The Towering Inferno (film)
Encyclopedia
The Towering Inferno is a 1974 American action
disaster film
produced by Irwin Allen
featuring an all-star cast led by Steve McQueen
and Paul Newman
.
A co-production between Twentieth Century-Fox and Warner Bros.
(this was the first film to be a joint venture from two major Hollywood studios), it was adapted by Stirling Silliphant
from a pair of novels, The Tower
by Richard Martin Stern
and The Glass Inferno
by Thomas N. Scortia
and Frank M. Robinson
, and was directed by John Guillermin, with Allen himself directing the action sequences.
Jennifer Jones
made her final screen appearance in this film.
Doug Roberts (Paul Newman
) returns to San Francisco for the dedication of the Glass Tower, which he designed for owner Jim Duncan (William Holden
). At 138 stories
(1,800 ft), it is the world's tallest building. During a routine systems check before the ceremonies, an electrical short in the upper floors starts a small fire in a storage room on the 81st floor which goes undetected. Roberts confronts the building's electrical engineer, Duncan's son-in-law Roger Simmons (Richard Chamberlain
), accusing him of cutting corners. Simmons insists the building is up to standards, but Roberts knows the standards are not enough and demands to see the specifications.
During the dedication ceremony, public relations chief Dan Bigelow (Robert Wagner
) turns on the tower's exterior lights to impress the 294 guests arriving for a party in the Promenade Room on the 135th floor. The lighting overloads the system and Roberts orders it shut off. The building's security guards, led by Harry Jernigan (O.J. Simpson), see the smoke from the fire on the 81st floor and summon the San Francisco Fire Department
. Roberts and engineer Will Giddings (Norman Burton) head to the 81st floor, and Giddings pushes a security guard away from the door to the burning room shortly before it explodes, severely burning him. Roberts tells Duncan of the fire, who insists that the party continue, believing a fire on the 81st floor will not affect the party. Firemen begin fighting the fast-growing blaze unbeknownst to the party guests, using Roberts' office on the 79th floor as a command post and the lobby as a mass casualty and staging area. SFFD 5th Battalion Chief Michael O'Hallorhan (Steve McQueen
) takes charge and forces Duncan to evacuate the party guests. Everyone is directed to the express elevators. Party guest and building resident Lisolette Mueller (Jennifer Jones
), who was romanced at the party by con man
Harlee Claiborne (Fred Astaire
), is one of the first to leave. She heads to the 87th floor to check on a family with two children she babysits and their deaf mother. Simmons admits to Duncan that he changed Roberts' specifications, but at Duncan's request to stay under budget.
The express elevators are rendered unsafe as the fire spreads to the elevators' main bank. The last occupied elevator opens directly on the 81st floor, in O'Hallorhan's view, killing the occupants. The elevator then returns to the Promenade Room where the doors open and one man runs out engulfed in flames in view of the horrified guests. With his tuxedo jacket, Harlee tries to smother the flames on the man, but he still dies. The stairwells are rendered impassable as one is filled with smoke and the door to the other is jammed shut. Bigelow and his secretary/mistress Lorrie (Susan Flannery
) are trapped in his office on the 65th floor and killed by the fire. Jernigan and Roberts are then informed from the building's security station that Lisolette has been seen on a security monitor trying to get into the apartment on 87; the two men head up to assist. Jernigan takes the mother down to safety. Roberts and Lisolette save the two children, but are halted after part of the stairwell explodes due to a ruptured gas line. They get down, then, head up to the Promenade Room via a service elevator, but upon their arrival the stairwell door is sealed by spilled cement. Roberts escapes through a pipe shaft to alert security. Two firemen rescue Lisolette and the children by blowing open the door with C-4
. Suppression by the fire department becomes nearly impossible as the building loses all electrical power, halting an elevator that O'Hallorhan and his men are on, forcing them to rappel down the shaft.
A rooftop helicopter rescue attempt results in further disaster when two women rush the aircraft, causing it to crash and explode due to the heavy winds, setting the roof ablaze. Naval Rescue teams attach a breeches buoy
to the adjacent 102-story Peerless Building and rescue a number of guests, including Duncan's daughter and Simmons' wife Patty (Susan Blakely
). Roberts activates a gravity brake on the scenic elevator, enabling it to coast down to the lobby. Twelve people board it, including Roberts' girlfriend Susan (Faye Dunaway
), Lisolette and the children, along with a supervising fireman. As it descends, an explosion rips the elevator off its track at the 110th floor, leaving it hanging by a cable. Lisolette falls to her death, protecting the kids, before the others are saved by a helicopter rescue by O'Halloran. As the fire reaches the Promenade Room, the remaining guests panic. Simmons forces his way onto the breeches buoy. Senator Gary Parker (Robert Vaughn
), who has been helping Duncan with rescue efforts, is among several guests who attempt to prevent Simmons from commandeering the breeches buoy. During the ensuing struggle, Parker and another guest fall off to their deaths, while an explosion destroys the breeches buoy, sending Simmons and one other guest on the buoy plummeting to their deaths.
A desperate plan is hatched by the top SFFD Fire Chiefs to explode the million-gallon water tanks at the top of the building to extinguish the fire. A reluctant O'Hallorhan is sent, due to his training in explosives, and meets with Roberts. They set plastic C-4 to the six water tanks and the floors on the 138th floor, then return to the Promenade Room. The remaining guests are ordered to tie themselves to heavy objects. O'Hallorhan, Roberts, Duncan, Harlee and most of the party-goers survive as the tanks are blown, sending thousands of gallons of water through the ceiling and throughout the building, extinguishing the flames. The torrent sweeps away those not securely tied down, including Mayor Ramsay (Jack Collins
), while bartender Carlos (Gregory Sierra
) is crushed by a tipping statue.
On the ground, Harlee finds out through Jernigan that Lisolette did not survive and is heartbroken, but is given her pet cat with which to remember her by. Duncan consoles Patty over Simmons' death. Roberts says to Susan that he does not know what will become of the building, but perhaps it should be left alone as a symbol of all that is wrong with society. O'Hallorhan says to Roberts that while the fatality count was under 200 it could be much worse someday unless architects and engineers take fire safety into account. Roberts agrees to consult with O'Hallorhan in the near future. The fire chief drives away, exhausted.
Small parts played by actors who appeared in The Poseidon Adventure, which Irwin Allen also produced, include John Crawford
, Erik Nelson, Elizabeth Rogers
, Ernie Orsatti, and Sheila Matthews
. She would later become Irwin Allen
's wife and remained so until his death in 1991. Jennifer Jones' role of "Lisolette Mueller", her last before retiring from acting, was originally offered to Olivia de Havilland
. The acrophobic
fireman who was afraid to rappel down the elevator shaft was played by Paul Newman's son, Scott
. Maureen McGovern
was the woman singing at the party.
, and Steve McQueen was to play the leading role of architect Doug Roberts. However McQueen requested the fire chief's role, so it was suitably revised and augmented. Paul Newman was cast as the architect.
