The Poseidon Adventure Is Amazing!

Towering Inferno has Steve McQueen and Paul Newman trying to one up each other, which is some real homoerotic energy.

OTOH, when it comes to fire, no one is a very skinny lady.

They ain't no EARTHQUAKE!!!!

I laughed! I cried! it was better than cats!

No, not as good as Poseidon. I saw Poseidon with my father when it first came out and as a 5 year old I was captivated. Yes, by the situation but mostly by the depth of characterizations. I felt for them and this is how I processed the archetypes at the time:

Gene Hackman: Daddy like, I felt affection Carol Lynley: like another child to me, I wanted to help her Stella Stevens: fabulous Pamela Sue: a teenage girl, like my older sister Her brother: sounded like he was acting, too loud Ernest Borgnine: volatile Roddy McDowell: gentle Shelley: captivating and magnetic Eddie Albert: winey

So many of the good people died, which was a good early lesson for me and one that you do not see depicted much today.

Girls, girls, you're both campy fun.

The Towering Inferno is pretty dry compared to The Poseidon Adventure. A burning hotel is no capsized ocean liner, and ducking Faye Dunaway is no diving Shelley Winters.

Is Poseidon the remake from 2006 any good?

R4

[quote] Eddie Albert: winey

Eddie Albert was not in "The Poseidon Adventure". Perhaps you meant Jack Albertson who played Shelley Winters husband, although he wasn't particularly "winey".

I don't think you meant Red Buttons. He wasn't "winey" either.

The Poseidon Adventure is the greatest of the disaster films. It has spectacle, heartbreak, spiritual sinkholes, and Shelley Winters saving the day underwater.

The Towering Inferno has its moments, but cannot compare in terms of establishing great characters and sending them on a survival odyssey.

Jack Albertson was great as Manny!

R7, the remake is worthless.

R7 no. While the CGI is decent, you really don’t care about the characters at all. The studio threw money at the project but the script and director were hapless in the remake.

Honestly, they should have just had everyone drown in the remake.

They certainly drowned at the box office!

Just panties, what else do I need?

I maintain that the reason the disaster films of the 70s are so captivating is there’s no CGI. They used models for things like the ship overturning and the skyscraper burning. It’s hard to tell it’s not real.

Not to mention real (sometimes hot) stunt men doing actual falls!

I always want to smack that mushmouth whiner Carol Lynley half-way through the movie.

Other than that, it still thrills and moves.

I love Shelley's heroics.

And nothing beats Pammy Sue Martin's tearaway dress with hot pants underneath!

Suppositories!

Can someone remind me who survived at the end?

Where can I see this? I'm in the mood for 1970s disaster flicks!!

SPOILER

I believe the survivors were the 2 kids (Robin and Susan), Ernest Borgnine (Rogo) , Red Buttons (Martin), Carol Lynley (Nonnie) and Jack Albertson (Manny).

Those who died were Gene Hackman (Reverend Scott), Roddy McDowall (Acres), Stella Stevens (Linda Rogo), and Shelley Winters (Belle).

R19, I bought it on youtube. Nice HD version too.

R18 The DVD is only $12.

Sorry, that's for r19.

This is my favourite Sally Fields movie.

There was another disaster movie from the 70s (I think) I saw as a kid in the 80s where people had to walk along a burning street and they had to cover themselves in soaking wet blankets to protect them from the flames and the heat - was that the Towering Inferno?

The sequel had a stellar cast, but wasn’t nearly as good.

The Poseidon Adventure does NOT include Sally Field R24. Turn. in. your. gay. card, stat. Sally is in the awful sequel.

R15, I too hated nonny, carol Linley's character. She should have been left behind with the dead brother.

R24, you’re thinking of When Time Ran Out (1980).

DL fave Shirley Jones was in the terrible sequel too.

Thank you R24 - i have vague memories of that!

The movie sequel was terrible, but the novel was pretty good. It was written by Paul Gallico, author of the original.

Seems like there are too many poisidon threads as of late.

Pamela Sue improved everything she was ever in just by being in it.

Airpockets?

Fantastic practical effects and stunt work.

The Towering Inferno had a helpless Jennifer Jones. The Poseidon Adventure had a brave, feisty Shelly Winters. Advantage Posiedon.

OP- Communicating with the datalounge from 1974.

And a song...

