The Towering Inferno (film)

The Towering Inferno is a 1974 disaster film directed by John Guillermin, adapted by Stirling Silliphant from the novels The Tower by Richard Martin Stern and The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson, and starring Steve McQueen and Paul Newman.

Award wins
Academy Award for Best Cinematography - (Fred J. Koenekamp & Joseph F. Biroc)
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role - (Fred Astaire)
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - (Fred Astaire)
Golden Globe Award for Most Promising newcomer – Female – (Susan Flannery)
Academy Award for Film Editing - (Carl Kress & Harold F. Kress)
BAFTA Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music - (John Williams)
Academy Award for Best Song - (Al Kasha & Joel Hirschhorn) for the song "We May Never Love Like This Again"

After the success of The Poseidon Adventure, Warner Brothers bought the rights to film The Tower for $390,000. Eight weeks later, Irwin Allen discovered The Glass Inferno and bought the rights for $400,000 for 20th Century Fox. In order to avoid having two similar films produced at the same time, the productions were combined, with a budget of $14 million (over $58 million adjusted for inflation 1974-2005). Each studio paid half of the production costs. In return, Fox was given the United States box office receipts, and Warner Brothers the profits from the rest of the world. The movie's 57 sets and four complete camera crews established records for a single film on the Twentieth Century Fox lot. In addition, Maureen McGovern was hired to sing the Oscar-winning love ballad, "We May Never Love Like This Again".

The movie was released the year the Sears Tower, the world's tallest building, opened in Chicago, and a year after the two World Trade Center skyscrapers — at that time, among the newest, tallest buildings in the world — opened in New York City. The screenplay may have been inspired by catastrophic fires in the Andraus Building in 1972 and the Joelma Building 1974, both in São Paulo, Brazil. Both novels upon which this movie was based were inspired by construction of the World Trade Center towers and concerns over what would happen if fire broke out in a highrise tower. Although the two disasters were not alike — in particular, the fictional Glass Tower did not collapse — following the events of September 11, 2001 attacks, the film was often referred to by the media. (Coincidentally, principal photography on The Towering Inferno was completed on September 11, 1974.)

In the DVD commentary, it is pointed out that because both McQueen and Newman were promised the same pay and identical number of lines of dialog, one actor had to go back to the studio to shoot additional scenes to bring number of lines of dialog the same for both.

Cast

Steve McQueen - Chief O'Hallorhan

Paul Newman - Doug Roberts

William Holden - Jim Duncan

Faye Dunaway - Susan

Fred Astaire - Harlee Claiborne

Susan Blakely - Patty

Richard Chamberlain - Simmons
Jennifer Jones - Lisolette
O.J. Simpson - Jernigan

Robert Vaughn - Senator Parker

Robert Wagner - Bigelow
Susan Flannery - Lorrie
Sheila Allen - Paula Ramsay (as Sheila Mathews)
Norman Burton - Giddings (as Normann Burton)
Jack Collins - Mayor Ramsay
Don Gordon - Kappy
Felton Perry - Scott
Gregory Sierra - Carlos

Ernie F. Orsatti - Mark Powers (as Ernie Orsatti)

Dabney Coleman - Deputy Chief #1
Elizabeth Rogers - Lady in Buoy
Ann Leicester - Guest
Norman Grabowski - Flaker
Ross Elliott - Deputy Chief #2
Olan Soule - Johnson (as Olan Soulé)

Carlena Gower - Angela Allbright
Mike Lookinland - Phillip Allbright
Carol McEvoy - Mrs. Allbright
Scott Newman - Young Fireman
Paul Comi - Tim
George Wallace - Chief Officer
Patrick Culliton - Technician

William Bassett - Leasing Agent (as William H. Bassett)
John Crawford - Callahan

Erik L. Nelson - Wes (as Erik Nelson)
Art Balinger - Announcer
Norman Hicks - Pilot (as LCDR. Norman Hicks)
Thomas Karnahan - Co-Pilot (as LTJG. Thomas Karnahan)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Mike Johnson - Fire Victim in Elevator
Maureen McGovern - Herself (Singer at party)
John Moio - Security Guard
Hank Robinson - Dinner Guest
William Traylor - Security Guard in Control Room

Plot

In the film, the Glass Tower, a new but poorly-constructed San Francisco skyscraper - at 1,800 feet and 138 stories the world's tallest - catches fire when an electrical panel on the 81st floor short-circuits on the night of its dedication. Firefighters battle the flames and make many daring attempts to rescue people trapped in the building. This includes a party of 300 dignitaries celebrating the building's dedication and becoming trapped in a restaurant on the 135th floor called the Promenade Room.

Stirling Silliphant, who won an Oscar for his adaptation of In the Heat of the Night, was asked to adapt The Tower and The Glass Inferno into a screenplay. Silliphant took seven main characters from each book and combined the plots for the storyline. In The Tower, a bomb in the main utility room 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 100-story Peerless Building, and is only partially successful (more than a hundred partygoers die when fire overtakes the restaurant). In The Glass Inferno, a discarded cigarette sets the janitor's closet on fire; the escape from the top floor is by helicopter and everyone left in the restaurant escapes. In The Towering Inferno, faulty wiring throughout the building is overloaded by the building's lights, causing a small fire in a utility room. It spreads rapidly, trapping 300 people in the Promenade Room. The remainder of the film is about rescuing the guests and follows many escape attempts and deaths. Rooftop escape by helicopter is abandoned when winds cause the first attempt to crash into the roof. Escape by breeches buoy to the roof of a neighbouring skyscraper, the fictional 102-story Peerless Building, has limited success and is thwarted by apanicky guests who fight their way onto the single chair but fall to their death when the rope breaks under the weight. Despite near-disaster, 11 guests and a fireman get down in the exterior scenic elevator after an emergency rescue by the fire chief. With the fire 15 minutes from the Promenade Room, a final plan is hatched to put the fire out by blowing the million-gallon water tanks at the top of the building. Some people will die in the flood but it gives the best chance. In the climax, McQueen's fire chief agrees to be dropped by helicopter on the roof to meet Newman's architect at the water tanks and set plastic explosives. O'Hallorhan (McQueen), trained for explosives, instructs Roberts (Newman) how to set the charges. The two men quickly finish and retreat to the restaurant. Everyone ties himself to something to avoid being washed away. The plan succeeds and water puts out the fire. Roberts and O'Hallorhan survive, but the torrent of water from the tanks claims a few final casualties, being washed out of the building and falling to the ground.

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