McQueen, Newman, and William Holden all wanted top billing. Holden was refused, no longer in the league of McQueen and Newman. To provide dual top billing, the credits were arranged diagonally, with McQueen lower left and Newman upper right. Thus, each appeared to have "first" billing. McQueen is mentioned first in the film's trailers. In the cast list rolling from top to bottom at the end of the film, McQueen and Newman's names were arranged diagonally as at the beginning. As a consequence Newman's name is fully visible first here. This was the first time "staggered but equal" billing was used. It had been discussed for the same actors when McQueen was to play the Sundance Kid in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
. McQueen was eventually replaced by Robert Redford
, who took second billing.
In the 2010 biography by AE Hotchner titled Paul and Me, reference is made to the commotion caused by Steve McQueen
due to his apparent displeasure at having a lesser part. McQueen discovered that Paul Newman
had twelve more lines than he did, something that was soon changed. According to the book, Newman's salary from the movie totalled $12 million.
bought the rights to The Tower for $390,000. Eight weeks later, Irwin Allen discovered another novel, The Glass Inferno, and bought the rights for $400,000 for 20th Century Fox
. The productions were combined, with a budget of $14 million ($58 million adjusted for inflation 1974-2005). Each studio paid half the production costs. 20th Century Fox had the United States
domestic box office receipts while Warner Bros. would distribute the film in all foreign territories around the world.
Stirling Silliphant
, who won an Oscar
for his adaptation of In the Heat of the Night, combined the novels into a single screenplay. Silliphant took seven characters from each and combined the plots. In The Tower, a bomb in the utility room of a 150-floor tower (the world's tallest) causes a power surge which sets a janitor's closet on fire; the escape from the top floor is by breeches buoy
to the adjacent 110-story North Tower of the World Trade Center
, and is only partially successful. More than a hundred partygoers die in the restaurant on the top floor. In The Glass Inferno, an electrical spark sets the janitor's closet in a 60-story tower on fire; the escape from the top floor is by helicopter, and everyone left in the restaurant escapes.
The 57 sets and four camera crews were records for a single film on the Twentieth Century Fox lot. At the end of filming of principal photography on September 11, 1974 only eight of those 57 sets were left standing. William Creber is credited as Production Designer of the film and under his direction, Dan Goozee from the Fox art department designed the final look of the Glass Tower itself.
was used as the lobby of the Glass Tower. Its iconic pill-shaped glass elevators, found in many of architect John Portman
's buildings, were reproduced on set in Los Angeles for extensive use in the film. They feature in a key sequence when McQueen has to detach a derailed elevator from the side of the building and lower it to the ground by helicopter. The lobby and elevators also featured in Mel Brooks
' comedy High Anxiety
, the Charles Bronson
spy thriller Telefon, and in Time After Time
.
The Bank of America
building at 555 California Street in San Francisco doubled for the facade and plaza. The St. Francis Hotel
stood in for the security control room. The film makers used the central heating and air conditioning plant for all of Century City (the palatial business district adjacent to Twentieth Century-Fox) for the basic water storage tank set. The Glass Tower itself was a miniature model inserted into the San Francisco skyline in the opening shot by a technique known as rotoscoping. A hand-drawn matte painting
was made of the chopper on each frame in which it was backed up by the miniature buildings. This was achieved through some uncredited blue screen
work by the legendary Douglas Trumbull
. A 70 feet (21.3 m) high model with a combination of propane, acetylene and oxygen jets for exterior fire scenes was filmed by the special effects team headed by Bill Abbott, A.S.C at the Twentieth Century Fox Ranch in Malibu. The site itself was on the concrete floor of the man-made Sersen Lake. Additionally, another model showing only the upper 40 floors was used and seamlessly intercut with the five full scale floors created by film makers for close up shots. The Promenade Room set was filmed on a huge soundstage at Twentieth Century-Fox and was highly unusual in that it reportedly contained statues and set and wall decorations from a previous Fox film, Hello Dolly. The floor space, on many levels, covered 11000 square feet (1,021.9 m²). The lowest level was six feet off the stage floor and the ceiling was 12 feet (3.7 m) above that. Three sides of the set were backed by a 340 feet (103.6 m) cyclorama
, an outstanding piece of work which was created by Gary Coakley. This cyclorama was also utilized as the backdrop to Captain Kirk’s futuristic San Francisco apartment in the films Star Trek II
(1982) and Star Trek III
(1984).
The Westin St. Francis hotel was used for the ride aboard the scenic elevator in which characters ride the elevator towards the Promenade Room, following the ribbon cutting portion of the building's dedication ceremony.
, the world's tallest building until 1996, opened in Chicago, a year after the two World Trade Center
skyscrapers — the world's second tallest building at the time of the film's premiere — opened in New York City
, and not long after the 1972 Andraus Building
and 1974 Joelma Building
fires in São Paulo
, Brazil
. Both novels were inspired by construction of the World Trade Center and what would happen if fire broke out.
In the movie, it is unclear where the building was located in regards to the rest of San Francisco's Financial District. However, it is mentioned by two firemen responding to the fire that it's on the corner of Montgomery Street, a main thoroughfare in the Financial District and SOMA, thus placing the building with the aerial footage, somewhere between the Financial District and SOMA.
The film was often referred to in media reports on the September 11, 2001 attacks
on the World Trade Center. Coincidentally, principal photography on the film started on May 8, 1974 and finished on September 11, 1974 and no building with an occupied floor level greater than 110 stories has since been constructed in the United States. It premiered on December 13, 1974 in a first run that lasted almost a year.
The film's opening credits included a dedication which read:
"To those who give their lives so that others might live, to the firefighters of the world, this picture is gratefully dedicated".
, with orchestrations by Herbert W. Spencer
and Al Woodbury. It was recorded at the 20th Century Fox scoring stage on 31 October and 4, 7 and 11 November 1974. The original recording engineer was Ted Keep.
Source music in portions of the film includes instrumental versions of "Again" by Lionel Newman
and Dorcas Cochran
, "You Make Me Feel So Young" by Josef Myrow
and Mack Gordon
, and "The More I See You" by Harry Warren
and Mack Gordon
.
A snippet of a cue from Williams’ score to Cinderella Liberty
titled 'Maggie Shoots Pool' is heard in a scene when William Holden's character converses on the phone with Paul Newman's character. It is not the recording on the soundtrack album but a newer arrangement recorded for "The Towering Inferno". An extended version is heard ostensibly as source music in a deleted theatrical scene sometimes shown as part of a longer scene from the TV broadcast version.
One of the most sought-after unreleased music cues from the film is the one where Williams provides low-key lounge music during a party prior to the announcement of a fire. O’Halloran orders Duncan to evacuate the party; the music becomes louder as Lisolette and Harlee are seen dancing and Duncan lectures son-in-law Roger. Titled "The Promenade Room" on the conductor's cue sheet, the track features a ragged ending as Duncan asks the house band to stop playing. Because of this Film Score Monthly
could not add this cue to the expanded soundtrack album.
The Academy Award-winning song "We May Never Love Like This Again
" was composed by Al Kasha
and Joel Hirschorn and performed by Maureen McGovern
who appears in a cameo as a lounge singer and on the soundtrack album of the score which features the film recording plus the commercially released single version. Additionally, the theme tune is interpolated into the film's underscore by John Williams. The song's writers collaborated on 'The Morning After' from The Poseidon Adventure which was also sung by McGovern, although hers was not the vocal in that film. Reportedly, Fred Astaire campaigned to Producer Irwin Allen to write a song for "The Towering Inferno" but ultimately his effort was deemed too old fashioned and thus dismissed.