Back in the 2000s, AMC had a great documentary series called "Backstory" that did an episode on the making of the movie. Very fascinating.

“Oh G-d, why this woman? Why not Nonny or that annoying little boy? Why her?”

Who's seen the Steve Guttenberg version?

R24 and R27

Sally Field was NOT in "When Time Ran Out". That was Jacqueline Bisset.

But it did have both Borgnine and Buttons from TPA. And Newman and Holden from "The Towering Inferno".

Irwin Allen's wife was in all 3. She played the nurse in TPA, the Mayor's wife in TTI and the wife of the bar owner in WTRO.

For Christ sake, I know what to do with suppositories!

I still like "The Towering Inferno" best.

The extended version contains a bit more footage. For example, there were actually 3 scenic elevators (you can see the three vertical channels when they show the outside of the building). Another Robert Wagner scene showing he was the one who found the case of wine for Robert Vaughn.

Originally, the script called for Jennifer Jones to climb down the wrecked stairway carrying the little girl, rather than Newman.

Supposedly there was a much longer back story for Robert Vaughn too, but that never made the cut.

Oh, and we always have the footage of Paul Newman's real son Scott Newman, playing the young fireman who, when the power goes out and the firemen must rappel down the elevator shaft tells McQueen "I can't do it. I'll fall." with McQueen responding, "OK. Then you go first, so that if you fall, you won't take one of us with you."

^ I forgot to add - even though there were 3 scenic elevators, Holden tells the group that only one of the 3 is currently working.

I loved The Poseidon Adventure. The characters were well-written and -acted, and, like R4, I remember them vividly. I was 13 in 1972, and I saw it in a theater near my home, with friends from school. I was a MARY! about it but had to stifle my emotions because no one else seemed particularly moved. It is my favorite in the genre, still.

I saw it for the first time when I was a kid when it came on tv in the 70s, and was captivated. Finally saw without commercials when VHS came around. I have seen it several times. It’s just a solid movie.

It would be a good one to finally see on a large screen. Hey, maybe the OP of the thread here about what movie to show at a birthday party.

Sorry, meant to say that OP should show PS.

R45 is my soul brother. I was a total MARY! about this film when it came out. Truth be told, I still have the Viewmaster reel set and the MAD/Cracked parodies.

Irwin Allen was pretty loyal to his actors. In addition to Roddy McDowell and Red Buttons, Poseidon also used his wife Sheila, and bit players who had appeared in his TV shows like Erik Nelson, John Crawford, and Jan Arvan, Looking back, it's actually surprising that Barbara Eden wasn't in the film.

Stella Stevens was and that’s all that matters

I hated that little annoying boy and wanted him to die so bad

He died in the book, R50, and that will have to do you.

Poison!

Fun fact. The lady on the right hanging on to Gene Hackman is Marla Gibbs' sister.

Allen also did other disaster movies - for TV.

"Flood" - 1976 Starred Robert Culp, Martin Milner, Barbara Hershey, Richard Basehart, Carol Lynley, Roddy McDowell, Cameron Mitchell, Teresa Wright

"Fire" - 1977 Starred Ernest Borgnine, Vera Miles, Patty Duke, Alex Cord, Donna Mills, Lloyd Nolan

"Cave-In" - 1983 Starred Dennis Cole, Susan Sullivan, Leslie, Nielsen, Ray Milland

"Hanging By A Thread" - 1979 Starred Sam Groom, Patty Duke, Donna Mills, Cameron Mitchell

And, of course, can't forget the movie "The Swarm"!.

I love this,

Attention! Attention! This is Miss Schuster. Please listen very carefully. A killer tidal wave has flipped Shelley Winters and is coming this way.

R8 I was channeling my 5 year old self so yes, I meant Jack Albertson and yes he seemed whiney. I forgot all about Red Buttons and in retrospect he seemed to me at that time to be too old for her…especially since she seemed childlike to me.

And what else? Oh yes, please do not hesitate to choke on one of your six quotation marks.

I just finished watching Poseidon, the 2006 remake and it was horrible. Actors forgot how to act in disaster movies starting in the late 90s with movies like Deep Impact and Armageddon. I will watch The Towering Inferno tomorrow.

What about the three Airport movies? Which one is the best? I'm leaning towards the 1977 one with Jack Lemmon.

