Country: USA
Year: 1974
Duration: 165'
In San Francisco, on the day a gigantic skyscraper is to be inaugurated, the building’s designer Doug Roberts notices defects in the wiring but he is unable to avoid the outbreak of a devastating fire that starts on the roof and puts hundreds of people in danger. Thanks to his help and that of the firemen led by Chief O’Halloran, the rescuers will be able to save as many people as possible. One of the greatest Hollywood successes of the 1970s, along with The Poseidon Adventure (both produced by Irwin Allen), this is the most famous movie of the catastrophe genre. Thanks to Guillermin and the screenplay by Stirling Silliphant, it craftily blends spectacularity and fear and gets the best from the all-star cast: Newman, of course, plus Steve McQueen, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Jennifer Jones, Richard Chamberlain.
Biography
film director
John Guillermin
(London, UK, 1925 – Topanga, USA, 2015) after leaving the Royal Air Force just after the end of the war, he began his career as a director in France, making documentaries. Starting in the late 1950s, he began to work in Hollywood, where he made a name for himself as a director of epic films, and more; he was well-known for his gruff personality and his angry outbursts at the cast. His name is tied to the catastrophe genre of the 1970s and to his major films, The Towering Inferno; the remake of King Kong, produced by De Laurentiis; and the murder-mystery Death on the Nile, based on the famous novel by Agatha Christie.
FILMOGRAFIA
High Jinks in Society (coregia di Robert Jordan Hill, 1949), Torment (1950), Smart Alec (1951), Two on the Tiles (1951), Four Days (1951), Song of Paris (1952), Miss Robin Hood (1952), Your Favorite Story (tv, 1953), Strange Stories (co-regia Don Chaffey, 1953), Operation Diplomat (1953), The Crowded Day (1954), Adventure in the Hopfields (1954), The Adventures of Aggie (tv, 1956-1957), Thunderstorm (Il porto del vizio, 1956), Town on Trial (Città sotto inchiesta, 1957), Sailor of Fortune (tv, 1957-1958), The Whole Truth (Tutta la verità, 1958), I Was Monty’s Double (La battaglia segreta di Montgomery, 1958), Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure (Il terrore corre sul fiume, 1959), The Day They Robbed the Bank of England (Furto alla banca d’Inghilterra, 1960), Never Let Go (I gangsters di Piccadilly, 1960), Waltz of the Toreadors (Il generale non si arrende, 1962), Tarzan Goes to India (Tarzan in India, 1962), Guns at Batasi (Cannoni a Batasi, 1964), Rapture (Rapimento, 1965), The Blue Max (La caduta delle aquile, 1966), P.J. (Facce per l’inferno, 1968), House of Cards (Il castello di carte, 1968), The Bridge at Remagen (Il ponte di Remagen, 1969), El Condor (1970), Skyjacked (Il pirata dell’aria, 1972), Shaft in Africa (Shaft e i mercanti di schiavi, 1973), The Towering Inferno (L’inferno di cristallo, 1974), King Kong (1976), Death on the Nile (Assassinio sul Nilo, 1978), Death on the Nile: Making of Featurette (tv, 1978), Mr. Patman (1980), Sheena (Sheena, regina della giungla, 1984), King Kong Lives (King Kong 2, 1986), The Tracker (Ricercato vivo o morto, tv, 1988).
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR: John Guillermin. STORY: from the novel The Glass Inferno by Frank M. Robinson and Thomas N. Scortia and The Tower by Richard M. Stern. SCREENPLAY: Stirling Silliphant. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Fred J. Koenekamp, Joseph Biroc. EDITING: Carl Kress, Harold F. Kress. PRODUCTION DESIGN: William J. Creber, Ward Preston, Raphael Bretton. COSTUME DESIGN: Paul Zastupnevich. MUSIC: John Williams. CAST: Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Susan Blakely, Richard Chamberlain, Jennifer Jones, O. J. Simpson, Robert Vaughn: Gary Parker, Robert Wagner. PRODUCTION: Irwin Allen for Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Irwin Allen Productions.
CONTACT: Park Circus www.parkcircus.com
