Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The Towering Inferno

This is topic The Towering Inferno - Special Edition in forum The Afterlife at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-13-2006, 05:44 PM:

I just got this special 2-disk version of The Towering Inferno. It's the best special-edition of an old movie I've ever seen, except maybe the 3-disk "Wizard of Oz" collection.

Not only does it have all the expected extras like commentaries, trailers and so on, it has both old and new "making of" features (9 new ones!), a NATO "presentation reel" used to announce the movie to theatre owners, 30 extended or deleted scenes, an AMC Backstory program on the movie, and a lot more.

On top of that, the package includes the original lobby cards (reduced in size, of course) and a 38 page book with cast bios, complete credits, interview with Irwin Allen, color photos from the sets, and even the full story of how this first co-production between two studios (Fox and WB) came to happen. And there's yet another insert with the chapter list, more notes on the production and more color photos.

The movie itself is no slouch, either - one of my all time favorites.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 05-13-2006, 07:59 PM:

I actually enjoyed this film as well and am somewhat interested in the package you described. Of couse, it will be a matter of minutes before the New Towering Inferno will be made for theatres...probably would have already done it by now if not for 9/11 being too recent and too close a subject matter. And then the new Earthquake. I mean if these films were good enough to make once, they are good enough to make again, right? Posiden is in the can (take that any way you want).

Posted by Chad M Calpito (Member # 3736) on 05-13-2006, 11:40 PM:

Yeah, I liked the Towering Inferno. The DVD Package sounds really neat. I may just go out and buy it sometime. [Big Grin]

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-14-2006, 02:03 PM:

I had a chance to dive into this a little more last night.

The 38-page booklet is actually a reproduction of the press book issued by the studio at the time. It's kind of funny to see the writeup on O. J. Simpson talking about his growing movie career! I think photos were probably added to the book for this reprint.

The NATO presentation reel is kind of cool and appropriately '70s-cheesy. Obviously Irwin Allen was in the crowd at the place where the reel was shown. The reel has Allen on screen introduce himself in the audience. ("Now here's some real movie magic...I'm here on the screen, and I'm also in the audience with you! Take a bow, Irwin!")

The nine featurettes are really interesting, each about 10 minutes long and each devoted to a different aspect of the film's making. In my view the ones on the special effects are the most interesting. Amazing what they could accomplish without digital tricks.

There is also a set of articles from American Cinematographer on disk 2 detailing how the movie was made. Those total about 100 "pages" (screens) on the disk. Haven't looked at them yet.

I forgot to mention the coolest feature -- the price. It has a list price of $19.98, not bad at all for a 2-disk set with all those extras.

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 05-16-2006, 10:05 PM:

Just got this set and its pretty impressive so far. I'm surprised some of the surviving cast members didn't do a commentary.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 05-18-2006, 06:56 PM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
Amazing what they could accomplish without digital tricks.

Amen to that. Movies today need less CGI and more "real".

Posted by Aaron Haney (Member # 747) on 05-22-2006, 09:03 PM:

I picked up the 2-disc set this weekend just because of this thread. It is indeed a great set and a great movie. I had never actually seen it in widescreen before.

Despite there being so many excellent extras included, I was a little disappointed that all we get to see of the miniature sets was a few fleeting glimpses, especially after Allen talked about how large they were during the NATO reel. Maybe there just wasn't that much behind the scenes footage of them shot in the first place.

Many of the interviews described Allen as being extremely well prepared and organized. The storyboards and plans on the wall behind him in the NATO reel reinforce this. Planning a movie like this must have been almost as complicated as building the fictional "Glass Tower" building for real!

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 05-22-2006, 09:36 PM:

With the "Failure" of Poseidon, it looks like this one is safe from being remade thank god.

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 05-22-2006, 11:17 PM:

Amen to that.

Posted by John Koutsoumis (Member # 1855) on 05-23-2006, 02:03 AM:

For those that have a copy what's the transfer quality like?

Posted by Aaron Haney (Member # 747) on 05-23-2006, 03:55 AM:

The transfer is very well done. The compression and image processing are very good. There is a little bit of mosquito noise visible around the opening titles, and a little bit too much edge sharpening visible in a few places, but overall it's up there with the best DVDs I've seen. I'm very pleased with it.

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 05-23-2006, 05:05 PM:

"The Towering Inferno" and "The Poseidon Adventure" Special editions were both produced very well by Fox. The next three Special editions from Fox are just as good as those. "Patton", "The Longest Day" and "Tora! Tora! Tora!" are now two disc editions with new transfers. [thumbsup]