The Towering Inferno1974
The Towering Inferno (1974)
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Movie Info
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Cast
as Mike O'Hallorhan
as Doug Roberts
as Jim Duncan
as Harlee Claiborne
as Susan Franklin
as Patty Simmons
as Roger Simmons
as Lisolette Mueller
as Security Chief Jernigan
as Sen. Gary Parker
as Dan Bigelow
as Lorrie
as Paula Ramsay
as Will Giddings
as Mayor Robert Ramsay
as Kappy
as Scott
as Carlos
as Mark
as Mrs. Albright
as Albright Child
as Albright Child
as Engineer
as Callahan
as Assistant Fire Chief
as Jeweler
as Herself
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Critic Reviews for The Towering Inferno
All Critics (28) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (20) | Rotten (8) | DVD (8)
The movie doesn't stick together in one's head; this thing is like some junky fairground show -- a chamber of horrors with skeletons that jump up.
Irwin Allen, the Busby Berkeley of natural disasters and other people's troubles, teams up with John Guillermin, a competent if undistinguished action director.
The Towering Inferno is one of the greatest disaster pictures made, a personal and professional triumph for producer Irwin Allen.
A starry cast share out roles that are less like characters than places in a lifeboat.
You may not come out of the theater with any important ideas about American architecture or enterprise, but you will have had a vivid, completely safe nightmare.
The Towering Inferno is a brawny blockbuster of a movie, by far the best of the mid-1970s wave of disaster films.
Audience Reviews for The Towering Inferno
The Towering Inferno is a clusterfuck of hammy dialogue, overly ambitious cinematography, and explosions aplenty. Meaning of course, that it is surely nestled in Roland Emmerich's home DVD collection, covered with semen stains. While I do give it credit for not bogging itself down the plausible, it's nearly three hour running time really tests the patience of any sane viewer. The fact that the academy even threw this into the same league as The Godfather Part 2 & Chinatown is mind-blowing. Sure the cast is pretty stunning, but the material gives them nothing interesting to do. McQueen and Newman don't even seem into it. In fact, if you listen closely, you can hear them counting their cash in between their scenes. And pardon the pun, but Fred Astaire's performance shows that going down in a blaze of glory isn't always a good thing. However, all is not lost. There is one really ballsy scene in which a young Robert Wagner makes a nearly death defying escape, only to be thoroughly and violently torched. It is easily the best moment in a film that probably shouldn't have been made.
Super Reviewer
Lengthy, yes, but it didn't feel at all lengthy to me. Before I knew it, I was 2 hours into the film, but remember thinking it only felt like 30 minutes...that's always a good sign of being really into a movie. "The Towering Inferno" laid the foundation for good disaster movies to come, both in being huge budget and cast wise, and with great special effects that accompany a story that makes you glad you're not one of the people you're watching on the screen. It isn't as great as "The Poseidon Adventure," but it's still one of the classics of classics in its genre.
Super Reviewer
Decent entry in the disaster genre, character development is obviously kept to a minimum. The two main reasons to watch this are the cast and the old school effects, which stand pretty damn well to this day.
Super Reviewer
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