ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972)

 

“The Poseidon Adventure” is an action thriller disaster movie, screenplay by Stirling Silliphant and Wendell Mayes from the Novel by Paul Gallico and Directed by Ronald Neame.

The story takes place aboard the SS Poseidon, an aged luxury liner on her final voyage from New York City to Athens before being sent to the scrapyard.

However the new owners pressurise Captain Harrison (Leslie Nielsen) to push the Poseidon to her limits to save on the dismantling fees at their destination and as a result, on New Year's Eve, she is hit by a tidal wave which completely capsized her, so that all the internal rooms are suddenly upside down with the Passengers and crew trapped inside.

From the ensuing chaos a rebellious Priest Reverend Scott (Gene Hackman) takes a mixed band of survivors on a journey through the bowels of the ship in an attempt to survive.

The film won two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and a Motion Picture Sound Editors Award, aided in no small way by a fine Ensemble cast including, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Albertson, Shelley Winters, Red Buttons, Carol Lynley, Roddy McDowall, Stella Stevens, Pamela Sue Martin, Arthur O'Connell and Eric Shea.

ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974)

 

“The Towering Inferno” is an action thriller disaster movie, screenplay by Stirling Silliphant, from the Novel by Richard Martin Stern, Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson, and Directed by John Guillermin.

The focal point of the movie is a colossal skyscraper, designed by Architect Doug Roberts (Paul Newman), which is nearing completion when he returns from a long vacation, but ahead of the “grand opening” party he discovers that his wiring specifications have not been followed and as a result the building has been experiencing an increasing number of electrical glitches.

He raises his concerns with his father in law, Jim Duncan (William Holden) and Project Manager Simmons (Richard Chamberlain) but they are brushed aside. 

Suffice is to say that during the party a fire breaks out and quickly spreads, which threatens to destroy the tower and everyone in it.

So Michael O'Halleran (Steve McQueen), who is the chief on duty as a series of daring rescues punctuate the terror of a building too tall to have a fire successfully fought from the ground.

It’s a tense and thrilling tale with an amazing cast assembled by producer Irwin Allen, who succeed in getting McQueen and Newman to co-star, he also signed Faye Dunaway to play Newman's love interest and cast Fred Astaire, against type as a con-man, but even more astonishing than that, he lured reclusive and legendary film star Jennifer Jones out of retirement for the sympathetic role of Lisolette Mueller.

He also secured other notables which included Robert Wagner, Susan Blakely, Susan Flannery, Sheila Allen, Robert Vaughn, O.J. Simpson and Dabney Coleman.