I stayed with the dual themes of Steve McQueen and San Francisco by watching the 1974 disaster film The Towering Inferno. This all star epic is the best of a series of disaster movies released in the 1970's.
The Towering Inferno was also the biggest of them all. It was made by two studios, 20th Century Fox and Warner Brothers. It was based on two best selling novels, The Tower and The Glass Inferno. It had two directors, John Guillerman (The Blue Max, Skyjacked, King Kong) and Irwin Allen (The Poseidon Adventure, uncredited). The film also features the two biggest leading men in Hollywood at the time, Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. Newman and McQueen were supported by an all star cast featuring William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Richard Chamberlain, Robert Wagner, Fred Astaire, Jennifer Jones and Robert Vaughn.
If you don't know, the movie is about a group of people trapped on the top floor of the world's tallest building as a fire rages many floors below. All avenues of escape are closed off and every rescue attempt fails. Before and during the fire we get to know something about each character and we have to wait and see who will live and who will die.
The movie was influenced by the big urban development and skyscraper boom of the 1960's. Two years prior to the films release the Twin Towers were completed and both novels the movie is based on were inspired by the building of the World Trade Center. The films subject matter became more pertinent when there were two high rise fires in San Paulo, Brazil. The Joelma high rise fire in February 1974 killed 179 people and injured 300 more.
The disaster films of the 70's are generally remembered as being full of ridiculous melodramatic dialogue and unrealistic special effects. Earthquake, Avalanche, The Swarm, Airport '75, Airport '77 and Beyond The Poseidon Adventure all deserve the reputation for pure Hollywood trash. But the big three films; Airport, The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno all have something to offer in the thrills and entertainment category. The film was a smash hit in 1974 and was nominated for Best Picture.
The film was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor, Best Music Score (an excellent music score by John Williams) Best Sound and best Art Direction. The film earned three Oscars for Best Cinematography, Best Original Song and Best Film Editing. The movie is a masterful combination of special effects and stunt work to create a massive burning skyscraper in downtown San Francisco. Once again the special effects are much more realistic than some of the CGI stuff created today. I watched the film on the newly restored Blu-Ray and the picture and sound are excellent.
I remember seeing The Towering Inferno at The Bar Harbour Theatre in Massapequa Park. I went with my mother and my sister. It was the middle of the summer and I remember that, because I had a bad sunburn, it was really chilly in the theatre. To this day I can still recall my mother holding up her hands and covering her eyes during the scene when Robert Wagner attempts to escape his burning office by dashing for the door. The scene is just as horrific and powerful today.
Sadly, it is impossible to watch the film without being reminded of the real fires and collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11.
At The Movie House rating ***1/2 stars
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