I heard that behind the scenes there was tension between McQueen and Newman. Both wanted top billing.
What does everybody here think?
Newman was still hot in the 70's and had more clout. McQueen still had a good number of movies under his belt, but still didn't have the history Newman had.
shareI wonder how many of those stories are true. I heard when McQueen was competitive about the number of lines he and Newman had. However, McQueen had a reputation for cutting lines as he thought less could be more.
shareAs a kid watching TTI whenever it was on tv in the 80s I was really only aware of Paul Newman as the main guy in the film..just the way he seemed to be the main character, the fact he was in the chopper opening wearing shades and then rarely off screen (McQueen didn't show until maybe half hour in?), and seemed to be driving the story and the action scenes (climbing over the chasm with the kids etc), the main woman was his love interest, plus his look in the yellow jacket (McQueen was always in fireman gear/helmet so most the time its was like he was just one of the firemen) and the fact he was such a huge household name into the 80s (whereas I dont even think I knew who McQueen was back then..or until bit later when became aware of Great Escape, Magnificent 7 and then later Bullitt and obviously realising he was the fire chief in TTI)
shareNewman.
shareThis is a Trick Question.
Newman and McQueen both demanded top billing. The producers created a specific type of credit just to accommodate them. They were both on the same screen. McQueen was bottom left, Newman on the top right. So, looking left to right it appears McQueen, from top to bottom Newman.
What's more, they both had it in their contracts that they HAD to have the same number of lines. This actually worked against Newman since McQueen didn't appear until halfway through, so they had to pack more lines per scene in for him which made his performance more intense.
You also had William Holden who had also demanded top billing. He traded it for a bigger share of the box office than he was originally supposed to get. So he ended up making more than the others for the film.
Although I liked the McQueen character much better, Newman was obviously the star while McQueen filled the "cool sidekick" kind of role.
shareInteresting: Paul Newman and Steve McQueen had actually appeared in one movie together BEFORE The Towering Inferno.
It was called "Somebody Up There Likes Me," from 1956, about NYC boxer Rocky Graziano. Paul Newman was the STAR; Steve McQueen was way down the cast list as a supporting player in a few scenes (he plays a member of the NYC gang led by Graziano.) McQueen's name isn't even on the poster for this movie, even in support.
That was 1956. Paul Newman's star got "super big" in 1958(Cat on a Hot Tin Roof; Oscar nom), 1960(Exodus), 1961 (The Hustler, Oscar nom) until Newman was the biggest new young star of the 60s, the first choice for everything as older stars died(Gable, Cooper) retired(Cagney, Grant) and aged(Stewart, Fonda.)
With Newman well ahead in the race, McQueen caught up as the 60's moved on. The Magnificent Seven(1960) and especially The Great Escape(1963) put him on the map and he solidified his superstardom from 1966 through 1968 (The Sand Pebbles and his only Oscar nom; The Thomas Crown Affair and the classic blockbuster Bullitt.)
Newman ended up in the biggest hit of 1969 -- Butch Cassidy -- but had a co-star to help him(newly minted superstar Robert Redford.) Redford helped Newman again with The Sting(1973.)
By the time The Towering Inferno came along, BOTH McQueen and Newman were pretty much co-equal movie stars. But McQueen HAD to have remembered that movie where he was Newman's support. According to Inferno screenwriter Sterling Silliphant, it was MCQUEEN who demanded the same number of lines -- "No more, no less" -- and Silliphant wrote them while vacationing near Catalina Island.
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My call is that McQueen has the true lead of the movie. First of all, while we wait for McQueen to show up(over 30 minutes in) Newman is saddled with a lot of the early "soap opera" part of the story. Then, when McQueen does show up as the Fire Battalion Chief...he is "the boss" of EVERYBODY...including Paul Newman. (Actor James Coburn commented on this, how much fun it looked like for McQueen to order Paul Newman around.. not to mention, Newman's architect really CANNOT escape some blame for the disaster.)
McQueen is rather like his cop Frank Bullitt in this one -- no nonsense, knows his job, does his job. No soap opera dialogue for HIM. He even has his "Bullitt" sidekick(McQueen's real friend, Don Gordon) along as if the two cops transferred to the fire department. Plus the villain from Bullitt(Robert Vaughn) comes along as a good guy politico ,this time. Plus, McQueen's "Thomas Crown Affair" lover, Faye Dunaway ....is NEWMAN'S lover this time.
When asked to comment on The Towering Inferno for one of its anniversaries (after McQueen died in 1980), Paul Newman declined, sending word from his PR man: "This is not one of Mr. Newman's favorite movies of his." So evidently NEWMAN thought McQueen was the star, and that he was sort of a villain in it. (No matter: both Newman AND McQueen got the biggest paydays of their lives on this movie; McQueen retired for some years and Newman started a salad dressing company with the cash.)
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One more thing: it was a big deal when the two superstars McQueen and Newman finally worked together(AS stars) in The Towering Inferno, but Hollywood is always fickle and the two men were now seen as "aging stars from the 60's" versus competition from a new crop of male leads in the 70s: Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Robert Redford(who noted that he became bigger than Newman in the 70s, a little jealousy there?) and "prestige" guys like Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino ,and Robert DeNiro.
The Towering Inferno was almost a "curtain call" on the superstardom of Newman and McQueen. McQueen semi-retired and never made a major movie again (just three small ones) and died in 1980. Newman went on to some great "Oscar bait films" and senior stardom but had to yield to a younger generation of leading men in the 80s and 90s.
nice analysis, made me look at TTI differently (see my take on it above)
sharenice analysis, made me look at TTI differently (see my take on it above)
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Thanks I will revisit your take
As a kid watching TTI whenever it was on tv in the 80s I was really only aware of Paul Newman as the main guy in the film..just the way he seemed to be the main character, the fact he was in the chopper opening wearing shades
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The movie certainly OPENS with Paul Newman and Steve McQueen nowhere in sight, and then Newman gets scenes with the OTHER two major stars of the movie(Holden and then Dunaway as love interest)so...I take your point, very much. Newman is also right there at the final scene.