The first release of portions of the score from "The Towering Inferno" was on Warner Brothers Records early in 1975 (Catalog No. BS-2840)
A near-complete release came on the Film Score Monthly
label (FSM) on 1 April 2001 and was produced by Lukas Kendall and Nick Redman. FSM's was an almost completely expanded version remixed from album masters at Warner Bros. archives and the multi-track 35mm magnetic film stems at 20th Century Fox. Placed into chronological order and restoring action cues, it became one of the company's biggest sellers; only 3000 copies were pressed and it is now out of print.
Reports that this soundtrack and that of the movie "Earthquake"
(also composed by Williams) borrowed cues from each other are not accurate. The version of 'Main Title' on the FSM disc is the film version. It differs from the original soundtrack album version. There is a different balance of instruments in two spots, and in particular the snare drum is more prominent than the album version which also feaures additional cymbal work. Although the album was not a re-recording, the original LP tracks were recorded during the same sessions and several cues were combined. The film version sound was reportedly better than the quarter-inch WB two-track album master. Although some minor incidental cues were lost, some sonically 'damaged' cues - so called due to a deterioration of the surviving audio elements - are placed at the end of the disc's program time following the track "An Architect's Dream" which is used over the end credits sequence.
Rotten Tomatoes
. Roger Ebert
of the Chicago Sun-Times
praised the film as "the best of the mid-1970s wave of disaster films
."
The film won three Academy Awards, two BAFTAs and two Golden Globes.
Award nominations
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...
disaster film
Disaster film
A disaster film is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject...
produced by Irwin Allen
Irwin Allen
Irwin Allen was a television and film director and producer nicknamed "The Master of Disaster" for his work in the disaster film genre. He was also notable for creating a number of television series.- Biography :...
featuring an all-star cast led by Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen
Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen was an American movie actor. He was nicknamed "The King of Cool." His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination...
and Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
.
A co-production between Twentieth Century-Fox and Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
(this was the first film to be a joint venture from two major Hollywood studios), it was adapted by Stirling Silliphant
Stirling Silliphant
Stirling Dale Silliphant was an American screenwriter and producer. He was born in Detroit, Michigan, moved to Glendale, California as a child, graduated from Hoover High School, and was educated at the University of Southern California...
from a pair of novels, The Tower
The Tower (novel)
The Tower is a 1973 novel by Richard Martin Stern. It is one of the two books that was used to create the movie The Towering Inferno, the other being The Glass Inferno....
by Richard Martin Stern
Richard Martin Stern
Richard Martin Stern was an American novelist. Stern began his writing career in the 1950s with mystery tales of private investigators, winning a 1959 Edgar Award for Best First Novel, for The Bright Road to Fear.He was most notable for his 1973 novel The Tower, in which a fire engulfs a new...
and The Glass Inferno
The Glass Inferno
The Glass Inferno is a 1974 novel by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson. It is one of the two books that was used to create the movie The Towering Inferno, the other being The Tower.-Plot summary:...
by Thomas N. Scortia
Thomas N. Scortia
Thomas Nicholas Scortia was a science fiction author. He worked in the American aerospace industry until the late 60s/early 70s. He collaborated on several works with fellow author Frank M. Robinson. He sometimes used the pseudonyms "Scott Nichols", "Gerald MacDow", and "Arthur R....
and Frank M. Robinson
Frank M. Robinson
Frank M. Robinson is an American science fiction and techno-thriller writer.-Biography:Robinson was born in Chicago, Illinois. The son of a check forger, Frank started out working as a copy boy for International Service in his teens and then became an office boy for Ziff-Davis...
, and was directed by John Guillermin, with Allen himself directing the action sequences.
Jennifer Jones
Jennifer Jones
Phylis Lee Isley , better known by her stage name Jennifer Jones, was an American actress. A five-time Academy Award nominee, Jones won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Song of Bernadette .-Early life:Jones was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Flora Mae and...
made her final screen appearance in this film.
Plot
ArchitectArchitect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
Doug Roberts (Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
) returns to San Francisco for the dedication of the Glass Tower, which he designed for owner Jim Duncan (William Holden
William Holden
William Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...
). At 138 stories
Storey
A storey or story is any level part of a building that could be used by people...
(1,800 ft), it is the world's tallest building. During a routine systems check before the ceremonies, an electrical short in the upper floors starts a small fire in a storage room on the 81st floor which goes undetected. Roberts confronts the building's electrical engineer, Duncan's son-in-law Roger Simmons (Richard Chamberlain
Richard Chamberlain
George Richard Chamberlain is an American actor of stage and screen who became a teen idol in the title role of the television show Dr. Kildare .-Early life:...
), accusing him of cutting corners. Simmons insists the building is up to standards, but Roberts knows the standards are not enough and demands to see the specifications.
During the dedication ceremony, public relations chief Dan Bigelow (Robert Wagner
Robert Wagner
Robert John Wagner is an American actor of stage, screen, and television.A veteran of many films in the 1950s and 1960s, Wagner gained prominence in three American television series that spanned three decades: It Takes a Thief , Switch , and Hart to Hart...
) turns on the tower's exterior lights to impress the 294 guests arriving for a party in the Promenade Room on the 135th floor. The lighting overloads the system and Roberts orders it shut off. The building's security guards, led by Harry Jernigan (O.J. Simpson), see the smoke from the fire on the 81st floor and summon the San Francisco Fire Department
San Francisco Fire Department
The San Francisco Fire Department provides fire and emergency services to the City and County of San Francisco, California.The San Francisco Fire Department, along with the San Francisco Police Department and San Francisco Sheriff's Department, serves an estimated population of 1.4 million people...
. Roberts and engineer Will Giddings (Norman Burton) head to the 81st floor, and Giddings pushes a security guard away from the door to the burning room shortly before it explodes, severely burning him. Roberts tells Duncan of the fire, who insists that the party continue, believing a fire on the 81st floor will not affect the party. Firemen begin fighting the fast-growing blaze unbeknownst to the party guests, using Roberts' office on the 79th floor as a command post and the lobby as a mass casualty and staging area. SFFD 5th Battalion Chief Michael O'Hallorhan (Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen
Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen was an American movie actor. He was nicknamed "The King of Cool." His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination...
) takes charge and forces Duncan to evacuate the party guests. Everyone is directed to the express elevators. Party guest and building resident Lisolette Mueller (Jennifer Jones
Jennifer Jones
Phylis Lee Isley , better known by her stage name Jennifer Jones, was an American actress. A five-time Academy Award nominee, Jones won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Song of Bernadette .-Early life:Jones was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Flora Mae and...
), who was romanced at the party by con man
Con Man
Con Man or Conman may refer to:* A con artist, or a person who uses a fraud method known as a confidence trick* Con Man, a.k.a. Freelance , starring Ian McShane...
Harlee Claiborne (Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
), is one of the first to leave. She heads to the 87th floor to check on a family with two children she babysits and their deaf mother. Simmons admits to Duncan that he changed Roberts' specifications, but at Duncan's request to stay under budget.