1975 is the campiest one, even taking Lee Grant in '77 into account. '75 has Linda Blair as Sick Young Girl, Helen Reddy as Nun With Guitar, and Gloria Swanson as herself!

A sunken airliner perched on the edge of an undersea cliff is what I call a DISASTER.

That’s the least funny Bette Midler gag I’ve ever seen.

Personally, I love Airport '77. For a variety of reasons, but don't forget, Brenda Vaccaro gets to punch Lee Grant in face!

Airport '75 is The One. I mean, oh my god, the STEWARDESS IS FLYING THE PLANE!!!"

A drunken Lee Grant trying to open the sunken airplane door, but luckily Brenda Vacarro comes to the rescue!

Faye Dunaway was such a piss-faced little whore in "Inferno." You could tell she absolutely hated the whole picture. Probably because the building got more attention than she did.

I liked Roddy McDowall in "The Poseidon Adventure." He showed up at the right moment, did his duty, and then disappeared down a dark tube.

I think that wasn't the first dark tube Roddy disappeared down...

Sue Flannery and Faye should have played opposite roles. I’d rather see Faye go out that window.

This thread made me go back and rewatch the film this afternoon. It still holds up pretty well. Some of the dialogue is pretty laughable. Poor Eric Shea having to deliver a line like, "Reverend Scott, the live steam is blocking our escape!" Olivier himself couldn't save that line. But the sets, cinematography, and editing are first-rate. Great score by John Williams. Stella Stevens' tits should have gotten their own billing.

R65, you were perfectly right, she telegraphed how much above it all she was in every scene she was in. Still, she never looked more beautiful.

I prefer Towering Inferno maybe because i saw it, many times, when i was teenager in the 80s. I only saw Poseidon many years later and, while enjoyable, i think it lacks some charisma. Inferno has a much superior cast (it also has some very boring bits in the stairs).

But the deciding thing, is Jennifer bumping off the building several times on her way down. Not even fat lady drowning can surpass that.

She didn't drown, R69! She had a heart attack! I'll bet you still make jokes about Cass Elliot and that ham sandwich...

Towering Inferno doesn't have Fallon Carrington ripping off the skirt to her ball gown to reveal cherry-red hot pants beneath.

I feel like in TPA you're more emotionally invested in the characters. Towering Inferno is full of aging 1940s and 50s movie stars (and William Holden has aged horribly due to drinking).

The Poseidon Adventure was the best of the seventies disaster movies on every level. The Towering Inferno just goes on and on and is filled with bad actors.

From a wonderfully bitchy interview that Carol Lynley gave to Roger Ebert while promoting the film:

"It was incredible," she said. "There was no vanity on this movie. There couldn't be. No makeup. No hair arrangement, because our hair was sopping wet all the time, Shelly Winters really looked awful. She SAYS she puts on weight for her roles, but actually she's that way to begin with. She lost a little weight on this picture. I defended Shelley a lot to everyone who hated her."

Really?

"She can be so selfish. Of course, I make a point never to get into fights with other actors. It's destructive. It depletes your energy. But Shelley can drive others to almost punch her in the nose.

"I was the one who defended her. Then she went on television a week ago and forgot my name. We worked together every day for four months and she forgot my name! She had her secretary call me up the next day and say how funny it was. I said I didn't think it was very funny. After all it was at my expense."

Possibly the greatest line in cinema history...

Just for you, R75...

HOW DARE YOU LITTLE HOMOSEXUAL BOYS CRITICIZE! MY PERFORMANCE IN THE TOWERING INFORNO WAS SUBLIME!!!!!

[quote]DL fave Shirley Jones was in the terrible sequel too.

DL fave Shirley Knight was in the terrible sequel too.

Gene Hackman takes the assignment very seriously and that is one reason Poseidon can still suck you in after all these years

[quote]r48 Looking back, it's actually surprising that Barbara Eden wasn't in the film.

[quote]49 Stella Stevens was and that’s all that matters

They offered it to me first.

Jealous, bitches?

[quote]R65 Faye Dunaway was such a piss-faced little whore in "Inferno." You could tell she absolutely hated the whole picture. Probably because the building got more attention than she did.

Her agent told her it was the kind of film you should do once in a while.

Jane Fonda had already turned it down.

The Poseidon Adventure is mind boggling!

