THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE is now fifty and holds a very special place for me - so don't expect criticizing.
What started with 1970's ANNE OF THE THOUSAND DAYS, blew up with POSEIDON - it made me a Movie Buff: any magazine that featured it was bought, any film that starred any of the actors was watched, it played a week at Kensington Odeon and I went every night.
I know POSEIDON so well but seeing it always casts a delicious spell, so easy to lose myself in. There is always the subliminal feeling that whatever has happened in the intervening years, the ten survivors of the New Year's Day sinking of the SS Poseidon are still there, battling upwards to escape.
20th Century Fox wouldn't finance all the $4 million budget after recent losses so producer Irwin Allen secured half ot it from private investors - it went on to earn $125 million!
Shelf or charity shop? Sitting happily on an upside down shelf! THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE won two Academy Awards, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and my unswerving devotion! I read the 1969 Paul Gallico novel at the time and disliked it's grubby, nasty characters. To this day I remain obsessed with Gene Hackman and his turtle-neck with the torn shoulder, Pamela Sue Martin's long skirt / hot pants ensemble and everything about the glorious Stella Stevens. especially in her wonderful blue negligee and white bias-cut evening dress with the plunging neckline - the height of 70s costume design! And yes, I still blub when brave Shelley Winters takes her last dive. I was surprised how often the actors had appeared together in other films leading up to POSEIDON but the most interesting was that director Ronald Neame, then a cinematographer, and a 10 year-old Roddy McDowall had worked together 34 years before on a George Formby film! Ah Ronnie Neame, what a hero... the man who co-produced personal favourites like BRIEF ENCOUNTER and OLIVER TWIST and director of this, the film that lead me to Movie Buffdom. I owe him and the cast a debt of gratitude.
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