The express elevators are rendered unsafe as the fire spreads to the elevators' main bank. The last occupied elevator opens directly on the 81st floor, in O'Hallorhan's view, killing the occupants. The elevator then returns to the Promenade Room where the doors open and one man runs out engulfed in flames in view of the horrified guests. With his tuxedo jacket, Harlee tries to smother the flames on the man, but he still dies. The stairwells are rendered impassable as one is filled with smoke and the door to the other is jammed shut. Bigelow and his secretary/mistress Lorrie (Susan Flannery
Susan Flannery
Susan Flannery is an American soap opera actress. She is known for her role Stephanie Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful and for her role as Dr. Laura Spencer Horton on Days of our Lives ....
) are trapped in his office on the 65th floor and killed by the fire. Jernigan and Roberts are then informed from the building's security station that Lisolette has been seen on a security monitor trying to get into the apartment on 87; the two men head up to assist. Jernigan takes the mother down to safety. Roberts and Lisolette save the two children, but are halted after part of the stairwell explodes due to a ruptured gas line. They get down, then, head up to the Promenade Room via a service elevator, but upon their arrival the stairwell door is sealed by spilled cement. Roberts escapes through a pipe shaft to alert security. Two firemen rescue Lisolette and the children by blowing open the door with C-4
C-4 (explosive)
C4 or Composition C4 is a common variety of the plastic explosive known as Composition C.-Composition and manufacture:C4 is made up of explosives, plastic binder, plasticizer and usually marker or odorizing taggant chemicals such as 2,3-dimethyl-2,3-dinitrobutane to help detect the explosive and...
. Suppression by the fire department becomes nearly impossible as the building loses all electrical power, halting an elevator that O'Hallorhan and his men are on, forcing them to rappel down the shaft.
A rooftop helicopter rescue attempt results in further disaster when two women rush the aircraft, causing it to crash and explode due to the heavy winds, setting the roof ablaze. Naval Rescue teams attach a breeches buoy
Breeches buoy
A breeches buoy is a crude rope-based rescue device used to extract people from wrecked vessels, or to transfer people from one location to another in situations of danger. The device resembles a round emergency personal flotation device with a leg harness attached...
to the adjacent 102-story Peerless Building and rescue a number of guests, including Duncan's daughter and Simmons' wife Patty (Susan Blakely
Susan Blakely
Susan Blakely is an American film actress who has mainly played supporting roles.-Early life:Blakely was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1948. She is the daughter of Weezie, a former art teacher, and Colonel Lawrence Blakely, a career Army officer. Her first career break came while she was living...
). Roberts activates a gravity brake on the scenic elevator, enabling it to coast down to the lobby. Twelve people board it, including Roberts' girlfriend Susan (Faye Dunaway
Faye Dunaway
Faye Dunaway is an American actress.Dunaway won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Network after receiving previous nominations for the critically acclaimed films Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown...
), Lisolette and the children, along with a supervising fireman. As it descends, an explosion rips the elevator off its track at the 110th floor, leaving it hanging by a cable. Lisolette falls to her death, protecting the kids, before the others are saved by a helicopter rescue by O'Halloran. As the fire reaches the Promenade Room, the remaining guests panic. Simmons forces his way onto the breeches buoy. Senator Gary Parker (Robert Vaughn
Robert Vaughn
Robert Francis Vaughn, , is an American actor noted for stage, film and television work. His best known roles include the suave spy Napoleon Solo in the 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., wealthy detective Harry Rule in the 1970s television series The Protectors, Albert Stroller in...
), who has been helping Duncan with rescue efforts, is among several guests who attempt to prevent Simmons from commandeering the breeches buoy. During the ensuing struggle, Parker and another guest fall off to their deaths, while an explosion destroys the breeches buoy, sending Simmons and one other guest on the buoy plummeting to their deaths.
A desperate plan is hatched by the top SFFD Fire Chiefs to explode the million-gallon water tanks at the top of the building to extinguish the fire. A reluctant O'Hallorhan is sent, due to his training in explosives, and meets with Roberts. They set plastic C-4 to the six water tanks and the floors on the 138th floor, then return to the Promenade Room. The remaining guests are ordered to tie themselves to heavy objects. O'Hallorhan, Roberts, Duncan, Harlee and most of the party-goers survive as the tanks are blown, sending thousands of gallons of water through the ceiling and throughout the building, extinguishing the flames. The torrent sweeps away those not securely tied down, including Mayor Ramsay (Jack Collins
Jack Collins
Jack Collins may refer to:In Australia:* Jack A. Collins , Australian rules footballer for Melbourne* Jack L. Collins , Australian rules footballer for Geelong* Jack C...
), while bartender Carlos (Gregory Sierra
Gregory Sierra
Gregory Sierra is an American actor known for his roles as Detective Sergeant Chano Amenguale on Barney Miller and as Julio Fuentes, the Puerto Rican neighbor of Fred G...
) is crushed by a tipping statue.
On the ground, Harlee finds out through Jernigan that Lisolette did not survive and is heartbroken, but is given her pet cat with which to remember her by. Duncan consoles Patty over Simmons' death. Roberts says to Susan that he does not know what will become of the building, but perhaps it should be left alone as a symbol of all that is wrong with society. O'Hallorhan says to Roberts that while the fatality count was under 200 it could be much worse someday unless architects and engineers take fire safety into account. Roberts agrees to consult with O'Hallorhan in the near future. The fire chief drives away, exhausted.
Cast
- Steve McQueenSteve McQueenTerrence Steven "Steve" McQueen was an American movie actor. He was nicknamed "The King of Cool." His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination...
as SFFD 5th Battalion Chief Michael O’Hallorhan - Paul NewmanPaul NewmanPaul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
as Doug Roberts - William HoldenWilliam HoldenWilliam Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...
as James Duncan - Faye DunawayFaye DunawayFaye Dunaway is an American actress.Dunaway won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Network after receiving previous nominations for the critically acclaimed films Bonnie and Clyde and Chinatown...
as Susan Franklin - Fred AstaireFred AstaireFred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
as Harlee Claiborne - Susan BlakelySusan BlakelySusan Blakely is an American film actress who has mainly played supporting roles.-Early life:Blakely was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1948. She is the daughter of Weezie, a former art teacher, and Colonel Lawrence Blakely, a career Army officer. Her first career break came while she was living...
as Patty Duncan Simmons - Richard Chamberlain as Roger Simmons
- Jennifer JonesJennifer JonesPhylis Lee Isley , better known by her stage name Jennifer Jones, was an American actress. A five-time Academy Award nominee, Jones won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Song of Bernadette .-Early life:Jones was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Flora Mae and...
as Lisolette Mueller - O.J. Simpson as Security Officer Harry Jernigan
- Robert VaughnRobert VaughnRobert Francis Vaughn, , is an American actor noted for stage, film and television work. His best known roles include the suave spy Napoleon Solo in the 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., wealthy detective Harry Rule in the 1970s television series The Protectors, Albert Stroller in...
as U.S. Senator Gary Parker - Robert WagnerRobert WagnerRobert John Wagner is an American actor of stage, screen, and television.A veteran of many films in the 1950s and 1960s, Wagner gained prominence in three American television series that spanned three decades: It Takes a Thief , Switch , and Hart to Hart...
