Fans of Leonardo DiCaprio might disagree, but Titanic isn’t the greatest disaster film of all times. That title is more likely to be held by The Towering Inferno, 1974 film directed by John Guillermin, an undisputed genre classic which featured Hollywood’s finest stars, directors, producers and studios at the top their game.
The film is based on the two novels - The Tower by Richard Martin Stern and The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson. Both books were inspired by recent opening of the World Trade Center building in New York, which became the tallest structure in the world at the time. The script by Stirling Silliphant has set the plot in San Francisco and dealt with the opening of fictitious Glass Tower, the tallest building in the world. Its architect Doug Roberts (played by Paul Newman) confronts the developer James Duncan (played by William Holden) about inadequate electrical wiring which he suspects might endanger the safety. Duncan is nevertheless adamant to go with the opening ceremony and the gala which is to be held at the Promenade Room at 135th floor. Even when the short circuit at the 81st floor causes a fire, Duncan, in a bid to win favour of powerful politicians, refuses to order evacuation. When he changes his mind, it is too late, the fire has spread out of control and hundreds of people, including Duncan and party guests, are trapped. As the fire continues to spread, Fire Chief O’Halloran (played by Steve McQueen) must find the way to put it down and, even more importantly, conduct extremely difficult and dangerous rescue operation.
The main creative force behind the film was Irwin Allen a.k.a. “Master of Disaster”, legendary film producer known for The Poseidon Adventure, “Oscar”-awarded and immensely successful disaster film which, like the The Towering Inferno, became the genre classic. He had initially started to produce adaptation of The Tower for Warner Bros., but, after leaning about 20th Century Fox production of The Glass Inferno, managed to talk both studios’ executives to make a single film, sharing their resources and future profits. This co-operation between major studios, unprecedented in Hollywood at the time, would later serve as model for many ambitious high budget projects, including Titanic. Allen hired Stirling Silliphant, “Oscar”-awarded screenwriter with whom he had collaborated on The Poseidon Adventure, to compress both novels’ plot in the film’s script. Silliphant did admirable job, making the plot goes smoothly and the audience keeping focus despite multitude of different characters with their mini-subplots. Silliphant’s main idea was to treat the fire as the sort of the main character and painstakingly show its birth, development and spectacular death.
The Towering Inferno, with 14 million US$ of budget, was one of the most expensive films at the time. It shows in the finished products, which featured elaborate miniature models and various special effects, thousands of extras and many impressive sets, including the Promenade Room. Great visuals were accompanied by good music soundtrack by John Williams and the song “We May Never Love Like This Again”, performed by Maureen McGovern (who appears in cameo as singer at the party) and which would later win Oscar for the Best Song. But the greatest attraction for the audience was the cast, and like in all disaster films, it featured multitude of stars. The most notable of them were Paul Newman and Steve McQueen, who, despite their rivalry as the most popular actors at the time, got along well at the set and made a great team. Although both actors are great, McQueen as down-to-earth hands-on expert, leaves somewhat better impression, especially in the second part of the film. While some of the stars, like Faye Dunaway in the role of Robert’s fiancee, might look like nothing more than eye candy, others leave much better impression, including Richard Chamberlain who, as cost-cutting subcontractor responsible for the tragedy, plays one of the rare villains in his career. The cast also includes some of Classic Hollywood veterans, most notably Fred Astaire in the role of elderly con man (for whom he received his only “Oscar” nomination) and Jennifer Jones as his ill-fated love interest (for whom that role was the last in career).
Although some critics complained about some of the characters being not developed enough, The Towering Inferno nevertheless provided almost perfect combination of drama, action and breath-taking special effects. As such it became immensely popular and even influencing a lot of popular culture at the time, including “Disco Inferno” by The Trammps, one of the most iconic songs of 1970s. The time, on the other hand, wasn’t that kind to this film. The audience quickly got bored of the disaster films and turned towards science fiction epics like Star Wars and the failure of Irwin Allen’s subsequent disaster spectacles marred the reputation of its greatest achievement. But, probably the worst thing that happened to this film was 9/11, an event that showed the difference between in Hollywood fiction and the real life in the most horrific way. On the other hand, the audience that is able to watch The Towering Inferno without its historic context is going to enjoy one of the finest pieces of Hollywood craftsmanship.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
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Very tall building
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