave him "The Towering Inferno" cover and said 'This is all your fault! and he laughed and said "Yes! I guess it is!"

I have "The Poseidon Adventure" signed by Ernest Borgnine, Stella Stevens, Carol Lynley, Pamela Sue Martin, Eric Shea and Leslie Nielson, and "The Towering Inferno" by Chamberlain and Mike Lookinlad. Thanks CHILLER!

[Quote] Newman had no sexual chemistry with anyone on screen except with the men in Cool Hand Luke.

He did with Patricia Neal in Hud and Joanne Woodward in The Long Hot Summer

^ he was sexy in Hud, but geeze, you could see him pulling out all the stops and trying so fucking hard.

I still remember how terrible Faye Dunaway was in this. Worst actress ever.

Well, in her defense, it wasn't much of a role.

The Poseidon Adventure is still the best of the 70s disaster movies...it was fast moving and to the point with a clock ticking for them to get the fuck out of the ship before it sank and they kept the soap opera to a minimum.. It had a satisfying number of Star Deaths and the only real weakness is the rather flat ending where they just...leave. (In the book, the ship sinks not long after then are removed.)

The Towering Inferno is good but not up to the same standards as Poseidon. It's too long and silly at times with too much emphasis on soap opera. And, all four leads survive which is ridiculous...at least one of them should have died.

The Swarm is ludicrous and never very suspenceful but it's so campy and "so bad it's kinda fun". It's also too long. But, gets points for killing off a lot of stars, including all the Old Timers. And, EXTRA points for Katherine Ross having a fever dream involving that giant bee.

Beyond The Poseidon Adventure is just....ludicrous. A sequel to a movie about a sinking ship that is minutes away from sinking...yet manages to hang on for another day. It's also campy fun (but I usually end up fast forwarding through parts).

When Time Ran Out is terrible but also watchable with your finger hovering over the fast forward especially towards the end as they ENDLESSLY have to spend time getting 25 characters over a rickety bridge over bad fake lava. But, stop to see Pat Morita's death and Sheila Allen, playing Pat's wife, ham it up to mourn him.

R407 Apparently, the reason why the ending was so rushed is because the production went over budget. The original ending was supposed to show the survivors being rescued and put into the helicopter just in the nick of time, right before the ship is shown finally sinking into the water.

But because there was no money left, all they could do was build a portion of what looked like the hull of a ship and have everyone climb out of it. There was no money for a long shot of the ship submerging into the water.

R14- That review sounds like it was written by a datalounger. In fact I thought it was YOUR review until you quoted the NYT at the end.

I couldn’t buy the main concept - that this ridiculously tall tower was built in earthquake prone San Francisco.

I was in grade school, in the early-mid 70's, all those disaster movies scared me.