Mrs. David O. Selznick falling out of a scenic elevator in The Towering Inferno

God, I love this movie! My favorite part is when two gorgeously dressed bimbos cause that helicopter to crash on the rooftop.

Poor Jennifer Jones - not only did she hate working on this movie because of Faye Dunaway constantly being late and causing delays, she also failed to score an Oscar nomination for this role.

THIS is what I was hoping would happen to Trump when his gaudy Tower was on fire a few days ago.

Well, now I have to see this movie.

I saw this on network TV as a kid, when movies were Big Events. I remember nothing about it, so I guess it's time to watch it again.

[quote]she also failed to score an Oscar nomination for this role.

Oscar nom for this piece of shit movie? Talk about deluded.

That scene isn't as shocking as that ghastly image of that man falling headfirst from the World Trade Center when those Goat-People were determined to show their contempt for the world's most successful Christian Capitalist nation.

And anyway, wasn't she Selznick's WIDOW at this time?

And at least she didn't degrade herself by appearing in trashy horror B-movies like Joan and Bette.

Well that's a new one. A horizontal double septuple axel. And perfectly executed.

10!

The spooky thing is that two years after this film came out Jones' daughter commited suicide by jumping out of a 20th floor window.

She had it comin’.

This was one of those scenes that really affected me as a kid. She was so nice and saved those kids and then she dies a horrible death. That's not suppose to happen.

I wonder how many takes it took for the Lisolette doll to actually hit the side of the building?

I remember seeing this at the Egyptian as a boy when it was released theatrically, and how there was disgruntled mumbling in the theater for minutes after this scene occurred...

Here's behind-the-scenes pic of the miniature tower that was used in the movie. It actually wasn't so small (it was around 70 feet high).

R6, one of those goat people died there rushing into the buildings to rescue people while you sat on your fat ass and read WND.

I think there was also a secondary, larger miniature of the upper floors, R12, that used for closeups of windows exploding. It was really incredible the craftsmanship and artistry that went into these scenes. A side note...you can see the engine opening in the bottom of the radio control helicopter used in the elevator rescue if you look close enough. It's too bad there doesn't seem to be any photo coverage available for the human miniatures used in conjunction with the miniature buildings. I've always wondered to what level of detail these were done to. If you look at shots of model humans in other productions, like the crew figures in the Proteus model for Fantastic Voyage, they're relatively crude. Even similar model figures in the original Star Wars and Indiana Jones ILM films are fairly lacking. I wonder if they purposefully shied away from adding too much detail, as you wouldn't be able to make out many features in someone at that distance in real life. Today it would be CGI and you'd follow them all the way down to the bitter end....

I do wonder if Lisolette inspired this...you know Cameron only steals from the best...

I'll posit this...it's not that she dies per se, it's that she hits side going down. And then starts spinning. That just seems, like, double extra punitative to a character that gets such audience love during its runtime. just overboard on meanspiritness. It's almost as if Irwin Allen was trying to figure out how to one up Belle Rosen from Poseidon Adventure. I do remember though, that on the playground in school, Lisolette's death was considered right up there with other memorable 70's death scenes, such as James Franciscus getting machine gunned in his loincloth in Beneath the Planet of the Apes...

Fred Astaire got the only competitive Oscar nomination of his career for this movie. He was favored to win it, even though his role was small and the movie was panned by critics as just a disaster flick.

De Niro won it for Godfather, Part II.

Astaire was heartbroken.

[quote] And at least she didn't degrade herself by appearing in trashy horror B-movies like Joan and Bette.

All three movies Jones made in the 60's were notorious flops and much worse than anything Bette and Joan ever did (Trog excluded). "Angel, Angel, Down We Go" is so bad and bizarre it has to be seen to be believed.