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and then rarely off screen (McQueen didn't show until maybe half hour in?),
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Correct. But this benefits McQueen ..as it did Newman in The Sting one year(and one Christmas) before.
At least, IMHO.
The Sting: Robert Redford opens the movie as the star, and has a lot of exposition and "establishing the plot scenes." We start to CRAVE seeing Paul Newman. When Redford travels to Chicago to find Newman(about 30 minutes in), Newman sort of "takes over the movie" and we are excited to see him.
The Towering Inferno: Paul Newman opens the movie as the star, and has a lot of exposition and "establishing the plot" scenes. (Newman also gets trapped in some of the "soap opera" plotting before the disaster comes in.) We start to CRAVE seeing Steve McQueen. When McQueen arrives to fight the first, he sort of takes over the movie, and we are excited to see him.
Rule?: "Second star who comes in late takes over the movie." (See also: Marlon Brando arriving late in The Missouri Breaks after Jack Nicholson opens the movie.)
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(Newman) seemed to be driving the story and the action scenes (climbing over the chasm with the kids etc), the main woman was his love interest,
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Faye Dunaway, who had been MCQUEENS love interest in "The Thomas Crown Affair"(1968.) It must have been a kick for McQueen to see Dunaway again(they barely share a scene, at the end, with Newman.)
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plus his look in the yellow jacket (McQueen was always in fireman gear/helmet so most the time its was like he was just one of the firemen)
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Great comparison point. McQueen sort of "fades into his team" but does assert leadership at all times(and he PERSONALLY picked the rather flamboyant fire helmet he wears in some -- but not all -- scenes.)
Newman was the thinner of the two men -- more "perfect" in his slender build -- but that jacket sort of screamed out "tacky 70s apparel" to me, even in 1974 when I saw it! Still, Newman could look great in anything.
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and the fact he was such a huge household name into the 80s (whereas I dont even think I knew who McQueen was back then..or until bit later when became aware of Great Escape, Magnificent 7 and then later Bullitt and obviously realising he was the fire chief in TTI)
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Well, if I understand this correctly, McQueen stopped being a "name" in the 80's because he DIED in 1980 so he ended up as "a legend" sort of like James Dean and Marilyn Monroe -- dying young. But not THAT young. McQueen got to dominate the 60s and the early 70s. He furthered his legend by retiring for most of the 70s and then coming back with two little movies released in 1979 and 1980...the year of his death. It was very sad at the time "After five years away, Steve McQueen is BACK! -- uh oh, he's DYING. He's dead." Paul Newman got three more decades of old man stardom.
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Though I see Steve McQueen as the true lead of Towering Inferno(avoiding the soap opera, bossing around Newman AND rich man Holden and everybody else -- "When there's a fire, I outrank everyone here.") it never seems to me like he's in the movie as long as Paul Newman, which should be impossible if they had the same number of lines.
Supposedly for this to work, Newman should have yielded up to a half hour of the movie to McQueen once McQueen got there. I"ve never counted up the screen time. McQueen gets few scenes with ANY of the other stars except one good one with William Holden; he spends most of his time making decisions and fighting the fire and saving people. Newman gets to make some good decisions too, but McQueen is making them for everybody.
One thing I noticed: Newman gets one big "rescue scene"(of Jennifer Jones and the kids) and then McQueen gets one big "rescue scene"(of the people on the outdoor elevator in general and the young fireman in particular.) A "matched pair" of scenes -- one for Newman, one for McQueen, the other guy isn't there.
"He furthered his legend by retiring for most of the 70s and then coming back with two little movies released in 1979 and 1980...the year of his death."
McQueen actually starred in three post Towering Inferno films. Tom Horn and Hunter, as you mentioned, but also "Enemy of the People (after an Ibsen play) in 1978. In that one he played against type as a bearded and bespecled scientist and environmental activist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Enemy_of_the_People_(1978_film)
It's a film that virtually no one (including myself) has ever seen and I think may never have been released on DVD or BluRay. Needless to say, neither it nor the other two films did much to relaunch his career. The deal Friedkin was offering him in 1977 with Sorcerer he probably should have accepted in hindsight. He ended up divorcing Ali McGraw in 1978 anyway.
McQueen probably would have died anyway, and mayber Sorcerer would still have failed, but I think he career would have ended more with a bang than a whimper as it did. Of course, if it had been a success Friedkin's career would certainly turned out differently.
Man, I must have been drunk when I wrote that post. Tom Horn and The Hunter both came out in 1980. McQueen had no 1979 release. And I forgot about Enemy of The People, but to be fair, it barely got released and this was before VHS/DVD. So basically no new Mc,Queen release in 1975, 1976, 1978, and 1979 and barely a release in 1977. CONT
shareThat was a long time for a major star to be gone away. I have seen Enemy of the People. It is good and McQueen proved himself as a dramatic actor.
shareI've had trouble tracking it down myself. I've seen clips online but that's about it. I DID enjoy some of McQueen's lighter fare such as Love With The Proper Stranger, The Reivers, and Junior Bonner, so I'd probably enjoy it as well.
P.S. I recall Hunter being a bit dopey and Tom Horn being a bit dour.
Yes, I've heard the stories about billing/number of lines. For me it was Paul Newman.
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