Visible crew/equipment: When Harlee arrives at the building, set lights are reflected on his sunglasses.
The Towering Inferno (1974)
1 visible crew/equipment mistake - chronological order
Directed by: John Guillermin
Starring: Paul Newman, Faye Dunaway, Steve McQueen, William Holden, Fred Astaire, Richard Chamberlain, O.J. Simpson
Continuity mistake: During the scenic elevator rescue scenes, the building has moved across the downtown core and is now located next to the Transamerica Pyramid, which is many city blocks to the west.
Dan Bigelow: I'll be back, with the whole fire department.
Trivia: Both Paul Newman and Steve McQueen did most of their own stunts in this film.
Question: I read that there was a feud between Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. What was the reason behind their feud in the first place?
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Answer: Mainly it was about egos (mostly McQueen's) and a professional rivalry, not only as top movie stars, but also as auto racers. McQueen considered himself a superior driver to Newman, even though they never competed against each other. When McQueen was considered to co-star with Newman in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," McQueen wanted top billing, then dropped out when he wouldn't receive it, even though Newman was considered the bigger star. In "The Towering Inferno," McQueen supposedly obsessed over how many lines he had compared to Newman.
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Expanding on this: McQueen's demand for top billing continued on this film (as did William Holden's, but he was never a serious candidate), which is why the end result was "staggered": McQueen's name was to the left but lower, while Newman's was higher but to the right, so both had top billing depending how one read it (left-to-right, or top-to-bottom). Studies have shown that the name audiences tend to see first is the one on the left, regardless of staggering, so McQueen may have "won" here.
Newman does get a small victory of sorts at the end of this film when the cast credits begin scrolling upward on the screen. Newman's and McQueen's names are again staggered like in the beginning intro, but Newman's name appears first as it scrolls up from the screen's bottom.
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