as Dan Bigelow - Susan FlannerySusan FlannerySusan Flannery is an American soap opera actress. She is known for her role Stephanie Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful and for her role as Dr. Laura Spencer Horton on Days of our Lives ....
as Lorrie - Sheila MatthewsSheila AllenSheila Allen is an American actress.Sheila Ann Mathews was born in New York City. She was married to producer Irwin Allen until his death in 1991. She appeared in several of her husband's TV series and movies through 1986....
as Paula Ramsay - Norman Burton as Will Giddings
- Jack CollinsJack CollinsJack Collins may refer to:In Australia:* Jack A. Collins , Australian rules footballer for Melbourne* Jack L. Collins , Australian rules footballer for Geelong* Jack C...
as Mayor Bob Ramsay - Don GordonDon GordonDon Gordon is an American film and television actor. He is sometimes billed as Donald Gordon.Gordon was born in Los Angeles, California, as Donald Walter Guadagno. His most notable films were where he appeared alongside his friend Steve McQueen in Bullitt, Papillon and The Towering Inferno...
as Kappy - Felton PerryFelton PerryFelton Perry is an American actor. He is known for his role as Inspector Early Smith in the 1973 movie Magnum Force, the second film in the Dirty Harry series. Felton's other well-known role is in the 1987 science fiction movie RoboCop as Donald Johnson, the executive at the corporation Omni...
as Fireman Scott - Gregory SierraGregory SierraGregory Sierra is an American actor known for his roles as Detective Sergeant Chano Amenguale on Barney Miller and as Julio Fuentes, the Puerto Rican neighbor of Fred G...
as Carlos - Ernie Orsatti as Fireman Mark Powers
- Dabney ColemanDabney ColemanDabney Wharton Coleman is an American actor, best known for his roles in 9 to 5, WarGames, You've Got Mail, Sworn to Silence, The Beverly Hillbillies and as the voice of Principal Peter Prickly in Recess and Recess: School's Out.-Early life:Coleman was born in Austin, Texas, the son of Mary...
as Deputy Chief #1 - Mike LookinlandMike LookinlandMichael Paul "Mike" Lookinland is an American actor. He is best known for his role as the youngest brother Bobby Brady on The Brady Bunch from 1969 until 1974.-Early life:...
as Phillip
Small parts played by actors who appeared in The Poseidon Adventure, which Irwin Allen also produced, include John Crawford
John Crawford (actor)
John Crawford was an American actor.Crawford was born Cleve Allen Richardson in Colfax, Washington. In films from the 1940s, Crawford appeared in bit parts for many years before playing leads in several films in the UK in the late 1950s and early 1960s...
, Erik Nelson, Elizabeth Rogers
Elizabeth Rogers
Elizabeth Rogers was an American actress.Born Betty Jayne Rogers in Austin, Texas, she was famous for her roles in the 1960s television series Star Trek. She portrayed Lt. Palmer, the relief communications officer for Lt. Uhura in the episodes "The Doomsday Machine" and "The Way To Eden"...
, Ernie Orsatti, and Sheila Matthews
Sheila Allen
Sheila Allen is an American actress.Sheila Ann Mathews was born in New York City. She was married to producer Irwin Allen until his death in 1991. She appeared in several of her husband's TV series and movies through 1986....
. She would later become Irwin Allen
Irwin Allen
Irwin Allen was a television and film director and producer nicknamed "The Master of Disaster" for his work in the disaster film genre. He was also notable for creating a number of television series.- Biography :...
's wife and remained so until his death in 1991. Jennifer Jones' role of "Lisolette Mueller", her last before retiring from acting, was originally offered to Olivia de Havilland
Olivia de Havilland
Olivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...
. The acrophobic
Acrophobia
Acrophobia is an extreme or irrational fear of heights. It belongs to a category of specific phobias, called space and motion discomfort that share both similar etiology and options for treatment.Most people experience a degree of natural fear when exposed to heights, especially if there is little...
fireman who was afraid to rappel down the elevator shaft was played by Paul Newman's son, Scott
Scott Newman (actor)
Alan Scott Newman was an American film and television actor and stuntman, best known for his roles in The Towering Inferno and Breakheart Pass. He was the only son of Academy Award-winning actor Paul Newman...
. Maureen McGovern
Maureen McGovern
Maureen Therese McGovern is an American singer and Broadway actress, well known for her premier renditions of the Oscar winning songs "The Morning After" from the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure, and "We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno in 1974.-Early life:McGovern was...
was the woman singing at the party.
McQueen and Newman
In initial stages of the film's development, the fire chief's role was relatively minor – the architect was the hero. Fire Chief Mario Infantino was to be played by Ernest BorgnineErnest Borgnine
Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...
, and Steve McQueen was to play the leading role of architect Doug Roberts. However McQueen requested the fire chief's role, so it was suitably revised and augmented. Paul Newman was cast as the architect.
McQueen, Newman, and William Holden all wanted top billing. Holden was refused, no longer in the league of McQueen and Newman. To provide dual top billing, the credits were arranged diagonally, with McQueen lower left and Newman upper right. Thus, each appeared to have "first" billing. McQueen is mentioned first in the film's trailers. In the cast list rolling from top to bottom at the end of the film, McQueen and Newman's names were arranged diagonally as at the beginning. As a consequence Newman's name is fully visible first here. This was the first time "staggered but equal" billing was used. It had been discussed for the same actors when McQueen was to play the Sundance Kid in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a 1969 American Western film directed by George Roy Hill and written by William Goldman...
. McQueen was eventually replaced by Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
, who took second billing.
In the 2010 biography by AE Hotchner titled Paul and Me, reference is made to the commotion caused by Steve McQueen
Steve McQueen
Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen was an American movie actor. He was nicknamed "The King of Cool." His "anti-hero" persona, which he developed at the height of the Vietnam counterculture, made him one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination...
due to his apparent displeasure at having a lesser part. McQueen discovered that Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
had twelve more lines than he did, something that was soon changed. According to the book, Newman's salary from the movie totalled $12 million.
Production
After the success of The Poseidon Adventure, Warner Bros.Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
bought the rights to The Tower for $390,000. Eight weeks later, Irwin Allen discovered another novel, The Glass Inferno, and bought the rights for $400,000 for 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
. The productions were combined, with a budget of $14 million ($58 million adjusted for inflation 1974-2005). Each studio paid half the production costs. 20th Century Fox had the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
domestic box office receipts while Warner Bros. would distribute the film in all foreign territories around the world.
Stirling Silliphant
Stirling Silliphant
Stirling Dale Silliphant was an American screenwriter and producer. He was born in Detroit, Michigan, moved to Glendale, California as a child, graduated from Hoover High School, and was educated at the University of Southern California...
, who won an Oscar
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for his adaptation of In the Heat of the Night, combined the novels into a single screenplay. Silliphant took seven characters from each and combined the plots. In The Tower, a bomb in the utility room of a 150-floor tower (the world's tallest) causes a power surge which sets a janitor's closet on fire; the escape from the top floor is by breeches buoy
Breeches buoy
A breeches buoy is a crude rope-based rescue device used to extract people from wrecked vessels, or to transfer people from one location to another in situations of danger. The device resembles a round emergency personal flotation device with a leg harness attached...
to the adjacent 110-story North Tower of the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
, and is only partially successful. More than a hundred partygoers die in the restaurant on the top floor. In The Glass Inferno, an electrical spark sets the janitor's closet in a 60-story tower on fire; the escape from the top floor is by helicopter, and everyone left in the restaurant escapes.
