'The Poseidon Adventure' turns 50: How oceanic disaster film upended a genre
There are disaster films, and then thereâs "The Poseidon Adventure."
Released 50 years ago, the saga of survival aboard a doomed luxury liner effectively turned the genre upside down. "Poseidon," 20th Century Foxâs big Christmas release, was the blockbuster of the 1972 holiday season, finishing as the yearâs second most successful film (behind only "The Godfather") and becoming a cultural touchstone that influenced moviemaking â and moviegoing â for the rest of the decade.
Not bad for a sea cruise gone wrong.
The filmâs poster tells the story: âAt Midnight on New Yearâs Eve, the S.S. Poseidon Was Struck By A 90-foot Tidal Wave And Capsized ⊠Who Will Survive?â
Who indeed? Based on Paul Gallicoâs 1969 novel, the story focuses on the handful who try: those who first manage to make it through the rollover and then, corralled by a fellow passenger, band together to find their way from what is now the bottom of the ship to its hull at the top.
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âWe're cut off from the rest of the world,â says the unorthodox Rev. Frank Scott (Gene Hackman), who rebuffs the surviving crew's instructions to wait in place for a rescue. âThey can't get to us. Maybe we can get to them.ââŻ
Either way, he reasons, the only way out is up. So under his caustic self-appointed leadership, the small group begins its journey, battling the clock, debris, and in some cases each other as they brave a deck-by-deck climb through the overturned and slowly sinking vessel.
Five Oscar winners (Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, Jack Albertson and Red Buttons) head the cast, along with a mix of familiar faces (Stella Stevens, Carol Lynley, Roddy McDowall) and young newcomers (Pamela Sue Martin, Eric Shea).
But the real stars of "The Poseidon Adventure" are its innovative (and Oscar-nominated) art direction and the special effects that depict the oncoming wave swallowing the ship and then its slow rollover from inside â a decades-before-computer-generated image optical triumph that resulted in a special Academy Award for technical achievement.
Shot partially on location aboard the R.M.S. Queen Mary in Long Beach Harbor south of Los Angeles, "Poseidon" relied on massive Fox soundstages for the interior action scenes. Near-exact replicas of some of the Queen Maryâs key areas were created and a hydraulically controlled dining room set was constructed that would tilt as much as 45 degrees for the filmâs stroke-of-midnight inversion. (A matching âafterâ set was also fashioned showing the roomâs tables on the ceiling and its massive decorative skylight on what became the floor.)
The cast and crew navigated around fire, through ductwork and shafts, up reversed ladders and stairwells, over twisted steel, and across pools of water â lots of water â as they chronicled the journey towards the hull, the only part of Poseidon that remained above water. Director Ronald Neame shot in sequence, so the charactersâ increasingly dirtied faces, bruised bodies and tattered clothes reflected the actorsâ ordeals as well. Many performed their own stunts, notably two-time Oscar winner (and onetime pinup) Winters, then 51, who gained 35 pounds for her portrayal of a zaftig elderly grandmother and who managed an impressive seen-up-close underwater search-and-rescue sequence in a dress, exposed underwear and all.
The scene â Wintersâ character was the rescuer, not the one being rescued â made an imprint: She scored the filmâs only Oscar nomination for acting. (She lost Best Supporting Actress to Eileen Heckart from "Butterflies Are Free.") Overall, "Poseidon" was nominated for eight Academy Awards, in addition to its special technical-achievement award. It won two, for Art Direction and Best Original Song (âThe Morning Afterâ).
From "San Francisco" (1936) to "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951) and "A Night to Remember" (1958) to "Krakatoa, East of Java" (1968), the disaster movie had long been a Hollywood staple. But the success of "Airport" in 1970 triggered a flood of new catastrophe hopefuls in search of similar box-office gold. The success of "Poseidon" accelerated the race. (Its box-office tally of $93 million translates to more than $600 million in today's dollars.)
In 1974, "Poseidon" producer Irwin Allen â a big-screen veteran most recently associated with high-concept 1960s TV such as "Lost in Space" and "Land of the Giants" â followed up with the skyscraper-in-peril epic "The Towering Inferno." It was nominated alongside "The Conversation," "Chinatown," "Lenny," and eventual winner "The Godfather Part 2" as the yearâs best picture. And its success earned Allen the sobriquet âmaster of disaster.â
"Inferno" was one of three disaster films released that year alone, joining "Airport â75" and "Earthquake," the latter presented with real-feel technology âSensurround.â All were hits. Allen tried twice more later in the decade, though the critically assailed "The Swarm" and "When Time Ran Out" fizzled at the box office. By then, in the wake of other middling efforts such as "Rollercoaster," two additional "Airport" movies, "Meteor" and Allenâs own ill-conceived sequel, "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure," time had indeed run out for the genre. The disaster film was relegated to Hollywood's back burner until CGI arrived a decade or so later to give it new life in such hits as "Independence Day," "Titanic," "The Day After Tomorrow," "The Perfect Storm" and "2012."
In 2006, Storm director Wolfgang Petersenâs big-budget remake of "The Poseidon Adventure," titled "Poseidon," came and went with little impact, its clearly better effects proving no emotional match for the bare-bones, set-tilting, people-tossing original.
Never hailed for its screenplay or nuance â Charles Champlinâs 1972 Los Angeles Times review asked, âAre the characters as gaudy and thin as cereal boxes? Is the dialog banal and shrill? Is the moralizing heavy-handed and relentless? Is the hokum a bit thick even in the context of a showmanship special? Well, yes. But who cares?" Nonetheless, "The Poseidon Adventure" was an E-ticket holiday thrill ride: A tale of doom, offering the promise of a morning after for those who could hold on through the night.
In the end, only a handful of the handful could.
But for 50 years, itâs been a classic that moviegoers have flipped for, especially during the days of "Auld Lang Syne.
"The Poseidon Adventure" is available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play and other platforms.