American disaster film directed by Irwin Allen
Starring Paul Newman and Steve McQueen
Released December 14, 1974
by Lisa McDonald
Live Music Head
Remember the spoof SCTV did of this film called Top of The Reactor? Not only was the tallest building in Melonville on fire, but John Candy and Andrea Martin are sitting in the nuclear reactor restaurant actually talking about the No Nukes concert, and Candy says: "the only good thing about that concert was Bruce Springsteen!" Ahhhh John Candy, you are missed.
But this, the original disaster flick with an all-star cast, a co-production between 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. (the first ever film to be a joint venture from two major Hollywood studios) is a story set in San Francisco at the celebration-turned-disaster at the grand opening of the world’s tallest building. Due to the greed of an electrical engineer who strays from the architects specs to use cheaper sub-standard supplies for this 138-storey building, an electrical short starts an undetected fire on the 81st floor, which of course swiftly spreads to create out-of-control action-packed drama; the kind one would expect from a nineteen seventies flick such as this.
Starring Paul Newman and Steve McQueen, two leading men in the same movie, who I hear got paid a million dollars apiece. When there's a burning building in Hollywood, it makes sense Irwin Allen would spare no expense to hire real men to save the day! And for this chick writer, Paul Newman certainly fits the description of a real man. And he delivers the best line in the movie.
At the end of the film, after saving countless lives, Michael O’Hallorhan, the fire chief (McQueen) scolds Doug Roberts, the architect (Newman) for building 'em too damn high. Roberts, sitting there looking at the ashes of what was once his greatest architectural achievement, says: "Maybe they oughta leave it this way... kind of a shrine to all the bullshit in the world."
The trailer for The Towering Inferno...
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