Movie Reviews 557 – The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

On her last sea voyage and with greedy owners cutting nautical corners to get the ocean liner to the scrapyards, the top-heavy SS Poseidon cruises towards Greece full of revellers celebrating New Years eve as it is battered by an enormous tidal wave. Within moments the bridge is wiped out and the ship capsizes, slowly rotating until it is completely upside down.

While many credit the movie Airport as starting the trend of disaster movies in the 70s, it was producer Irwin Allen who firmly took the reins and presided over the genre starting with The Poseidon Adventure. Having graduated from low budget television and his slew of science fiction hits (Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Time Tunnel and my personal favorite Land of the Giants) Allen doubled down the calamity angle with a big budget and an all-star cast.

Inside the overturned main ballroom the survivors begin to access the situation. While the ship’s purser adamantly orders everyone to stay in place hoping that a rescue is on the way, a rebellious preacher (Gene Hackman) decides to lead a small group towards the ‘bottom’ of the ship, now the highest point and what he believes will be the easiest location for any rescue mission. His entourage includes a hard boiled cop now married to an former street gal (Ernest Borgnine and Stella Stevens), an elderly Jewish couple on their way to visit their grandchild for the first time (Jack Alberson and Shelley Winters), a lonely bachelor (Red Buttons), a smart aleck kid and his teenage sister, the singer of the band entertaining the party goers, and an injured waiter (Roddy McDowall).

The troupe faces one obstacle after another, including strife amongst themselves, doubt about the direction they are headed, all aside from the physical impediments of navigating passages that are upside down. Each character has their own challenges, the preacher’s being God and faith itself.

As corny as it all sounds, the film works when combining superb special effects, detailed movie sets, environmental hurdles, and some of the best acting ever delivered by the notable cast. A cast that despite being enticed by paychecks awaiting them, dared to participate with a premise that could have sunk (pun intended) their careers. Instead it cemented Hackman as an A-lister and revived the careers of some of the older stars, even delivering an Oscar nomination for Winters, the bravest of all, allowing her girth to be mocked in the script and to be one of the burdens to overcome in the plot. Interestingly, while the score by John Williams was also nominated, it was the Best Original Song Oscar for “The Morning After” that won and turned out to be a fairly big contemporary hit as well. 

In short, the movie itself ushered in a tidal wave of disaster movies, and a tsunami of box office dollars to match.

I have the 2006 remake Poseidon that starred Richard Dreyfus and Kurt Russel sitting on my shelves. But even with that star power I don’t think I’ll be “bowled over” when I get around to watching it. 

Tags: Ernest Borgnine, Gene Hackman, Irwin Allen, Red Buttons, Roddy McDowall, Shelley Winters, Stella Stevens, The Poseidon Adventure