The 57 sets and four camera crews were records for a single film on the Twentieth Century Fox lot. At the end of filming of principal photography on September 11, 1974 only eight of those 57 sets were left standing. William Creber is credited as Production Designer of the film and under his direction, Dan Goozee from the Fox art department designed the final look of the Glass Tower itself.
Filming locations and sets
The atrium of the Hyatt Regency San FranciscoHyatt Regency San Francisco
Hyatt Regency San Francisco is a hotel located at the foot of Market Street and The Embarcadero in the financial district of San Francisco, California...
was used as the lobby of the Glass Tower. Its iconic pill-shaped glass elevators, found in many of architect John Portman
John Portman
John C. Portman, Jr. is an American architect and real estate developer widely known for popularizing hotels and office buildings with multi-storied interior atriums....
's buildings, were reproduced on set in Los Angeles for extensive use in the film. They feature in a key sequence when McQueen has to detach a derailed elevator from the side of the building and lower it to the ground by helicopter. The lobby and elevators also featured in Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...
' comedy High Anxiety
High Anxiety
High Anxiety is a 1977 comedy film produced and directed by Mel Brooks, who also plays the lead. This is Brooks' first film as a producer and first "speaking" lead role...
, the Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series...
spy thriller Telefon, and in Time After Time
Time After Time (1979 film)
Time After Time is a 1979 American fantasy film written and directed by Nicholas Meyer. His screenplay is based largely on a novel by Karl Alexander and a story by Steve Hayes. It concerns British author H. G...
.
The Bank of America
Bank of America
Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
building at 555 California Street in San Francisco doubled for the facade and plaza. The St. Francis Hotel
St. Francis Hotel
The Westin St. Francis is a historic luxury hotel located on Powell and Geary Streets on Union Square in San Francisco, California. The two twelve-story south wings of the hotel were built just before the San Francisco Earthquake, in 1904, and the double-width north wing was completed in 1913,...
stood in for the security control room. The film makers used the central heating and air conditioning plant for all of Century City (the palatial business district adjacent to Twentieth Century-Fox) for the basic water storage tank set. The Glass Tower itself was a miniature model inserted into the San Francisco skyline in the opening shot by a technique known as rotoscoping. A hand-drawn matte painting
Matte painting
A matte painting is a painted representation of a landscape, set, or distant location that allows filmmakers to create the illusion of an environment that would otherwise be too expensive or impossible to build or visit. Historically, matte painters and film technicians have used various techniques...
was made of the chopper on each frame in which it was backed up by the miniature buildings. This was achieved through some uncredited blue screen
Blue screen
Blue screen may refer to:*Blue Screen of Death, a fatal system error screen in Microsoft Windows*Blue white screen is an assay useful in biotechnology*Blue screen compositing, a technique for combining two still images or video frames...
work by the legendary Douglas Trumbull
Douglas Trumbull
Douglas Huntley Trumbull is an American film director, special effects supervisor, and inventor. He contributed to, or was responsible for, the special photographic effects of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Blade Runner and The Tree of...
. A 70 feet (21.3 m) high model with a combination of propane, acetylene and oxygen jets for exterior fire scenes was filmed by the special effects team headed by Bill Abbott, A.S.C at the Twentieth Century Fox Ranch in Malibu. The site itself was on the concrete floor of the man-made Sersen Lake. Additionally, another model showing only the upper 40 floors was used and seamlessly intercut with the five full scale floors created by film makers for close up shots. The Promenade Room set was filmed on a huge soundstage at Twentieth Century-Fox and was highly unusual in that it reportedly contained statues and set and wall decorations from a previous Fox film, Hello Dolly. The floor space, on many levels, covered 11000 square feet (1,021.9 m²). The lowest level was six feet off the stage floor and the ceiling was 12 feet (3.7 m) above that. Three sides of the set were backed by a 340 feet (103.6 m) cyclorama
Cyclorama (theater)
A cyclorama is a large curtain or wall, often concave, positioned at the back of the stage area. It was popularized in the German theater of the 19th century and continues in common usage today in theaters throughout the world...
, an outstanding piece of work which was created by Gary Coakley. This cyclorama was also utilized as the backdrop to Captain Kirk’s futuristic San Francisco apartment in the films Star Trek II
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a 1982 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. The film is the second feature based on the Star Trek science fiction franchise. The plot features James T...
(1982) and Star Trek III
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is a 1984 motion picture released by Paramount Pictures. The film is the third feature based on the Star Trek science fiction franchise and is the center of a three-film story arc that begins with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and concludes with Star Trek IV:...
(1984).
The Westin St. Francis hotel was used for the ride aboard the scenic elevator in which characters ride the elevator towards the Promenade Room, following the ribbon cutting portion of the building's dedication ceremony.
Influences
The film was released the year the Sears TowerSears Tower
Sears' optimistic growth projections were not met. Competition from its traditional rivals continued, with new competition by retailing giants such as Kmart, Kohl's, and Wal-Mart. The fortunes of Sears & Roebuck declined in the 1970s as the company lost market share; its management grew more...
, the world's tallest building until 1996, opened in Chicago, a year after the two World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
skyscrapers — the world's second tallest building at the time of the film's premiere — opened in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and not long after the 1972 Andraus Building
Andraus Building
The Andraus Building is a well-known building in the city centre of São Paulo, Brazil which is located in Republic district, on the corner of avenida São João with rua Pedro Américo. It is 115 metres tall and has 32 floors, and its construction ended in 1962. On February 24, 1972, the building...
and 1974 Joelma Building
Joelma Building
The Joelma Building is a 25 floor skyscraper in São Paulo, Brazil, located at 225 Avenida 9 de Julho. At 8:50am on 1 February 1974, an air conditioning unit on the twelfth floor overheated, starting a fire. There were 756 people in the building at the time. Because flammable materials had been used...
fires in São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. Both novels were inspired by construction of the World Trade Center and what would happen if fire broke out.
In the movie, it is unclear where the building was located in regards to the rest of San Francisco's Financial District. However, it is mentioned by two firemen responding to the fire that it's on the corner of Montgomery Street, a main thoroughfare in the Financial District and SOMA, thus placing the building with the aerial footage, somewhere between the Financial District and SOMA.
The film was often referred to in media reports on the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
on the World Trade Center. Coincidentally, principal photography on the film started on May 8, 1974 and finished on September 11, 1974 and no building with an occupied floor level greater than 110 stories has since been constructed in the United States. It premiered on December 13, 1974 in a first run that lasted almost a year.
The film's opening credits included a dedication which read:
"To those who give their lives so that others might live, to the firefighters of the world, this picture is gratefully dedicated".
Music
The score was composed and conducted by John WilliamsJohn Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
, with orchestrations by Herbert W. Spencer
Herbert W. Spencer
Herbert Winfield Spencer was a film and television composer and orchestrator.Spencer gained industry fame when he teamed up with fellow 20th Century Fox orchestrator Earle Hagen in 1953 to create the Spencer-Hagen Orchestra...
and Al Woodbury. It was recorded at the 20th Century Fox scoring stage on 31 October and 4, 7 and 11 November 1974. The original recording engineer was Ted Keep.