The 60's and 70's were two really difficult decades for Miss Jones - beside the aforementioned flops she also lost her husband and tried to kill herself a few years later (her suicide attempt was possibly triggered by the death of her good friend Charles Bickford a few days before that). She also tried hard to get "The Terms of Endearment" made with herself in the leading role but no one wanted to finance it so she eventually sold the book rights away. And to top it all (as already mentioned above) her daughter commited suicide.

She appeared at the 1987 Oscars but acted a bit strange, talking with some weird speech impediment and sporting a really horrible hairdo. And I can't believe those lazy cunts in the audience didn't even give her a standing ovation.

When you consider this film was made before computerized everything, it's really an amazing film.

R18 Jones always had a slight lisp--odd for someone trained in elocution at Northwestern--youda thunk Charlotte Lee or Alvina Krause would have beat it out of her. I still have a weakness for her 40s and 50s films--Song of Bernadette (with the meanest nun ever on film--the divine Gladys Cooper), Portrait of Jennie, and Carrie. In a sense she was Sister Carrie--abandoing Robert Walker for David O. Selznick, and unhappy at the end of it all.

It is unrealistic, judging by the height and speed, the body should have broken apart a bit.

This film was nominated for best picture...Really

[QUOTE]At least she didn't degrade herself and appear in those lousy B grade movies like Crawford and Davis

I'm assuming that R6 has no knowledge of Jones' performance in ANGEL ANGEL, DOWN WE GO (1969) ? The film's title was later changed to CULT OF THE DAMNED. Jones' best line in the entire film: "I made 30 stag films and never faked an orgasm !"

My favorite part of that movie was the opening sequence, with the helicopter ride into San Francisco.

[quote] My favorite part of that movie was the opening sequence, with the helicopter ride into San Francisco.

With the famous DIAGONAL BILLING at 0:17, invented just for this film because McQueen and Newman both demanded top billing. The legend also has it that Newman and McQueen both have the exact same number of lines in that film.

I also love this piece of trivia from the film:

[quote] According to actor/stuntman Ernie F. Orsatti, Faye Dunaway was often late to the set or didn't appear at all. This made some scenes impossible to film and caused other actors such as William Holden and Jennifer Jones to become quite upset. Holden reportedly shoved Dunaway against the wall one day and threatened her. For the next month, she had a perfect attendance record.

I'm surprised Bill Holden worked with Faye on Network again two years later if she was such a pain in the neck to work with.

[QUOTE]According to actor/stuntman Ernie F. Orsatti, Faye Dunaway was often late to the set or didn't appear at all. This made some scenes impossible to film and caused other actors such as William Holden and Jennifer Jones to become quite upset. Holden reportedly shoved Dunaway against the wall one day and threatened her. For the next month, she had a perfect attendance record.

Orsatti, shown below on the set of THE TOWERING INFERNO with Fred Astaire, is likely best remembered for his small role in THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972). Orsatti played the good looking young guy who asked Susan (Pamela Sue Martin) to dance with him at the New Year's Eve Party. Minutes later after the ship capsizes, Orsatti falls to his death from a by then upside dining table onto the huge glass overhead main light in the dining room where he is electrocuted; if the fall alone didn't kill him off.

Well put, R16. Irwin Allen knew exactly what he was doing when he cast Jones in that role. He knew that the audience would be gasping for air after witnessing Saint fucking Bernadette meet such gruesome end.

The only thing more shocking would be having Fred Astaire bouncing off the side of that building, but I have a feeling Astaire would never approve of his character dying like that.

I must admit, that scene where O.J. gives Astaire Lisolette's cat at the end of the film always makes me a bit teary-eyed.

Don’t forget this was an Oscar winner!

R27

Might have been better with deHavilland. deHavilland could illicit sympathy; Jones who I understand was a very nice person always left me cold. I cannot think of one film in which I thought "Jennifer Jones made this movie !"

The other thing at the time was some wanted to see what she looked like now (1974) compared to her heyday 25 years earlier.

I read both books and can't remember which one Lisolette was in.....or if she died in the book....or if her character was even in one of the books......

