The Towering Inferno Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire Directors: John Guillermin and Irwin Allen
Things start heating up pretty much from the outset in this classic 1970s disaster movie. Hot on the heels of a trio of cinema seat-packers about doomed passengers (Airport, 1970), a sinking cruise ship (The Poseidon Adventure, 1972) and a seemingly unstoppable natural disaster (Earthquake, 1974), The Towering Inferno was a logical side-step onto the bandwagon.
Steve McQueen and Paul Newman star as the central heroes who combat the raging fire: the former as head fireman, the latter as the architect of the building with intimate knowledge of the structure. The film has more double acts than just the leads: Warner Brothers and 20th-Century Fox teamed up for the then skyscraping budget of US$14 million, with two directors John Guillermin and Irwin Allen (who co-directed The Poseidon Adventure).
Set in San Francisco, the film's titular glass and metal tower may look much like the structures we have across Hong Kong today, but its sleek sets and exterior models conjured an unthinkably tall and futuristic building for its day - standing at 138 floors.
Four separate film crews were used to weave set, aerial and special effects together for maximum realism. Even the miniature reproduction of the tower was almost 30 metres high. All came together for big-screen dramatic realism. No-one who has seen the film will forget the racing wall of flames that menacingly whooshes through the building's glass lift centre.
Bizarrely, when McQueen was at the studios, conferring with two fire chiefs serving as technical advisers on the production, news broke that the nearby Goldwyn Studios were ablaze. McQueen accompanied the senior firemen to the scene, getting an up-close insight into fire-fighting, and took it to the next level - he put on protective gear and assisted on the front lines.