The Towering Inferno (1974)
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 165m
Director: John Guillermin, Irwin Allen
Cast: Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Robert Wagner, Fred Astaire, Jennifer Jones, Richard Chamberlain, Robert Vaughn, Susan Blakely, O. J. Simpson
Synopsis:
The great, good and not so good assemble for the inauguration of a record 130-storey glass skyscraper in San Francisco. A fire breaks out in a store cupboard on floor 81 and it appears faulty wiring is to blame, but the organisers are reluctant to interrupt their penthouse celebration.
Review:
The acme of seventies disaster movies was in many ways typical of the bunch: disparate characters routinely set up, early signs of impending catastrophe, mayhem as entertainment, etc. It does, however, keep the sentiment and melodrama to a relatively low level and busies itself with exploiting its central gimmick: a fictitious, studio-constructed skyscraper, all brand new and ready for trashing, and an array of lifts and stairwells for its characters to get stranded in. Newman and McQueen do their level best not to get swallowed up by the sheer size of the production but the acting generally is competent and for it to be otherwise would be frankly irrelevant.
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 165m
Director: John Guillermin, Irwin Allen
Cast: Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Robert Wagner, Fred Astaire, Jennifer Jones, Richard Chamberlain, Robert Vaughn, Susan Blakely, O. J. Simpson
Synopsis:
The great, good and not so good assemble for the inauguration of a record 130-storey glass skyscraper in San Francisco. A fire breaks out in a store cupboard on floor 81 and it appears faulty wiring is to blame, but the organisers are reluctant to interrupt their penthouse celebration.
Review:
The acme of seventies disaster movies was in many ways typical of the bunch: disparate characters routinely set up, early signs of impending catastrophe, mayhem as entertainment, etc. It does, however, keep the sentiment and melodrama to a relatively low level and busies itself with exploiting its central gimmick: a fictitious, studio-constructed skyscraper, all brand new and ready for trashing, and an array of lifts and stairwells for its characters to get stranded in. Newman and McQueen do their level best not to get swallowed up by the sheer size of the production but the acting generally is competent and for it to be otherwise would be frankly irrelevant.
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 165m
Director: John Guillermin, Irwin Allen
Cast: Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Robert Wagner, Fred Astaire, Jennifer Jones, Richard Chamberlain, Robert Vaughn, Susan Blakely, O. J. Simpson
Synopsis:
The great, good and not so good assemble for the inauguration of a record 130-storey glass skyscraper in San Francisco. A fire breaks out in a store cupboard on floor 81 and it appears faulty wiring is to blame, but the organisers are reluctant to interrupt their penthouse celebration.
Review:
The acme of seventies disaster movies was in many ways typical of the bunch: disparate characters routinely set up, early signs of impending catastrophe, mayhem as entertainment, etc. It does, however, keep the sentiment and melodrama to a relatively low level and busies itself with exploiting its central gimmick: a fictitious, studio-constructed skyscraper, all brand new and ready for trashing, and an array of lifts and stairwells for its characters to get stranded in. Newman and McQueen do their level best not to get swallowed up by the sheer size of the production but the acting generally is competent and for it to be otherwise would be frankly irrelevant.