IIRC, Lisolette (or Mrs. Mueller) was in one of the books and survived it, unlike her movie counterpart. Maybe this added to extra shock for some, if they were expecting her to live as in the book...

Thanks r31. I couldn't remember.

Just looked it up on wiki R32...she was in Glass Inferno...

Thanks! Which one was the Susan Flannery character in? I remember the description of the outer room burning and all the plastic forming toxic gasses.

I always liked the took The Tower and The Glass Inferno and came up with.........

TOWERING INFERNO

They would never make this film today because it exposes neoliberalism too clearly.

The towering inferno caught fire because the owner skimped on the wiring. He chose the cheapest he could get, and that kind of cost cutting, which ultimately costs lives, is going on around the world as we speak.

Reply 6

You could do with researching America's foreign policy. It's history of massacre in foreign nations might have something to do with it.

R29 Unfortunately Olivia joined the disaster movie craze too late, when the genre already became a huge joke. Turning this film down but accepting roles in shitfests like The Swarm and Pope Joan was a dumb move on her part.

Speaking of Olivia, her beloved baby sis Joan Fontaine was in Irwin Allen's "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" in the early 60's. That movie is a hoot, from start to finish. Joan spends the entire film walking around submarine in high heels and is then revealed to be the main bad guy in the end. But she pays for her sins when she accidentally falls into a shark tank and gets eaten alive.

Thanks for the spoiler alert r38!!!

9/11 was a lot more shocking. Reality always is.

Remember how Liza thought she was watching a remake of The Towering Inferno when she turned on her TV on 9/11?

It's the 9/11 movie we'll never see.

[quote] 9/11 was a lot more shocking.

You don't say?! What are you gonna tell us next - that you found Battle of Aleppo more shocking than Battle of Hogwarts?!

R43 Fuck you, you miserable cunt.

Haha, I love how people start calling each other cunts even on a seemingly innocent Jennifer Jones thread around here.

I find it interesting that after Maureens success with “Morning After” this song only reached #83!

I don't r45. They're why we can't have nice things.

She didn't just fall. I fucking pushed her!

[QUOTE]Joan Fontaine was in Irwin Allen's "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" in the early 60's. That movie is a hoot, from start to finish. Joan spends the entire film walking around submarine in high heels and is then revealed to be the main bad guy in the end. But she pays for her sins when she accidentally falls into a shark tank and gets eaten alive.

There's an old rumor that when VCRs became mainstream 40 years ago, Olivia got one and taped VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. She would watch her sister's death scene in the movie over & over & over. Apparently she'd laugh so hard that her neighbors could hear her.

That year was fabulous. The studios hoping to cash in on Poseidon's disaster genre $$$ did staggered end of year (in time for Oscar consideration) releases.

EARTHQUAKE (in Sensurround)

AIRPORT 75

then

TOWERING INFERNO

All in first run houses with BIG screens. Inferno had so many advantages. Two studios equaled double the budget and double the (starrier) cast. The budget allowed for showier effects. They had two actual books from which to pick and choose character/plot points. I think most important was their "disaster". Instead of spending the first half in soapy and treacly exposition before the BIG EVENT happens, they were able to start the fire early and build it so the movie actually had momentum. It was very satisfying back in the day.

R49 I heard Lynn Redgrave used to do the exact same thing with the final scene of "Isadora".

R51 Yikes! Now there's a death scene that makes even Lisolette's one seem tame in comparison. But everyone knows how Isadora Duncan died so it's still not as shocking as Lisolette falling out of that glass elevator, which really did catch everyone off guard.

R36 speaks truth (read up on Grenfell Tower, London, 2017, for a start).

But since "TI" is a film from a different time - in every possible sense - it was an amazing work. Hollywood doesn't make them like that anymore -- real stars, actual acting, plausible storyline and setting, and a level of audience investment (thinking how might I respond in a no-way-out/this-shouldn't-be-happening mindset, can be a real mindfuck.)