YOU CHEWED UP ALL THE SCENERY FAYE/R77. CHEWED IT RIGHT UP AND THEN SOME...

Still sad we never got to see the planned threequel The Poseidon Adventure Strikes Back.

The Poseidon Adventure gave us one very important filmic message: If you are blonde and attractive, you will never die. Everyone else will, as they are trying to save you, but you will be safe.

Both films are cheesy camp at best.

R85 One blonde woman dies at the end and one survives. The survivors are 4 men and 2 women. Did you even watch the movie?

I think he's going to argue that, in this film at least, Stella Stevens was a redhead. Clearly poor Sheila Matthews-Allen and all those blonde extras don't matter to R85.

Lucille Ball wanted to be smoking a cigarette in every scene, so they went with Shelley Winters.

I was a young teen when it came out, and I had no interest in seeing it. Based on the title I thought it was about underwater Greek gods, not my favorite subject.

So when it finally came to the local second run movie house ($1.00 at all times! lol) , I reluctantly went with some friends and man was I blown away. When that ship turned over I was riveted to my seat and I don’t think a moved a muscle for the rest of the show.

R90 do you have sex?

Yes I do, about twice a month.

Why do you ask?

Raise the Poseidon!

I watched The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno and Airport 77 and loved all three. The Poseidon Adventure is my favorite but the other two were also great. Next on the list of 70s disaster movies is Earthquake with Charlton Heston.

I enjoyed Earthquake as a kid, but it doesn't hold up so well (for me). The whole sensurround thing was totally overrated, and the film itself was poorly-acted, with lots of unsavory (and uninteresting) characters. One man's meat is another man's poison...

Stella, please tell me more about your ideas for raising the Poseidon. Are you hoping there are survivors in the air pockets?

I love that out of all the things that happen in this movie, the part that stuck with most little gaylings (myself included) is that Pamela Sue took off her maxi-skirt to reveal HOT PANTS!

We all wanted to be Susan Shelby -so we could dance with the hot guy who was making eyes at her.

R97, he was the one that fell onto the stained glass, played by stuntman Ernie Orsatti.

The novel’s Susan was taken aside and raped by a bashful English boy, who promptly ran away out of guilt and presumably died. Susan later reflects that if she ends up pregnant, she’ll look up the boy’s family and go meet them.

Also, the novel’s Robin Shelby disappears when he goes to find a safe place to poop. His parents, who were with the kids in the novel, are left to assume he drowned somehow.

I didn't realize the novel was so dark.

Was Belle thin?

R100 I don't believe so, but the group had more characters and the novel explored them all, so there was less backstory on Fat Old Mrs. Belle Rosen.

Actually, there's a lot of backstory on the Rosens. They owned a delicatessen in New York, and knew Mike Rogo before the Poseidon cruise. In the novel more is made of Belle's swimming career -and one of the other passengers even remembers seeing her as a kid. Her famous swim through the underwater corridor is not to rescue Rev. Scott. He lets her go through first with the rope -which she does. She doesn't die until the very end, when the survivors are actually in the propeller shaft and they are running low on oxygen.

In the book the entire Shelby family is aboard the Poseidon. Parents Dick and Jane (I know...) are seemingly the golden couple, but Jane blows up at her husband and utterly emasculates him -shocking Susan, who had no idea her family was anything but Ozzie and Harriet. The ship's emergency lighting fails shortly after the group makes it to Broadway (the long passage that extends from bow to stern). There are other survivors milling about, but they panic and stampede toward the bow when the lights go out. Most disappear down a gaping hole where one of the ship's boilers crashed through. It's at this point that Robin disappears, never to be seen again. Presumably he was returning to the group after his bathroom break and got caught up in the stampede. It is while searching for him afterward that Susan is raped by the young sailor. When our heroes are finally rescued from the propellor shaft, they see that a much larger group is being rescued from the bow, and it is hoped that Robin is with that group, but he isn't. The ship finally sinks, and the Shelbys have to accept the Robin is truly dead.

The movie character of Mr. Martin is an amalgamation of two characters in the novel: James Martin, a married haberdasher who is having an illicit affair with a widow while his invalid wife remained at home, and Hubie Muller -a wealthy playboy who befriends (and fucks) Nonnie (a dancer in the ship's cabaret).

