听 Hollywood movies don't come any bigger or cheesier than Ronald Neame's The Poseidon Adventure. Watching the likes of Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine and Shelly Winters splashing about in the upturned hull of a cruise liner was thrilling for a 1972 audience, but these days its appeal is based in kitsch moments like a hefty Ms Winters making like Duncan Goodhew. It seems director Wolfgang Petersen may have missed the point with his remake.
Ship Ahoy!
Producer Irwin Allen was the driving force behind Poseidon, convincing the suits at Fox to invest their money at a time when they favoured smaller, character-driven movies. All is revealed in a substantial Backstory featurette which talks to Neame and a few of the surviving cast members. It touches on special effects too - mostly involving "forklift trucks" and underpaid stuntmen. "I did give a solemn warning to every member of the cast," says Neame. "I said, 'Now, look, before the film is over you're all going to hate my guts, but I can't help it!'"
Still the actors mostly have fond memories of the production and share these in The Cast Looks Back. That's all except for bit player Ernie Orsatti who calls himself "the idiot" for agreeing to be dropped 40ft through a window. To make matters worse he wore white socks that clashed with his tuxedo so it's a good thing he was unconscious when Neame viewed the playback...
Another featurette describes how author Paul Gallico was inspired to write the novel after a hair-raising trip on the Queen Mary. Elsewhere friends and collaborators of screenwriter Stirling Silliphant acknowledge his work on the film and others, including In The Heat Of The Night (1967) and The Towering Inferno (1974). The Heroes Of Poseidon gives a deeper insight into the structure of his script, which professors of theology compare to Dante's Purgatorio and The Pilgrim's Progress. More spiritual analogies celebrating "hope and faith" come through in a look at the composition of the Oscar-winning song The Morning After. The last featurette is a vintage look behind-the-scenes that recalls a time when Gene Hackman could worry about getting his hair wet.
Sink or Swim
Neame reveals the mechanics behind a couple of key stunts in the Conversations menu. He makes no mention of a forklift truck though, saying that he tilted the set using a combination of hydraulics and camera trickery. On disc one he gives a very mellow but info-packed commentary where he admits to giving his cast a pretty tough time, "hosing them down" before every take and having them thrown about like rag dolls. A text-based article from American Cinematographer provides more in the way of technical titbits on disc two.
Cast members Pamela Sue Martin, Stella Stevens and Carol Lynley provide an alternative track that has a rather more gossipy feel to it. For instance they reveal that producer Irwin Allen met his wife Sheila Matthews on the set after she was cast as Nurse Gina Rowe. Despite a lot of giggling, they remember too how "depressing" it was to be in dirty wet clothes for the duration of the shoot. Another option to enhance your viewing of the film is Follow The Escape allowing you to track the progress of the survivors using a schematic of the ship. It's a fun innovation to go with what is a buoyant but at the same time very nuts-and-bolts dissection of the movie. For anyone who enjoys a good old-fashioned disaster flick, this generous two-disc DVD will sweep you away on a wave of nostalgia.
EXTRA FEATURES
