Its the 70s equivalent of Con-Air: stupid, full of famous faces looking for a little fun and a fat paycheck, and lots of shit blowing up. The beauty of the disaster movie is that theres no antagonist. Unhappily, I was looking at Thomas Kelseys memorable photo of the First Interstate Bank building in downtown Los Angeles, a devilish mouth of fire eating its way upward from the 12th floor. The film begins in a presume almost-near distant future, Doug Roberts (Paul Newman) is traveled by helicopter, and it flies through the shores of the west coast of California, and the countrysides with mountains until they reach the clouds and flies through the Golden Gate Bridge at the San Francisco Bay, and goes past a city hall, and they landed on The Glass Tower where James Duncan is standing and waiting for Doug Roberts to get off of the helicopter, who has been returned from a long vacation to find work nearly completed on his skyscraper and meeting for the dedication of the Glass Tower, which he designed for developer James Duncan (William Holden). Before there were action hereos and aliens blowing up cities and major landmarks to the tune of $200 million budgets, there were 70s disaster movies, movies in which a plucky group of normal folks just like you and me face off against crippled airplanes, earthquakes, burning buildings, overturned oceanliners, swarms of deadly bees, faulty rollercoasters, hurricanes, avalanches, frogs, and giant rabbits. The movie does have good touching moments, such as at the ending scene where Harlee is looking for Lisolette, not realizing she has been killed. Hotchner, "Paul Newman: the bad father", extracted from his book, "Paul Newman's Son Dies of Accidental Overdose", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Scott_Newman_(actor)&oldid=1140343800, This page was last edited on 19 February 2023, at 17:39. This being, at least in part, a Twentieth Century Fox movie, the computer controlled building surveillance centre was filmed in the basement of a Century City office building in Los Angeles. Murray Weissman, the veteran awards strategist behindseven Academy Award Best Picture winners, died of pancreatic cancer on Dec. 28. Jaws is a good example of this winning combination for that era, and Id say Die Hard is the best for the 90s resurgence. The Tower, 1,688 feet (515 m) tall and 138 stories, marketing the world's tallest building in San Francisco. He was 83. Flights: San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, CA 94128 (tel: 650.821.8211), Travel around: BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), Stay at: the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, 5 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, CA 94111 (tel: 415.788.1234), Please send any corrections or additions to info@movie-locations.com. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. The film is nearly 2 hours long and I wasn't really expecting too much from it. The former Stone Temple Pilots frontman was 48. I forgot how good Paul Newman was in his role, and I can never forget Fred Astaire, such a smooth performance. Actor Rod Taylor, who starredin The Time Machine andThe Birds,died in Los Angeles on Jan. 7 at age 84. Although they had no dialog together because Scott's scenes were with Steve McQueen, both Newmans can be seen in the film's finale. Categories. At the opening party . I found it a bit monotonous, I must admit. Airport 75 also has a long lead-in before the disaster (a small plane smashes into the cockpit), but thats the best part of the movie, meeting all the ridiculous people (it doesnt hurt that many of these scenes were used to comedic effect in Airplane!, including just playing the nun on guitar bit without changing a thing). Post any request. document.write("This page was last updated on " +document.lastModified+ ""), The Towering Inferno location: the entrance lobby: Hyatt Regency Hotel, Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, The Towering Inferno location: the entrance to the doomed tower: Bank of America World Headquarters, California Street, San Francisco, The Towering Inferno location: the mansion of cheapskate electrician Simmons: Vallejo Street, Pacific Heights, San Francisco, 5 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, CA 94111. Learn how your comment data is processed. Famed film composer James Horner --"A Beautiful Mind," "Titanic," "Braveheart,"--died in a tragic accident onJune 22ndwhile piloting his own plane in Santa Barbara. When he turned 22, he left the Royal Air Force to make documentaries in his parents native France, debuting as a feature filmmaker at age 24 with the thrillerTorment/Paper Gallows. Eventually, Guillerminwent on to produce larger-scale films, toplined by 1974s The Towering Inferno., Also Read: What a King Kong-Godzilla Monster Mash Means for Warner Bros., Universal. Amazing cinematography that were both well done by Frederick James Koenekamp, and Joseph Biroc. The mansion of snivelly cheapskate electrician Roger Simmons ( Richard Chamberlain) is 2898 Vallejo Street at Baker Street, in the classy Pacific Heights district. When O'Halloran is first setting up the forward command on 79 he asks Jernigan for a list of business tenants on 81 or above. It is the very first film to have two distributions at one film, with a co-production between 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. But we felt no sense of triumph or vindication. They expect you to be like him, or they try to get to him through me. Roger Simmons is a very unlikeable, and lame antagonist, he's a greedy person and he doesn't listen to Duncan's order to be last on the buoy with Duncan. Roger Simmons - Fell to his death when an explosion sent the lift he was on to fall over the edge of the tower. [2] However, in Los Angeles on the night of November 19, he took a fatal dose of valium with alcohol and other drugs. They enlist the aid of Carlos, the head bartender, but the three men are unable to find a way to open the fire door. The Towering Inferno 1974 F.U.L.L Movie. Paul Almond died in Beverly Hills from complications of a heart attack on Apr. The film was labeled ridiculous and exaggerated by spokesmen of the building industries. He was 88. 27. And its no big deal if you dont want to do it.