R102, thanks for that partial recap. A sailor or crew member raping Susan seems so utterly random and silly... a man is trapped in an upside down ocean liner, people are trying to find a way to escape and this guy decides it's time to pause, physically assault a woman, get hard, fuck her and then, I guess, zip up his pants and re-join others for a trek to freedom? So weird.

Like some other novel to screenplay adaptations it sounds like the screenwriters made some good choices, edits and adaptations to the tale.

Linda! My Linda!

More context on the rape scene:

The scene is the long Broadway corridor, which has many side alleys containing storage rooms, etc. Toward the bow is a gaping hole in the deck, where one of the boilers crashed through. Looking down into it, all you can make out is oily water. We have previously seen someone fall in and disappear entirely. The emergency batteries have died, and the crew members who had been milling about panicked in the dark and ran for the bow (presumably taking Robin Shelby with them to their deaths). Our group, now equipped with flashlights, is searching for Robin.

Susan is looking down one alleyway, checking the supply rooms. She is grabbed from behind and thrown down. She is dazed and confused, and feels pain. When it's over, she is able to grab the flashlight that had been knocked from her hand and she shines it on her attacker. He is a young teen crew member named Herbert. He sees Susan for the first time and is horrified that he has raped a passenger. Alone in the dark, expecting to die at any moment, he realized Susan was there (and female) and assumed she was also a crew member, and decided to have "one last bit of skirt" before he dies.

Susan is surprisingly understanding of his fear and panic, and tries to comfort him, asking him about himself and his life. The horror of what he has done overcomes him, along with fear of the consequences should he survive, He tells her over and over again how sorry he is, and runs off in a panic and falls through the hole. Susan pulls herself together and continues searching. She never tells anyone what happened to her. Only at the very end, aboard a rescue ship, does it occur to her that she could possibly have been impregnated. She resolves that, if she has, she will bring the baby to Herbert's family and show them that a part of their son is still alive.

Even as a kid (when I first read the novel) I could understand how the fear of imminent death might drive a man to grab at one last moment of feeling alive. Not an excuse for rape, but just the blind fear that might overwhelm someone to the point where they lose control. What never made sense was how easily Susan accepted it and moved on. Of course, she would probably have had severe PTSD afterward. It's not explicitly stated in the book, but my reading of its British attitude towards class is that if Herbert had actually raped a crew woman it wouldn't have been as big a deal. His horror is about having "done it" to a passenger, not a random crew woman. I suspect there is some underlying assumption the a crew woman would have been someone with a lot of sexual experience and therefore not as worthy of our pity or consideration, or simply not have mattered as much as the higher-born passenger.

The author probably got drunk and horny and took it out on his typewriter.

There was no one at the time that could have played the Poseidon Cruise Ship better than Ms. Winters. She should have received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal but her day in the sun had passed decades ago. Jane Fonda won that honor for her role in Klute. They haven't spoken to each other since then!

Particularly challenged by Shelley's death in 2006.

R108 - Yeah, that's the interesting part. Jane thinks that Shelley is still alive! Must be all the medications Jane consumes to blunt the pain of all her facial alterations over the years. Poor girl.

Shelley Winters was, indeed, nominated for an Oscar for Poseidon. She didn't win it -though she did win the Golden Globe. The film won two Oscars -best song and visual effects.

Shelley deserved an Oscar just for the capsize scene alone. Her increasingly panicked screams of Manny! Manny! MANNY! are perfect. (perfect enough to become a DL meme.)

The film was actually very well cast. I quibble with Red Buttons, who was in his fifties, being paired with Carol Lynley, who was twenty-five years younger. I know her character is child-like to the point of being simple-minded, but she was a beautiful young woman, and there was nothing about Buttons to suggest that she would take up with him.

The movie is better than the book. Killing off the kid would have killed the whole film.

And it is a bit annoying how after all they have gone thru the see other passengers easily exiting the ship. It is better in the movie where the group bonds together, defies the odds and some survive.

(the one flaw in the film is I think more people would climb up the Christmas tree in real life and not sit and wait for help which as Hackman explains isn't coming.)

Nonnie was borderline retarded. It was a miracle she could even put on those hot pants and fuck me boots.

If it had been a Hanukkah cruise there wouldn't've been any Christmas tree to climb at all and they all would've died.

