The Towering Inferno

THE TOWERING INFERNO (PG)
D: John Guillermin (& Irwin Allen)
20th Century Fox/Warner Bros (Irwin Allen)
US 1974
165 mins

Adventure/Thriller

W: Stirling Silliphant [based on the novels "The Tower" by Richard Martin Stern & "The Glass Inferno" by Thomas M. Scortia & Frank M. Robinson]
DP: Fred Koenecamp & Joseph Biroc
Ed: Harold F. Kress & Carl Kress
Mus: John Williams
PD: William Creber
Cos: Paul Zastupnevich 

Paul Newman (Doug Roberts), Steve McQueen (Michael O'Halloran), William Holden (James Duncan), Faye Dunaway (Susan Franklin), Fred Astaire (Harlee Claiborne), Susan Blakely (Patty Duncan), Richard Chamberlain (Roger Simmons), Robert Vaughn (Sen. Gary Parker), Jennifer Jones (Lisolette Mueller), O.J. Simpson (Harry Jernigan)

In a decade swamped with disaster films, The Towering Inferno was amongst the best, both financially and critically.
Adapted from two books, "The Tower" and "The Glass Inferno", it uses the same stencil as other films from the genre, cramming soap opera storylines, a plethora of characters and a lot of padding into a impending catastrophe, this one being a fire which traps a group of people on the top floor of the world's tallest building while a firefighter and the building's architect hatch a plan to bring everyone down safely.         
A lot of the film has dated by today's standards, but for 1974 the effects and production values do the job that's asked of them. 
8/10

The Towering Inferno
The Towering Inferno