Irwin Allen has been nicknamed The Master of Disaster and with good reason. He single handily took a novel idea and created a body of work that exploded into spectacular extravaganza over and over. He never met a natural disaster he didn’t like and he exploited just about every possible thing that could be sunk, blown up or burned to the ground. Many imitators have come and many have gone, but there was only one Irwin Allen.
Allen, as one would suspect, did it all. He started his career as a magazine editor before becoming a producer of a radio show. This led him to start his own advertising agency. It was here that he really learned what people wanted and how to make sure that KNEW what they wanted. He created an Academy Award winning documentary called THE SEA AROUND US in 1953 and decided to move into commercial film. A couple of films, like THE BIG CIRCUS and VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, where successful, but it would be the next decade where he would discover his passion for science fiction and he become best known as the creator behind the television series, “Lost in Space”. It was a huge success and ran for three years. It is still considered a classic TV show and finds new audiences as it grows older. His two other major television works, “The Time Tunnel” and “Land of the Giants” both have huge cult following and have been rediscovered with the Internet and DVD.
But, it would only take one film, to completely change Irwin Allen and bring forth his legacy for generations to come. In 1970, the film AIRPORT opened to critical and box office success and Allen smelled a sure fire way to capture American movie going audiences and all around the world. He immediately stopped production on a handful of projects and turned all of his attention to the DISASTER MOVIE.
His first attempt to capitalize on the fear of disaster was the blockbuster epic, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE. With this film, he took the novel written by Paul Gallico and turned hell upside down. It all starts with a party on New Year’s Eve. Everything is going great and everyone is having a ball, but little do they know that the vessel they have decided to venture on, will become their coffin. A tidal wave hits the ship and what has got to be one of the most most amazing set pieces, literally gets turned upside down. Like tables on the ceiling upside down. People are sliding all over the place, falling from the sky and climbing up a Christmas tree for safety. We all seems lost, a grumpy Reverend steps in and takes a grab bag of celebrities with him as he tries to solve the puzzle of the Poseidon. They are going to have to climb all the way up to the bottom of the boat to escape. There is only one chance of survival. And only a couple of hours to do it in! NOW that is a set up!
The cast is a dream! A mixture of up and coming stars, like Hackman and Pamela Sue Martin to veterans of cinema like Ernest Borgnine and Roddy McDowall. What is great about the cast is that EVERYONE is good. They all sell it like crazy and you truly feel for them. There are just so many great performances that you can’t describe them all, but let’s discuss the only one that really matters. SHELLEY WINTERS! This was the film that made me fall in love with Shelley Winters and her only movie I knew of for years when I was younger. Luckily, I have been fortunate enough to discover her body of work and she ALWAYS knocks it out of the ballpark. From films like NIGHT OF THE HUNTER and PATCH OF BLUE to her exploration classics like BLOODY MAMA and TENTACLES, she lives by one rule and one rule only, keep working and always give it your best. She worked up until a couple of years before her death and is a Hollywood legend. A two time Oscar winner, she pulls no punches and she will do her own stunts. NO PROBLEM!
It was her Oscar nominated role as Belle Rosen, that introduced her to a new generation of viewers. Playing Jack Albertson’s, Winters really is the fabric that holds the motley crew together. Her survival instincts kick in and she is up the Christmas tree and hauling others up with her. She is someone you want with you if your cruise ship flips! Thankfully, she is a championship swimmer (“In the water I”m a very skinny lady!”) and when someone must swim through a maze of steel, she is the group’s only hope. And you know what Winters does? She holds her breath and jumps in! It is a shocking moment to see Shelley swimming through all the underwater set. Hands down, one of my favorite moments in cinema! She makes the ultimate sacrifice for the good of the passengers and goes down in 70’s movie history!
I really enjoy watching Stella Stevens, as an aging ex-hooker, climb around the ship in high heels and Gene Hackman spends most of the movie bossing everyone around and trying not to get soaked in not too subtle biblical parables. One often overlooked cast member is the set itself. It is mind-blowing. Even in the age of digital special effects and blue screen, you cannot beat the sets in the movie. From the handcrafted upside down bathroom to the columns filling with raging water and fire, it just proved that if you make something well, it can last a lifetime on celluloid. Irwin Allen called upon cinematographer turned director, Ronald Neame, to lens his vision and it was the perfect collaboration.
Next up for Allen, he decided to top himself. He went bigger, both special effects and cast wise. After the gonzo success of THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, he decided to tackle not one, but TWO massive novels about a burning skyscraper! One by Richard Martin Stern is called THE TOWER and another entitled THE GLASS INFERNO by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson to create THE TOWERING INFERNO. The poplar opposite of his last film, this one found his cast of many trapped in a poorly constructed skyscraper which almost immediately bursts into flames and traps everyone inside. Steve McQueen and Paul Newman are the main stars, but the cast includes a who’s who of celebrities. From Fred Astaire to Faye Dunaway and from Richard Chamberlain to O.J. Simpson, this was one inferno that was going to burn very brightly.
Snatching three Oscars, THE TOWERING INFERNO proved that one tiny spark can become a night of blazing suspense, as the tag line on the poster stated. McQueen as Chief O’ Hallorhan has a lot on his plate. He must get the trapped party guest out alive, but it must all be done through daring and completely insane ways of rescue. If you have seen the film, you most likely remember the Chair scene. The cast members on the ground rig up a chair that will go from the building that is on fire to a neighboring building that, thankfully, is not on fire. We get to watch Hollywood stars suspended at nose bleed heights try to make it across! SUSPENSE!!
Even though, THE TOWERING INFERNO was a box office and critical success and the special effects still hold up on current viewing, it just doesn’t possess the magic that Poseidon does. While the acting and sets are outstanding, there is sort of heartless about it. It lacks the drive and characterization that fills The Poseidon Adventure. And just like the building, the movie lights up the screen for a long time, but at a run time of three hours, you end up with a little ash on your face after it’s over. I must admit, that it is fun to watch Jennifer Jones does stunts in her best Shelley Winters imitation.
With two massive hits under his belt, he launched into disaster overload! He was far from done with the genre and in the later years tackled killer bees (one of my favorite animal attacks movies, THE SWARM), floods, forest fires, a dangling cable car, cave ins and even a bridge split in two. He did return to the Poseidon, the in the ill conceived, BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, which sounds better than it is.
In 1980, he produced and co-directed the box office volcano dud, WHEN TIME RAN OUT…but the excitement of a real life eruption with Mount St. Helens stole its thunder. This failure caused him not to make anymore movies on such a grand scale, but he continued to work up to his passing in 1991.
In the 90’s, Jan De Bont created the incredible film, SPEED and ushered in the new era of disaster movies. He quickly crashed and burned with SPEED 2, but gained more ground with the technically, awe inspiring film, TWISTER. Boosting some of the best special effects around and a fascinating storyline, the film only suffers from the windblown script and the sandbag-esque acting of its two leads. Another director would rise to the challenge almost ten years later. Ronald Emmerich (avid Irwin Allen fan and all around hottie), would bring to the screen Independence Day, 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow. While they were all box office hits, they all lack the longevity of a Allen production.
So to this day, Irwin Allen is still known as the master of disaster and although some have come close, no one has been able to dethrone him. It is with his determination to keep audiences biting their nails and entrain them, that he has become a VIEWMASTER.
– Jason A. Miller