[5], He suffered a motorcycle accident in the fall of 1978, and was taking painkillers to ease the discomfort of his injuries. The Towering Inferno was released on December 14, 1974, and it was generally well-received by critics and audiences alike. In the olden days this genre was known as Man vs. Nature, where the enemy isnt a person, its nature itself. Guillermin is survived by his wife, Mary, and daughter from a previous marriage, Michelle. Eurydice "Eury" Davis, a Hollywood talent agent whose clients included actress Jena Sims and Claudia Katz, died of suicide April 8. Great cinema, daft in parts, but the best films always are. His last two commercial hits, 1974s The Towering Inferno and 1976s Network pretty much wrapped up his decades-long career. But no matter how fancified the visuals, the plots never strayed far from The Towering Inferno. What follows is over two solid hours of people saving themselves and others, interspersed with shots of the building going up in flames, a couple of burning people falling to their deaths, and a rescue copter blowing up. Doug Roberts received a phone call, realizing that the fire is about to reach the promenade room. In the inexplicable way of such things, a writer in New York had produced a novel titled The Tower at the same time two writers in San Francisco published their novel, The Glass Inferno. Allen brought me aboard to create a film script from both books--a film that he called The Towering Inferno. And I went off to do my research. He was 89. He has directed actors such as Paul Newman, Jessica Lange, Lee Van Cleef, Steve McQueen, Peter Ustinov, Mia Farrow, Orson Welles,Angela Lansbury, George Peppard, David Niven, Jeff Bridges, Jack Warden, Richard Chamberlain, William Holden and Faye Dunaway. Silicon Valley tech exec Dave Goldberg died on May 1 from head trauma while vacationing with his wife, Sheryl Sandberg. Amanda Peterson, who played Patrick Dempsey's love interest in 1998's "Can't Buy Me Love," was found dead in her Colorado home on July 6. "60" minutes correspondent Bob Simon died in a car crash in New York City on Feb. 11. Chris Pine finally sets the record straight, 19 cafes that make L.A. a world-class coffee destination, The chance of a lifetime: Five friends ski the tallest mountain in Los Angeles, Shocking, impossible gas bills push restaurants to the brink of closures, Review: A reimagined Secret Garden fails to flower anew at the Ahmanson Theatre, Whats on Khlo Kardashians face? Warmer storms could cause problems, Scott Adams says he was using hyperbole: America being programmed to see race first, Justin Biebers Justice world tour canceled after several postponements, How strong is Dominions defamation case against Fox News? The opening party for the building is on the top floor, 138, surely the tiny fire wont affect them. A couple of questions, OK? Brooke McCarter, best known for co-starring in "The Lost Boys" with Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Patric, died from a liver condition on Dec. 22. The ending is very emotional, Duncan consoles his grieving daughter and promises that such a tragic disaster will never happen again. My choice to begin the weekend, full of fire, death, crazy stunts, and exploding helicopters, the biggest money-maker of 1974, nominated for Best Picture, two hours and forty-five minutes long, starring everyone ever to have starred in anything: The Towering Inferno. Once Airport 75 goes into its rescuing half, it drags on and on. The film was re-dubbed in 2003 for the German DVD release. Following his passing, Stefanie Powers, William's girlfriend at the time of his death. During testing, an electrical short starts an undetected fire on the 81st floor just after another such short occurs in the main utility room. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001). We humans are simple in our needs, are we not? The film also stars William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Susan Blakely, Richard Chamberlain, O. J. Simpson, Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner, Susan Flannery, Gregory Sierra, Dabney Coleman and in her final role, Jennifer Jones. He died Jan. 8 at age 72. Free shipping for many products! The fire department initially put the death toll at 19 but police said Friday that six more had perished. Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for this post. When they made a comeback in the 90s, the disasters werent burning-building simple. "Just Got Paid" singer Johnny Kemp was found floating at a Jamaicanbeach on Apr. It has all the grit and sincerity of a 70s drama, plus the mouth-watering modern architecture office set, and all of those amazing actors you listed above (you didnt include Chano from Barney Miller!). Released in 1974 and directed by John Guillermin, it stars Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, and a host of other big Hollywood names. Duncan can be a bit cruel at times, such as the scene during his phone call with Michael, where he doesn't believe that the fire started at the 81st floor, right before the firefighters arrives at the Glass Tower. The scared, the selfish, the greedy. She was 60. They try the first exit, but immediately find smoke when they open the door. What if people around him panic? Which is indeed the mark of the disaster movie: hours of derring-do. New York Times media columnist David Carr collapsed in his office on Feb. 12. Action movies and superheroes and science fiction kept us distracted. Meanwhile, Bigelow And Lorrie were still prepared to go to the promenade room to have a party, not knowing a huge mass of fire begins burning the entire apartment where they lived, burning Bigelow to death, and Lorrie falls off the skyscraper to her death. [1] The organization also founded the Rowdy Ridge Gang Camp, a network of summer camps for families dealing with problems associated with drug abuse and alcoholism. Newman and McQueen and everyone else put in credible performances. 15. The tower, 1,688 feet (515 m) tall and 138 stories, is the world's tallest building. When I spotted the front page of the Los Angeles Times . ", Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Mixed media artist Pamela Smith Hudson was told to stay in one lane. She refused, KISS announces the absolute final shows of their End of the Road farewell tour, Review: The gorgeous new movie Pacifiction will hypnotize you. Another explosion occurs in the middle of the skyscraper, causes the passenger elevator off its track, and plunges Lisolette Mueller into her death. The triage ward toward the end a seemingly endless stream of broken and dead firefighters. How to list the leads in this disaster epic? 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