![]() (Its box-office tally of $93 million translates to more than $600 million in today's dollars.) The success of "Poseidon" accelerated the race. But the success of "Airport" in 1970 triggered a flood of new catastrophe hopefuls in search of similar box-office gold. It won two, for Art Direction and Best Original Song (“The Morning After”).įrom "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. ![]() (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. ![]() The scene – Winters’ character was the rescuer, not the one being rescued – made an imprint: She scored the film’s only Oscar nomination for acting. 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. Director Ronald Neame shot in sequence, so the characters’ increasingly dirtied faces, bruised bodies and tattered clothes reflected the actors’ ordeals as well. The cast and crew navigated around fire, through ductwork and shafts, up reversed ladders and stairwells, over twisted steel, and across pools of water – lots of water – as they chronicled the journey towards the hull, the only part of Poseidon that remained above water. Near-exact replicas of some of the Queen Mary’s key areas were created and a hydraulically controlled dining room set was constructed that would tilt as much as 45 degrees for the film’s stroke-of-midnight inversion. (A matching “after” set was also fashioned showing the room’s tables on the ceiling and its massive decorative skylight on what became the floor.) ![]() Queen Mary in Long Beach Harbor south of Los Angeles, "Poseidon" relied on massive Fox soundstages for the interior action scenes. Shot partially on location aboard the R.M.S. 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.įive 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).īut 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 – a decades-before-computer-generated image optical triumph that resulted in a special Academy Award for technical achievement. Maybe we can get to them.”Įither way, he reasons, the only way out is up. Frank Scott (Gene Hackman), who rebuffs the surviving crew's instructions to wait in place for a rescue. “We're cut off from the rest of the world,” says the unorthodox Rev. More: 'The Godfather' turns 50: Why Frank Sinatra loathed the novel, told author Mario Puzo to 'choke' Who indeed? Based on Paul Gallico’s 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. Poseidon Was Struck By A 90-foot Tidal Wave And Capsized … Who Will Survive?” The film’s poster tells the story: “At Midnight on New Year’s Eve, the S.S. "Poseidon," 20th Century Fox’s big Christmas release, was the blockbuster of the 1972 holiday season, finishing as the year’s second most successful film (behind only "The Godfather") and becoming a cultural touchstone that influenced moviemaking – and moviegoing – for the rest of the decade. Released 50 years ago, the saga of survival aboard a doomed luxury liner effectively turned the genre upside down. There are disaster films, and then there’s "The Poseidon Adventure."
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