S.F. disaster film ‘Inferno’ is still cool 50 years later
There’s something about people running from a crisis in 1970s formalwear to the sounds of Maureen McGovern that I find endlessly watchable.
That’s basically the plot of “The Towering Inferno,” the 1974 movie where Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway and a multitude of other stars battle an out-of-control blaze in a new San Francisco high-rise. Talk about a doom loop. On Thursday, May 16, Chronicle culture critic Peter Hartlaub and I will be screening this signature San Francisco film at the Balboa Theatre. The event is part of the relaunch of the Chronicle’s popular Total SF series, which also premiered a dedicated newsletter this month.
Between its many local filming locations (555 California St. and the Hyatt Regency Hotel on the Embarcadero both appear as the title tower) and its strong local following, Peter and I agree it’s an overdue addition to Total SF’s cinema pantheon.
“The Towering Inferno” is set at the gala opening night party on the 135th floor of a new San Francisco high-rise. Newman
plays the building’s architect, joined by William Holden as the devious builder, Dunaway as Newman’s fiancée and McQueen as the San Francisco fire chief. As short-circuiting wires, faulty infrastructure and hubris all conspire to trap revelers at the party, Newman and McQueen must work to save the day even as the film’s greedy capitalists continue to insist things will soon be under control.
Produced by “master of disas
ter” Irwin Allen, the movie is a classic of the genre Allen helped create. In “The Poseidon Adventure” (1972), passengers on an overturned cruise ship must race to find an escape before it submerges. “The Swarm” (1978) is a killer bee flick, and “When Time Ran Out” (1980) features a volcanic eruption as the central emergency.
In addition to their stars often sprinting from danger in black tie, Allen’s movies and their imitators include a few other central components: The casts are always loaded with big stars of the time (like “Inferno’s” leads), along with classic Hollywood throwbacks like song-and-dance man Fred Astaire and Oscar winner Jennifer Jones in that film. Even the smaller roles are played by celebrities: In a bit of casting that no one in 1974 could have predicted wouldn’t age well, the late football star and San Francisco native O.J. Simpson plays the building’s chief of security.
Allen’s movies also contain scenes filmed with practical disaster effects that will always look better to me than CGI. “Inferno,” with its use of fire, water and acrobatic stunts, is even more impressive when you remember the lack of green-screen technology at the time. In response to everything falling apart around them, the performers in these films develop a style of over-thetop acting to stand out against all the scene-stealing special effects.
Also, it might be an official rule of the genre that you have to have a mellow, yacht rock theme song. If you can get Maureen “The Morning After” McGovern, even better.
“The Morning After,” from “The Poseidon Adventure,” established this trope, and we’re gifted with a McGovern rendition of “We May Never Love Like This Again” in “Inferno.”
The movie is a rollicking delight from beginning to end. Newman and McQueen (who shared top billing in an ingenious bit of text placement on the posters and title screen) are at their most appealingly masculine running into danger, emerging smoke-smudged, sweaty and handsome. Dunaway, always great at playing hysteria, is given a lot to work with as fire, water, helicopters and explosions all torment her.
San Francisco also looks pretty good in the street scenes, although the illfated tower’s ridiculous 135th floor Promenade Room, with its indoor fountains and tented bars, was built on a Los Angeles soundstage.
While it’s not the Total SF masterpiece that Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” is, there’s something about
seeing a disaster movie in a theater that’s magical. It’s not just getting to see the special effects on the big screen, it’s also how the audience comes together in reacting to every new challenge, bad decision by the elites or reprise of the theme song. It mirrors the dynamic of the characters in the film, usually a disparate group of people who have to get in sync to survive that fire/upsidedown cruise ship/swarm of killer bees/volcano.
Perhaps real San Francisco leaders could take a lesson from “The Towering Inferno” about how to cooperate when the city needs them. Thankfully, we’re not dealing with anything as immediately dire as a 135-story building ablaze. But if you see San Franciscans racing through the streets in ruffled shirts and maxi dresses, or hear the soothing tones of Maureen McGovern floating in the air, we could be in real trouble.
Reach Tony Bravo: tbravo@sfchronicle.com