Also realistic in the sense that SF's Bank of America tower lobby was real and the building is still there. And now the city's tallest building is almost as tall as and nearby where "The Glass Tower" was placed.... the film is worth a re-watch.

...and this is one film I hope will *not* get a remake. Only unless Gwyneth gets pushed out of the scenic elevator. And Gigi Hadid plays the Susan Flannery played.

Duncan was actually dragged from the car and tumbled into the street.

[queen] ...and this is one film I hope will *not* get a remake. Only unless Gwyneth gets pushed out of the scenic elevator. And Gigi Hadid plays the Susan Flannery played.

And Madonna playing the Mayor's wife. When I watched that infamous "fat" interview last month I couldn't believe how much she had started to resemble Mrs. Irwin Allen:

And here's Mrs. Irwin Allen, just for comparison:

[quote]I must admit, that scene where O.J. gives Astaire Lisolette's cat at the end of the film always makes me a bit teary-eyed.

And I must admit the only character I was worried wouldn't get out alive was Lisolette's cat.

Can we pause for a moment and just recognize and acknowledge how fucking DADDY Paul Newman was in this film?

Faye's dress was EVERYTHING! It was in this gown that she was called "the gossamer grenade".

My ten year old friends and I were scandalized by how revealing it was - it was the talk of the third grade!

So beautiful

That dress was gorgeous, R59. You and your fellow third graders were tastefully sophisticated.

What about Susan Blakey? She had to fake being attracted to Richard Chamberlain. A great villain but way too fey. . Should have received an Oscar nod too!

R53 ... And I would add that Gwyneth not be allowed to use a cunt...I mean, stunt double.

[quote]Now there's a death scene that makes even Lisolette's one seem tame in comparison. But everyone knows how Isadora Duncan died so it's still not as shocking as Lisolette falling out of that glass elevator, which really did catch everyone off guard.

Linda Rogo's (Stella Stevens) death in POSEIDON ADVENTURE was, IMO, more of a shock.

R6 You’re right. ‘Mrs. David O. Selznick’ was a widow when this film was made.

R13 I don’t know what a ‘WND’ is.

R18, R20 I think she always spoke a little strange and fey-like right from the 40s. As though her upper lip was stretched across her teeth.

R25 I notice that the “DIAGONAL BILLING invented just for this film” is also used in “Will and Grace”

R29 You say she left you cold; I was biased against her because she was married to the boss and that made me assume she had a lesser talent.

R36 I don’t like your definition of ‘Neo-Liberalism’

I haven't watched this Inferno movie. In fact I've turned off most of Mrs Selznick's movies before the predictable story ends.

The only exceptions are 'Beat The Devil', that weird Italian one with pretty Monty and this VERY lurid English one—

R66 You're the worst movie snob EVER. Even The Song of Bernadette is a masterpiece compared to Stazione Termini. It's hard to believe it was made by Vittorio de Sica who filmed perhaps the greatest film of all time (Umberto D.) just a year before that. Mixing neorealism with big Hollywood stars was a dumb idea in the first place.

Actually, there were some great Italian films starring American actors made, but that was decades later when neorealism was already dead. Bette Davis in "Lo scopone scientifico" or Shelley Winters in "Un borghese piccolo piccolo" gave some of the best performances of their careers but no one outside Italy seems to know these two films.

R57 You must be a Catholic to think the over-long studio-bound Song of Bernadette is a masterpiece.

I already said 'Stazione Termini' was weird.

It was a very weird time in the late 40s when Bergman fled to 'Stromboli' and Cary Grant {!?!!} was announced to 'Bicycle Thieves' for De Sica.

But in the early 50s (after the Loews split) every studio was keen to do co-productions offshore with Dino de Laurentiis and Carlo Ponti.

Love this movie. I always enjoy showing these old-timey disaster movies from the 70s to my 7th grade classes when warranted. They always love them.