For R113:

I agree about Robin in the film, but in the novel the focus on the Shelby family was on the mother and her growing dissatisfaction with her life and marriage. When the disaster occurs it brings everything to a head and leads to her massive blow up. Another thread throughout is the question of whether Rev. Scott is really the hero that everyone think he is, and whether or not they should follow him to the engine room, or head toward the bow (the ship wasn't sinking by the bow in the book).. At the end, our group has been utterly dehumanized -rescued from the propeller shaft virtually naked, covered in grease and oil, and all in shock. With every deck they climbed the veneer of civilization was stripped away. At the end, they see survivors at the bow -some of whom had originally been with them in the dining room and/or a part of their group - emerging still in their long dresses and dinner jackets. It intensifies the shock and degradation that the Scott party endured. It also provides one last, forlorn hope that Robin may be found alive.

While there are many characters and points of view in the novel, Jane Shelby is really one of the main characters. We see much of the story from her point of view. Interesting that she and her storyline were totally excised from the film. Had it been a more faithful adaptation, she would have been the likely Oscar-nominated character/actress.

If Shelley wouldn’t have pulled off one of her two wins, she definitely would’ve won for Poseidon. Big fat lovable Jewish wife and grandmother, who saves other passengers, and has one of the most memorable, sad death scenes in film history. Eileen Heckart ended up winning over her, but I hardly remember anything she did in Butterflies Are Free. I don’t begrudge Eileen though. She was owed an Oscar for the Bad Seed.

Robert Duvall laughs when announcing Shelley's name at the 73 Oscars

I think it was the "Fat City" that preceded it.

Shelley was pissed. After the Oscars, Robert Duvall said he was laughing at James Caan giving him a funny look in the audience. May or may not be bs. He apologized to Shelley for the coincidence anyway.

Linda Rogo is really a terrible person in the book. You are almost happy when she dies.

I saw Stella Stevens say when she was offered the part they told her don't worry your character won't be as unlikeable as she is in the book.

Thanks for the post r116

OP The Poseidon Adventure is a lot more fun than the Towering Inferno which seems endless.

In the new disaster blockbuster “The Towering Inferno,” each scene of a person horribly in flames is presented as a feat for our delectation. The picture practically stops for us to say, “Yummy, that’s a good one!” These incendiary deaths, plus the falls from high up in the hundred-and-thirty-eight-floor tallest skyscraper in the world, are, in fact, the film’s only feats, the plot and characters being retreads from the producer Irwin Allen’s earlier “Poseidon Adventure.” What was left out this time was the hokey fun. When a picture has any kind of entertainment in it, viewers don’t much care about credibility, but when it isn’t entertaining, we do. And when a turkey bores us and insults our intelligence for close to three hours, it shouldn’t preen itself on its own morality. -Pauline Kael

In the book the Poseidon is doing a month-long cruise along the Atlantic coasts of South America and Africa, giving Linda Rogo the opportunity to complain that the n-words she sees on the trip are just as bad as the n-words at home.

It is mentioned that she was a "starlet" who appeared in a Broadway musical flop called "Hello, Sailor!" which I always wondered if the author was actually basing on the musical flop "Oh, Captain!" By the merest chance, in the chorus of "Oh, Captain!" was a young soprano by the name of Sheila Matthews (later the wife of Poseidon producer Irwin Allen). Could she have been the prototype for Linda Rogo?

Was Mrs Allen known for being a racist trollop?

Who can say, R124? I never met her, and her screen career was (sorry, Viv) insufficient to warrant any gossip. Still, it's something to think about.

I just wanted why know why you thought Paul Gallico was using her as a prototype for Linda Rogo when he wrote TPA, absent any evidence

Not Sheila specifically as a person, but she clearly shared Linda Rogo's biography. Even on the first reading of the novel I equated the fictional "Hello, Sailor!" with the real-life "Oh, Captain!" It was only much, much later that I discovered the Sheila Matthews connection between those two worlds. Coincidence? Perhaps. But an interesting one nonetheless.

Linda Rogo (in the novel) was embittered woman who never achieved the stardom she craved, and feels she married beneath her. Mike Rogo was in the papers as a hero for breaking up a prison riot and she attached herself to him for another shot at fame. The film made her into a former prostitute, which robbed the character of a lot of her reason for being so bitter and angry all the time. Sheila Matthews almost never worked outside her husband's projects, but after his death she moved into the production side of things. Was she bitter and resentful of her career? I never heard anyone say that. But I do imagine Paul Gallico had someone with her background in mind when he created Linda Rogo.

