The death of Robert Wagner and Susan Flannery's characters in the movie was sickening. I remember when I first saw the scene how shocked I was. Was it really necessary. We had to see Robert Wagner in slow motion running around on fire. Then we had to see Susan Flannery die a horrific death. I think it was totally unnecessary and sickening to watch.
shareYeah, god forbid one would actually show death scenes in a remotely realistic manner in a movie about a catastrophe in which hundreds are killed. I mean, where´s the fun in that?
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
I didn't think the scene was sickening. It was very realistic and cool. You see Wagner walking around like he's in a daze- when the poor guy is really burning up. Then you see Susan Flannery doing a beautiful swan dive out the window. It was one of the best scenes of the movie.
Too bad Jernigan didn't get it. They should have done burned em.
These movies were popular because the Fx were in their infancy. When the movie was being made all people were talking about was how the scenes of burning rooms and especially burning people were incredibly realistic .... And this genre of film, Airport, Possedein Adventure, etc were all about putting stars in danger and as the movies evolved killing them off was extraordinary ... Before then who would have dared to kill a star?
When 9-11 happened, the first thing anyone my age and older said was "towering inferno" ... We had seen those images before ....
the sad part was after she went out the window, they cut to the outer office where the firemen had just arrived.
Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...share
There's no way to tell how much time passed between those 2 scenes.
''If it bleeds, we can kill it.''
Well Susan Flannery and Robert Wagner were HOT in that scene. It was natural just to play it out in the context of the Towering Inferno.
shareIt seemed to be in real time to me.
Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...share
I always felt it was real time as well, and I tell myself "Just keep the door closed! The firemen ARE on the way.!
That scene (John Williams' haunting music helps) never fails to scare and upset me.
"What do you want me to do, draw a picture? Spell it out!"
There's no way to tell how much time passed between those 2 scenes.
The film was a disaster movie. What should it show- just scenes with people eating dinner and dancing and having a good time? I loved those scenes. Thye were among the best scenes of the movie.
shareAnd let us not forget that frequently people will jump to their deaths rather than burn up. It happened on 9/11 and it happened at the Triangle Shirt Factory Fire. It's disturbing scene even thirty-seven years later. But I don't think it was unnecessary. A high-rise fire is a terrible thing.
shareYou have a good point. And that it is one horrific incident that the film did not show, as best I recall. Wagner's gf in the film, Lorrie, did a beautiful swan dive out the window after she caught on fire. But she did not deliberately jump; the fire carried her away. At least that is how I saw it. Her movements and Wagner's, where he semed to be moving in slow motion as he caught on fire, were among the best scenes in the film, whether some people are offended or disturbed or not. But because of 9-11, I doubt this film would ever be remade.
sharePeople have jumped to escape flames in high rise fire before.
The evidence during the 9/11 tragedy seems to suggest many people who fell did not jump.
Windows were smashed and broken because the heat was intense and the smoke thick. Trapped people clustered around the window frames for air. There were so many people pushing and shoving, trying to get air that the throng of people simply pushed others out.
This does not make the situation any less grim of heartbreaking, but it does address the myth that all the jumpers from the World Trade Center did so to escape the flames.
AE36
"There were so many people pushing and shoving, trying to get air that the throng of people simply pushed others out. "
yeah you just made this up, you have no evidence of this.
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I guess I'm the only one who was more sicked by Lisolette death. Yeah Wagner and Flannery's death were sad but Lisolette was a caring lonely old cat lady who was about to be swindled by fred astair's character. Yet she cared about the deaf lady and her kids and helped them (with the help of paul newmans character)and then even scarified her own life to save the little girl as she was falling out of the elevator. Then to add salt to the wound her body smacks the side of the building half way down. OUCH!!
shareLisolette's death wasn't sickening, it was shocking. You just didn't know who was going to survive after that moment. I think the audience was stunned.
shareThat scene with Wagner and Flannery is the single most effective scene in the entire film. It haunted me for years after I originally saw it. I couldn't imagine the film without it.
And seeing Flannery without pants through the whole scene was also shocking, at the time.
"And seeing Flannery without pants through the whole scene was also shocking, at the time."
Shocking? Maybe.
Fun? You betcha! Steve V.
Personally, I think Irwin Allen had a thing for blondes in pink men's dress shirts.
In promotional materials for the film, we see Irwin himself wearing a pink shirt. In "The Poseidon Adventure" we of course have Stella Stevens in just a pink shirt and panties through most of the movie.
In "The Towering Inferno" (TI), we have Susan Flannery in the pink shirt-- however, the truly riske' innovation here is that she's wearing support pantyhose and nothing else beneath the shirt.
It is also interesting to note that Flannery was something of a protege of Allen's.
Flannery had some minor television roles in the early to mid 60's, notably on the Allen produced "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea". Following that, she was mainly a soap actress until landing the part of "Lorrie" in "TI".
Following "TI", she had a bit of a break through in to the main stream for 5 or 6 years. However, this success was short lived and somewhat limited, and she soon returned to soaps.
35 at the time of filming "TI", she was a little too old for the young ingenue classification or "and introducing Susan Flannery as Lorrie" billing in the movie. Yet she got the part. And wore the outfit.
It's also interesting to note that with the exception of "TI" she has never once appeared in anything remotely revealing during the course of her long career. Not a bikini, not an underwear scene, nothing. There were a few promotional shots of her in a mini skirt, but those, along with her "TI" film work, were the extent of revealing attire.
Besides Allen's suspected fondness for women in men's dress shirts, Flannery's pantyhose clad turn in the film is mainly to present a bit of eye candy and emphasize her character's vulnerability.
Facing death from flames yet hoping for rescue (as her character was led to believe for a time) it makes little sense that Lorrie would remain pantless and barefoot, with her nyloned tush on display. Yet Lorrie does just that, even when voicing the concern that she is afraid her illicit affair with the Robert Wagner character (her boss) might be discovered.
So in effect you have a character waiting for rescue, concerned about the fire, and hoping to keep her affair with the boss a secret. Yet she apparently intends to be be rescued in just a shirt (his) and pantyhose. And all the while her clothes are piled on a chair just a few feet from her.
Not that I'm complaining, mind you. Flannery's outfit was a highlight of the movie, at least for me. My only regret here is that we did not see more of Flannery and Wagner. If they were slated to die in the script, so be it. However, I would have liked to see them both have some further adventures trying to escape.
I think it would have been interesting for the Lorrie and Dan characters to actually make it to the party room. The contrast between the privileged and elegantly dressed women to Lorrie's shirt and pantyhose "working class" pantless appearance would have been sharp-- and perhaps telling.
I for one am glad she remained pantless in pantyhose. I doubt seriously if the film were ever re-made those Flannery nyloned scenes would be re-created. I have not seen the recent so called "Korean re-make", but I somehow doubt that similar scenes exists in that film.
AE36
The scene is straight from the novel. Though they made the characters sympathetic and likable. In the book both were despicable and deceitful people.
shareWhich of the two novels? The Tower or The Glass Inferno?
I read one of them as a kid; the other one wasn't available in our library.
The only thing I can remember was there was a cleaning lady in one of the buildings whose son was a heroin addict.
You read The Glass Inferno, which had the unfortunate couple depicted in the film. The novel, as usual is more realistic, even acknowledging the kitchen staff as well as the janitors that you mentioned. The S. Korean film also has characters that work in the service industry, which Irwin Allen had security, a bartender and one wait staff.
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