The Towering Inferno, one in a string of disaster movies of the 1970s, was promoted as a tribute to firefighters and their heroic work. It was also among the highest-grossing box office draws of the mid-1970s. The finishing touches have just been made to the Glass Tower, a 138-story skyscraper in the heart of San Francisco.
A huge celebratory gala, complete with VIP guests, has been planned to celebrate the dedication of what has been promoted as the world’s tallest building. But the building’s architect, Doug Roberts, suspects all is not right with the building. The contractors have used shoddy wiring, not the heavy-duty wiring he had specified.
The overworked wiring develops short circuits, coincidentally enough during the height of the celebratory extravaganza; it isn’t long before the Glass Tower becomes a huge towering inferno. The nearly 300 guests become trapped on the building’s 135th floor, where the party takes place. Fire Chief Michael O’Hallorhan immediately devises a daring plan to rescue the trapped guests, but his efforts quickly become a battle against time and the panicked guests.
The Towering Inferno is a 1974 American disaster film produced by Irwin Allen featuring an ensemble cast led by Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. Directed by John Guillermin, the film is a co-production between 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros., the first to be a joint venture by two major Hollywood studios. It was adapted by Stirling Silliphant from a pair of novels, The Tower by Richard Martin Stern and The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson.
The film earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture and was the second highest-grossing film released in the United States in 1974, beaten only by Blazing Saddles, which earned $3.2 million more. The picture was nominated for eight Oscars in all, winning three. 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 her final role, Jennifer Jones.
The film was one of the biggest grossing films of 1975 with theatrical rentals of $48,838,000 in the United States and Canada. In January 1976, it was claimed that the film had attained the highest foreign film rental for any film in its initial release with $43 million[33] and went on to earn $56 million. When combined with the rentals from the United States and Canada, the worldwide rental is $104,838,000. The film grossed $116 million in the United States and Canada, and when combined with the foreign film rentals, the worldwide gross is over $200 million.
About the Story
Architect Doug Roberts (Paul Newman) returns to San Francisco for the dedication of the Glass Tower, which he designed for developer James Duncan (William Holden). The Tower, 1,688 feet (515 m) tall and 138 stories, is the world’s tallest building. During testing, an electrical short starts an undetected fire on the 81st floor. During tests in the utility rooms a detected short occurs with Roberts suspecting that Roger Simmons (Richard Chamberlain) the electrical subcontractor and Duncan’s son-in-law, cut corners. Roberts confronts Simmons, who feigns innocence.
During the dedication ceremony, chief of Public Relations Dan Bigelow (Robert Wagner) turns on all the tower’s lights, but Roberts orders them shut off to reduce the load on the electrical system. Smoke is seen on the 81st floor, and the San Francisco Fire Department is summoned. Roberts and engineer Will Giddings (Norman Burton) go to the 81st floor, where he is fatally burned pushing a guard away from the fire. Roberts reports the fire to Duncan, who is courting Senator Gary Parker (Robert Vaughn) for an urban renewal contract and refuses to order an evacuation.
SFFD Chief Michael O’Hallorhan (Steve McQueen) arrives and forces Duncan to evacuate the guests from the Promenade Room on the 135th floor. Simmons admits to Duncan that he cut corners, doing so to bring the project back under budget, and suggests other subcontractors did likewise. Fire overtakes the express elevators, killing a group whose elevator stops on the engulfed 81st floor.
Bigelow and his mistress Lorrie (Susan Flannery) are killed when fire traps them in the Duncan Enterprises offices on the 65th floor. Lisolette Mueller (Jennifer Jones) a guest being wooed by con man Harlee Claiborne (Fred Astaire) rushes to the 87th floor to check on a deaf mother and her two children. Security Chief Jernigan (OJ Simpson) rescues the mother, but a ruptured gasline explodes and prevents Doug and the rest from following. The explosion destroys the emergency stairs which they must traverse to reach an exit door, leading to a service elevator which can take them to the 134th floor, below the Promenade Room. They await firemen who blow up hardened cement blocking access to it.
As firemen begin to bring the fire under control on floor 65 the electrical system fails, deactivating the passenger elevators; O’Hallorhan must rappel down the elevator shaft to safety. An attempt at a helicopter rescue fails when high winds cause it to veer off, crash and set the roof ablaze.
A Navy rescue team attach a breeches buoy between the Promenade Room and the roof of the adjacent 102 story Peerless Building, and rescue a number of guests, including Patty Simmons (Susan Blakely), Duncan’s daughter. Roberts rigs a gravity brake on the scenic elevator, allowing one trip down for twelve people, including Roberts’ fiancee Susan Franklin (Faye Dunaway), Lisolette and the children saved earlier by her and Robert’s efforts in the stairwell. An explosion near the 110th floor throws Lisolette from the elevator to her death and leaves the elevator hanging by a single cable, but O’Hallorhan rescues the elevator with a Navy helicopter.
The Towering Inferno (1974)
Directed by: John Guillermin
Starring: Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Susan Blakely, Richard Chamberlain, Jennifer Jones, O. J. Simpson, Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner
Screenplay by: Stirling Silliphant
Production Design by: William J. Creber
Cinematography by: Fred J. Koenekamp, Joseph Biroc
Film Editing by: Carl Kress, Harold F. Kress
Costume Design by: Ward Preston
Set Decoration by: Raphael Bretton
Art Direction by: Paul Zastupnevich
Music by: John Williams
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox (United States), Warner Bros. Pictures (International)
Release Date: December 14, 1974
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