
Irwin Allen's "Grand Hotel", and OJ saves a cat!!!

Whereas Irwin Allen's 1972 'Poseidon Adventure' is a FAR superior piece of filmmaking, and a touchstone of The Disaster Film Genre of the 1970s, his 1974 triumph "The Towering Inferno" is a MUST SEE slice of pure "1970s over-the-top, in-your-face gigantism" cinematic cheese.
HUGE in every way imaginable, this film manages to make the Poseidon look small by comparison in sheer size. A size that can only be truly appreciated on a big screen. Fox and Warner Bros collaborated to bring this elephantine flick to the screen in a grand fashion. Featuring a cavalcade of stars that would make Cecil B. DeMille proud...PAUL NEWMAN, STEVE McQUEEN, WILLIAM HOLDEN, FAYE DUNAWAY (looking ultra-hot in a sheer kimono-like 70's gown)...FRED ASTAIRE (who actually TRIPS Jennifer Jones on the dance floor)...RICHARD CHAMBERLAIN...ROBERT VAUGHN...The aforementioned JENNIFER JONES...DABNEY COLEMAN...SUSAN BLAKELY...ROBERT WAGNER...and even "Slash" himself O.J. SIMPSON.
OJ actually has probably the most compelling of all the scenes in the flick. One that is completely juxtaposed to his "later-to-be-outed" monster self. While the rest of the cast is burning to death, falling down elevator shafts, running from the broken glass, falling out or jumping out of the building, or suffocating...O.J. saves a cat. He does this amazing run through the set of Airport 1975, jumps over some American Tourister Luggage and an Avis car, and then side-steps the Pittsburgh Steeler secondary in a leaping grab of a falling feline. THAT IS A JOKE. Actually, he just walks into Jennifer Jones' apartment, and sees a cat...says "Hi Kitty...I almost missed ya"...and then tosses it out the window of the 108th floor, only to have it land on its feet and run into the waiting arms of Kato Kaelin. AGAIN...A JOKE.
Plot-wise, this is the most "layered' of ANY irwin Allen film ever, and Irwin (wisely) left the directing of the dramatics up to veteran John Guillerman. Irwin himself kept himself stifled (wisely) to JUST the "action sequences", as when he decided later on in his career to actually direct the WHOLE film (see "The Swarm & Beyond The Poseidon Adventure), the results were often Ed Wood-like.
So...Holden decides to build the world's tallest building "on the cheap". Cutting corners in the electrical specs behind the willing guise of sub-contractor Chamberlain (playing a real scum-bag) who also happens to be Holden's Son-In-Law (Blakely plays Holden's daughter). However, Chamberlain has the hots for Dunaway (who wouldn't in THAT gown?), and then ZAP...an electrical panel overheats and causes a circuit to blow and cause a fire in a storage room.
While the "whos who" of San Francisco society party on the top floor, the fire is phoned in by Security man OJ, who also realized that the fire alarms arent working either. In comes hero fire chief Steve McQueen. who obviously has no regard for architect Paul Newman, and together the two must find a way to get along in order to rescue the people on the top floor. Meanwhile, the beautiful people dance the night away to Maureen McGovern (is that possible?), not knowing that they are being pre-heated to 400 degrees 50 floors below. The fire creeps up...the tension builds...the people are cut off from rescue...the helicopter trying to rescue them explodes...and the Breacher's Buoy line snaps sending jerk Chamberlain to his death...SPLAT!
EVERYONE in the world has seen this film. So, have a disaster flick night, and enjoy!!
Review ID: 10000000011596613

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