Source music in portions of the film includes instrumental versions of "Again" by Lionel Newman
Lionel Newman
Lionel Newman was an American conductor, pianist, and film and television composer. He was the brother of Alfred Newman and Emil Newman, uncle of Randy Newman, David Newman and Thomas Newman, and grandfather of Joey Newman....
and Dorcas Cochran
Dorcas Cochran
Dorcas Cochran was an American lyricist and screenwriter. She is also referenced by her married name, Dorcas Cochran Jewell.-Biography:...
, "You Make Me Feel So Young" by Josef Myrow
Josef Myrow
Josef Myrow was a Russian-born composer known for his work in film scores in the 1940s and 50s. He was nominated for an Academy Award twice: in 1947 for the song "You Do" from the film Mother Wore Tights and in 1950 for "Wilhelmina" from the film Wabash Avenue...
and Mack Gordon
Mack Gordon
Mack Gordon was an American composer and lyricist of songs for the stage and film. He was nominated for the best original song Oscar nine times, including six consecutive years between 1940 and 1945, and won the award once, for "You'll Never Know"...
, and "The More I See You" by Harry Warren
Harry Warren
Harry Warren was an American composer and lyricist. Warren was the first major American songwriter to write primarily for film. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song eleven times and won three Oscars for composing "Lullaby of Broadway", "You'll Never Know" and "On the Atchison,...
and Mack Gordon
Mack Gordon
Mack Gordon was an American composer and lyricist of songs for the stage and film. He was nominated for the best original song Oscar nine times, including six consecutive years between 1940 and 1945, and won the award once, for "You'll Never Know"...
.
A snippet of a cue from Williams’ score to Cinderella Liberty
Cinderella Liberty
Cinderella Liberty is a 1973 film which tells the story of a sailor who falls in love with a prostitute and becomes a surrogate father for her 11-year-old mixed race son. It stars James Caan, Marsha Mason, Kirk Calloway, Eli Wallach, Burt Young, Allyn Ann McLerie, Dabney Coleman, Jon Korkes, and...
titled 'Maggie Shoots Pool' is heard in a scene when William Holden's character converses on the phone with Paul Newman's character. It is not the recording on the soundtrack album but a newer arrangement recorded for "The Towering Inferno". An extended version is heard ostensibly as source music in a deleted theatrical scene sometimes shown as part of a longer scene from the TV broadcast version.
One of the most sought-after unreleased music cues from the film is the one where Williams provides low-key lounge music during a party prior to the announcement of a fire. O’Halloran orders Duncan to evacuate the party; the music becomes louder as Lisolette and Harlee are seen dancing and Duncan lectures son-in-law Roger. Titled "The Promenade Room" on the conductor's cue sheet, the track features a ragged ending as Duncan asks the house band to stop playing. Because of this Film Score Monthly
Film Score Monthly
Film Score Monthly is an online magazine founded by editor-in-chief and executive producer Lukas Kendall in June 1990 as The Soundtrack Correspondence List...
could not add this cue to the expanded soundtrack album.
The Academy Award-winning song "We May Never Love Like This Again
We May Never Love Like This Again
"We May Never Love Like This Again" is a song written by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn for the 1974 film, The Towering Inferno. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1974, and was performed by Maureen McGovern both for the film score and, briefly, in the film itself with McGovern...
" was composed by Al Kasha
Al Kasha
Al Kasha is a Brooklyn–born composer, songwriter and arranger, as well as businessman. He is most noted for his years of collaboration with songwriter Joel Hirschhorn...
and Joel Hirschorn and performed by Maureen McGovern
Maureen McGovern
Maureen Therese McGovern is an American singer and Broadway actress, well known for her premier renditions of the Oscar winning songs "The Morning After" from the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure, and "We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno in 1974.-Early life:McGovern was...
who appears in a cameo as a lounge singer and on the soundtrack album of the score which features the film recording plus the commercially released single version. Additionally, the theme tune is interpolated into the film's underscore by John Williams. The song's writers collaborated on 'The Morning After' from The Poseidon Adventure which was also sung by McGovern, although hers was not the vocal in that film. Reportedly, Fred Astaire campaigned to Producer Irwin Allen to write a song for "The Towering Inferno" but ultimately his effort was deemed too old fashioned and thus dismissed.
The first release of portions of the score from "The Towering Inferno" was on Warner Brothers Records early in 1975 (Catalog No. BS-2840)
- Main Title (5:00)
- An Architect's Dream (3:28)
- Lisolette And Harlee (2:34)
- Something For Susan (2:42)
- Trapped Lovers (4:28)
- We May Never Love Like This AgainWe May Never Love Like This Again"We May Never Love Like This Again" is a song written by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn for the 1974 film, The Towering Inferno. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1974, and was performed by Maureen McGovern both for the film score and, briefly, in the film itself with McGovern...
- Kasha/Hirschhorn, performed by Maureen McGovern (2:11) - Susan And Doug (2:30)
- The Helicopter Explosion (2:50)
- Planting The Charges - And Finale (10:17)
A near-complete release came on the Film Score Monthly
Film Score Monthly
Film Score Monthly is an online magazine founded by editor-in-chief and executive producer Lukas Kendall in June 1990 as The Soundtrack Correspondence List...
label (FSM) on 1 April 2001 and was produced by Lukas Kendall and Nick Redman. FSM's was an almost completely expanded version remixed from album masters at Warner Bros. archives and the multi-track 35mm magnetic film stems at 20th Century Fox. Placed into chronological order and restoring action cues, it became one of the company's biggest sellers; only 3000 copies were pressed and it is now out of print.
Reports that this soundtrack and that of the movie "Earthquake"
Earthquake (film)
Earthquake is a 1974 American disaster film that achieved huge box-office success, continuing the disaster film genre of the 1970s where recognizable all-star casts attempt to survive life or death situations...
(also composed by Williams) borrowed cues from each other are not accurate. The version of 'Main Title' on the FSM disc is the film version. It differs from the original soundtrack album version. There is a different balance of instruments in two spots, and in particular the snare drum is more prominent than the album version which also feaures additional cymbal work. Although the album was not a re-recording, the original LP tracks were recorded during the same sessions and several cues were combined. The film version sound was reportedly better than the quarter-inch WB two-track album master. Although some minor incidental cues were lost, some sonically 'damaged' cues - so called due to a deterioration of the surviving audio elements - are placed at the end of the disc's program time following the track "An Architect's Dream" which is used over the end credits sequence.
- Main Title (5:01)
- Something For Susan (2:42)
- Lisolette and Harlee (2:35)
- The Flame Ignites (1:01)
- More For Susan (1:55)
- Harlee Dressing (1:37)
- Let There Be Light (:37)
- Alone At Last (:51)
- We May Never Love Like This AgainWe May Never Love Like This Again"We May Never Love Like This Again" is a song written by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn for the 1974 film, The Towering Inferno. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1974, and was performed by Maureen McGovern both for the film score and, briefly, in the film itself with McGovern...
