The Towering Inferno

The Towering Inferno (called Infierno en la torre in Latin America and El colosso en llamas in Spain) is a 1974 American action-drama disaster film produced by Irwin Allen, directed by John Guillermin, and starring Steve McQueen and Paul Newman.

It was a co-production of 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. (the first film resulting from the merger of two major studios), with a script by Stirling Silliphant based on two novels: The Tower, by Richard Martin Stern and The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson.

The film was a critical success, one of the highest-grossing films of 1974, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. It was nominated for eight Oscars in total, of which it won three: Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Song. He also won, among other awards, two BAFTA awards: Fred Astaire for best supporting actor and John Williams for best music, and two Golden Globes: Fred Astaire, again for best supporting actor and Susan Flannery for promising performer.

In addition to McQueen and Newman, the cast includes 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 his latest role, Jennifer Jones.

Plot

The tallest skyscraper in the world has just been built in San Francisco and a party with many guests is organized in the ballroom, located on the top floor. Suddenly, a failure in the electrical installation causes a fire at the height of the skyscraper due to the corruption of one of the builders, Roger Simmons, who has used a poor quality installation for the skyscraper behind the backs of others. Additionally, that builder also reduced fire safety measures. Therefore, the fire spreads quickly on all sides.

Thus, those attending the evening, who are in the highest part of the skyscraper, are trapped by fire, which closes the way for those attending when they try to go down, so they have little chance of surviving, since, being at such a high altitude, it is additionally impossible for the firefighters to control the hell. But the skyscraper's architect, Doug Roberts, contacts the fire chief, O'Halloran, and together they form an effective team. Then, they are presented with a very risky solution to put out the fire: both have to place explosives in the gigantic water reservoirs located on the roof of the building and the force of the water would put out the fire, with the consequent risk of dragging everything that find in its path, including people.

In the end it is decided to do it, when the firemen lose control of the fire. The operation is successful although part of the people die during the operation. As the skyscraper was empty there were only less than 200 dead, including Simmons. If it had been full, they estimate that up to 10,000 people would have died. For this reason, Roberts decides to listen to the fire chief's sermon on the need to improve the construction of skyscrapers in order to be better prepared for such an eventuality and to listen about it from firefighters like him who know more about the subject than anyone else.

Cast

Several actors who appeared in small roles, including John Crawford, Erik Nelson, Elizabeth Rogers, Ernie Orsatti and Sheila Matthews, had previously appeared in The Poseidon Adventure, also produced by Irwin Allen. (Allen and Matthews were husband and wife.) Paul Newman's son Scott played an acrophobic firefighter afraid of rope climbing.

Production

Stirling Silliphant based the screenplay for the feature film on several combined novels by Richard Martin Stern, Thomas N. Scortia, and Frank M. Robinson. Costing $15,000,000, the film proved so expensive for the time that Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Brothers had to join forces to make it. To land Paul Newman and Steve McQueen in the film, both received $1 million and 7.5% of the film's box office to play their roles in the film, respectively.

Filming lasted 70 days. As the shooting schedule was so tight, four film units photographed the film simultaneously. To make the film possible, designer William Creber built a total of 57 sets, of which only 8 would remain intact at the end of shooting. It also required the work of numerous stuntmen who doubled over the actors in risk scenes.

Apart from the spectacularity of some scenes and the suspense it provoked in the viewer, the film provided the opportunity to see two of Hollywood's biggest stars like Paul Newman and Steve McQueen together, as well as old stars like Fred Astaire, Jennifer Jones or William Holden, who made one of his last film appearances in this film.

Reception

The film was a spectacular commercial success. It was one of the most profitable of the time and was also very well received by critics. Additionally, it was also listed as the best disaster film filmed during that decade,

Awards

• Oscar for the best photography - (Fred J. Koenekamp and Joseph F. Biroc)
• Oscar for the best edition - (Carl Kress and Harold F. Kress)
• Oscar the best song - (Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn) for the song «We May Never Love Like This Again»
• BAFTA to the best secondary actor - (Fred Astaire)
• BAFTA Anthony Asquith to the best music - (John Williams)
• Golden Globe to the best secondary actor - (Fred Astaire)
• Golden Globe to the Promised interpreter – (Susan Flannery)