The Towering Inferno (1974)
Starring Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Richard Chamberlain, Robert Wagner, Fred Astaire, and O.J. Simpson
Directed by John Guillermin
***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***
"You know we were pretty lucky tonight. Body count's less than 200. You know, one of these days, you're gonna kill 10,000 in one of these firetraps."Eerie.
From the same producing team that brought us The Poseidon Adventure (a guilty pleasure of mine), Inferno is a generic disaster flick filled with characters that are placed within the plot simply to allow more deaths to occur by the film's conclusion. The underlying plot is that architect Doug Roberts (Paul Newman) has built a 140-something-floor tall skyscraper and it's having its unveiling to the bigwigs in San Francisco. However, on the night of the party, it's discovered that there is some faulty wiring in the building and, sure enough, things go haywire.
That plot is fine...but the paper-thin quality of it can't sustain itself for the film's ridiculously long running time of over 165 minutes. The film is much too long and considering the "stars" ranging from Fred Astaire to O.J. Simpson, there aren't nearly enough celebrity deaths to whet this viewer's appetite.
Still, I have to say that despite the fact the film isn't all that good, I enjoyed it. While not quite reaching the guilty pleasure level of The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno is an enjoyable (long) diversion if you're ever bored one afternoon. Paul Newman, Faye Dunaway, and William Holden throw in better performances than a film of this caliber deserve and they manage to make the film much more watchable in the process.
The RyMickey Rating: C+
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