(Film Version) - Maureen McGovern (2:04) - The First Victims (3:24)
- Not A Cigarette (1:18)
- Trapped Lovers (4:44)
- Doug's Fall/Piggy Back Ride (2:18)
- Lisolette's Descent (3:07)
- Down The Pipes/The Door Opens (2:59)
- Couples (3:38)
- Short Goodbyes (2:26)
- Helicopter Rescue (3:07)
- Passing The Word (1:12)
- Planting The Charges (9:04)
- Finale (3:57)
- An Architect's Dream (3:28)
- We May Never Love Like This AgainWe May Never Love Like This Again"We May Never Love Like This Again" is a song written by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn for the 1974 film, The Towering Inferno. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1974, and was performed by Maureen McGovern both for the film score and, briefly, in the film itself with McGovern...
(Album Version) - Maureen McGovern (2:13) - The Morning After (Instrumental) (2:07)
- Susan And Doug (Album Track) (2:33)
- Departmental Pride and The Cat (Damaged) (2:34)
- Helicopter Explosion (Damaged) (2:34)
- Waking Up (Damaged) (2:39)
Reception
The Towering Inferno met with positive reviews from critics, garnering a 79% rating on review aggregatorReview aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services . This system stores the reviews and then uses them for purposes such as: creating a website for users to view the reviews, selling information to third parties about consumer tendencies and creating databases for...
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
praised the film as "the best of the mid-1970s wave of disaster films
Disaster film
A disaster film is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject...
."
Awards
Award winsThe film won three Academy Awards, two BAFTAs and two Golden Globes.
- Academy Award for Best CinematographyAcademy Award for Best CinematographyThe Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...
- (Fred J. KoenekampFred J. KoenekampFred J. Koenekamp, A.S.C. is a U.S. cinematographer. He is the son of cinematographer Hans F. Koenekamp.He worked in television and feature films from the 1960s. He was nominated for an Oscar for Patton and "The Towering Inferno" , winning the Oscar for "The Towering Inferno" along with Joseph...
& Joseph F. BirocJoseph F. BirocJoseph Francis Biroc, A.S.C. was a highly successful movie and TV cinematographer. Mr. Biroc was born in New York City, and he began working in movies at the Paragon Studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey. After working for about six years with that company, he moved to Los Angeles, after also working...
) - BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role - (Fred AstaireFred AstaireFred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
) - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting ActorGolden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion PictureThe Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in 1944 for a performance in a motion picture released in the previous year....
- (Fred Astaire) - Golden Globe Award for Most Promising newcomer – Female – (Susan FlannerySusan FlannerySusan Flannery is an American soap opera actress. She is known for her role Stephanie Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful and for her role as Dr. Laura Spencer Horton on Days of our Lives ....
) - Academy Award for Film EditingAcademy Award for Film EditingThe Academy Award for Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since 1981, every film selected as Best Picture has also been nominated for the Film Editing...
- (Carl Kress & Harold F. KressHarold F. KressHarold F. Kress was an American film editor best known for the 1962 film How the West Was Won and the 1974 film The Towering Inferno.-Biography:...
) - BAFTA Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music - (John WilliamsJohn WilliamsJohn Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
) - Academy Award for Best Song - (Al KashaAl KashaAl Kasha is a Brooklyn–born composer, songwriter and arranger, as well as businessman. He is most noted for his years of collaboration with songwriter Joel Hirschhorn...
& Joel HirschhornJoel HirschhornJoel Hirschhorn, , was an American songwriter. During a successful career, he won the Academy Award for Best Song on two occasions...
) for the song "We May Never Love Like This AgainWe May Never Love Like This Again"We May Never Love Like This Again" is a song written by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn for the 1974 film, The Towering Inferno. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1974, and was performed by Maureen McGovern both for the film score and, briefly, in the film itself with McGovern...
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Award nominations
- Academy Award for Best PictureAcademy Award for Best PictureThe Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
- Academy Award for Best Supporting ActorAcademy Award for Best Supporting ActorPerformance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
- (Fred AstaireFred AstaireFred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
) - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting ActressGolden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion PictureThe Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in 1944 for a performance in a motion picture released in the previous year....
- (Jennifer JonesJennifer JonesPhylis Lee Isley , better known by her stage name Jennifer Jones, was an American actress. A five-time Academy Award nominee, Jones won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Song of Bernadette .-Early life:Jones was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Flora Mae and...
) - Academy Award for Best Art DirectionAcademy Award for Best Art DirectionThe Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...
- (William J. CreberWilliam J. CreberWilliam J. Creber is an American art director. He was nominated for three Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction. He continues to consult on special projects including key street designs for Disney theme parks and rebuilding the street facades that burned in the June 2008 Universal...
, Ward PrestonWard PrestonWard Preston was an American production designer and art director. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Art Direction for the film The Towering Inferno.-External links:...
, Raphael BrettonRaphael BrettonRaphael Bretton is a French set decorator. He won an Academy Award and was nominated for three more in the category Best Art Direction.-Selected filmography:...
) - Academy Award for Original Music ScoreAcademy Award for Original Music ScoreThe Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.-Superlatives:...
- (John WilliamsJohn WilliamsJohn Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
) - Academy Award for Best Sound - (Theodore SoderbergTheodore SoderbergTheodore Soderberg was an American sound engineer. He was nominated for six Academy Awards in the category Sound Recording.-Selected filmography:* Imitation of Life * The French Connection * The Poseidon Adventure...
, Herman LewisHerman LewisHerman Lewis was an American sound engineer. He was nominated for three Academy Awards in the category Best Sound.-Selected filmography:* Tora! Tora! Tora! * The Poseidon Adventure * The Towering Inferno -External links:...
) - Golden Globe Award for Best Original SongGolden Globe AwardThe Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
- (Al KashaAl KashaAl Kasha is a Brooklyn–born composer, songwriter and arranger, as well as businessman. He is most noted for his years of collaboration with songwriter Joel Hirschhorn...
& Joel HirschhornJoel HirschhornJoel Hirschhorn, , was an American songwriter. During a successful career, he won the Academy Award for Best Song on two occasions...
) for the song "We May Never Love Like This AgainWe May Never Love Like This Again"We May Never Love Like This Again" is a song written by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn for the 1974 film, The Towering Inferno. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1974, and was performed by Maureen McGovern both for the film score and, briefly, in the film itself with McGovern...
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See also
- Skyscrapers in filmSkyscrapers in filmSkyscrapers are frequently featured in films for their impressive appearance and potent symbolism. They convey an impression of power – an old movie and TV cliché starts with the outside view of a skyscraper with a voice-over conversation, continuing inside the luxurious office of a tycoon or...
- List of firefighting films
- San Francisco Fire DepartmentSan Francisco Fire DepartmentThe San Francisco Fire Department provides fire and emergency services to the City and County of San Francisco, California.The San Francisco Fire Department, along with the San Francisco Police Department and San Francisco Sheriff's Department, serves an estimated population of 1.4 million people...
External links
- The Towering Inferno Website
- DVD Review: The Towering Inferno (Special Edition) at The-Trades.com
- Irwin Allen News Network (The Irwin Allen News Network's Towering Inferno page)
- Various releases of music from the film, on LP and cd
- Towering Inferno Memorabilia Archive (photos, storyboards, tower/set blueprints, and more)