Shelley was actually a swimmer when she was a teenager.

I saw this movie when I was 14 and was supposed to meet my friends there (which I later did) but got there early and got wasted with some other kids, and saw this movie stoned as fuck. I started to think how horrible it would be to be trapped underwater and got very paranoid, and didn’t smoke pot again for at least three years.

This movie made me scared to ever get on a cruise ship with Shelley Winters again.

I've done dozens of cruises -and I still check out the underside of every staircase...

[quote]This movie made me scared to ever get on a cruise ship with Shelley Winters again.

She really only got scary in the buffet line.

R54, thank you. Sam Groom played Russ Matthews on Another World, way back around 1970 or so. He was my favorite sex object for a while right as I was going through puberty. (Robin Strasser was playing Rachel Matthews, Russ' fabulously bitchy and faithless wife, at that point. They were a very handsome couple to say the least.)

Hanging By A Thread is available on Youtube. I haven’t watched it yet, but the image quality looks OK. It’s over 3 hours long, so it's definitely a movie for a long winter night.

R122, you're so right. Red Buttons had about as much sex appeal as overcooked pasta. He had none of the masculine gravitas that would make him believable as a sort of “daddy” type – to borrow a modern use of the word – that would appeal to a timid or frightened young woman.

Maybe that gentleness could be appealing

Buttons and Lynley did NOT get along on the set.

(^.^) like many of us Lynley preferred zippers to buttons

I think all the dads in the audience were supposed to identify with Red and get a kick out of a young woman having the hots for him.

R138, but I don't think Red Buttons' character, or Buttons himself, was someone most hetero men would identify with or want to be like. I think Gene Hackman - virile and heroic - was a more likely role model. If you were a coarse, working-class man, you might identify with Ernest Borgnine. Red Buttons? Who'd want to be like that?

Who'd want to be anywhere near an Oscar winner?

Was Red Buttons well-liked in his day? He may have been cast because people would root for him to survive the ordeal.

Carol Lynley did not deserve to survive The Poseidon Adventure.

R134 Does correctly cooked pasta have more sex appeal than overcooked pasta?

I never thought the Red Buttons character and the Carol Lynley character were meant to be a romantic couple. I always just thought of him as kindly and trying to help her.

[quote] Was Red Buttons well-liked in his day?

Some comedian whose name I cant remember said he was VERY cheap. My impression was he didn’t care for him.

“ Success ruined Buttons as he destroyed his own show. His ego and anxiety expanded and his agitation was taken out on his employees. The slightest thing could set him off and his secretary was terrified of him. "Red scares me Monday [broadcast] nights," she said. "He doesn't make sense." He routinely fired employees after only a few weeks on the job. Variety called Red Buttons the only TV star with "more writers than scripts." The employees he retained often quit on their own, unable to handle the volatile, irrational atmosphere. He screamed at future legends like Larry Gelbart, Neil Simon and Mel Brooks, telling them to fuck right off. They did. By 1954 there were few comedy writers left who hadn't had some sort of terrible experience with The Red Buttons Show. Octogenarian comedian Bobby Ramsen says, "He fired all the people who later became the icons of American comedy. Red had different writers every week. 'They're not sending me out naked again! This is the worst crap I have ever seen!' God, he was terrible. Buttons became a monster."

I didn't even know there ever WAS a Red Buttons show...

Is Red Buttons good in his Oscar winning role in Sayonara?

Was the win deserved? The competition looks a little weak.

R148 it was a good, not great, performance. He’s certainly more memorable in PA. I think Academy members were struck by the interracial couple aspect of Sayonara, since he marries Miyoshi Umeki (who also won for supporting actress) in the film. Sessue Hayakawa from Bridge on the River Kwai was likely the second place finisher, since BOTRK cleaned up that year winning multiple major Oscars. Plus Red was a hometown Hollywood guy which always helps.

Buttons was also good in They Shoot Horses, Don't They (1969)

He's very good in the incredibly bleak They Shoot Horses, Don't They?. Definitely committed to the role. Man, that is one depressing film... the first time I watched it was just out of curiosity - never saw that ending coming. whoa...