Thursday, August 27, 2009

Gown with the Wind

As mentioned in a prior post, The Towering Inferno was the movie in which my seven year-old pea brain finally realized that actors were actually used more than once rather than only doing one film in their lifetime. I was already aware of Faye Dunaway as a persona thanks to her work in The Three Musketeers and so was especially excited to see her amid the gigantic cast of Inferno.

She has a fun introductory scene in which Paul Newman comes into his office and starts talking to a large, high-backed chair. He removes a hat from this person the viewer cannot see and then Miss D. rises up to plant a devouring kiss on him. She obviously has read Dr. Atkins 1972 book because she informs Paul that he's better than a cheeseburger. "All protein. No bread." After they enjoy a mid-afternoon romp in the small bedroom she has prepared right off his office, she is seen modeling the red lingerie he has brought back from an extended trip. Faye and Paul make, to my mind, close to the perfect couple despite their ultimate lack of scenes together.

Later, when it's time for the grand opening gala of The Glass Tower, the title edifice which unfortunately bursts into flame on the big night, we see Dunaway in a dark taupe chiffon evening gown that barely covers her top and two back panels which waft behind her as she walks. Though the color is nothing to shoot the cat over, the style of the dress is remarkably provocative and unspeakably glamorous, especially as the evening wears on.

Eventually, she is trapped at the top of this 138 story building and one of the rescue attempts involves knocking out the windows of the top floor restaurant. This creates a strong draft which gives Faye a chance to play with her dress as it billows around. Shortly thereafter, she ascends to the roof of the building to meet a rescue helicopter and here things go really wild, with her gown flying all over the place. Finally, she is placed inside a scenic elevator that is knocked off its tracks midway down. Again, she is placed in a situation where her dress is given life by the air around her.

I can't possibly understand why this sort of thing appealed (and appeals!) to me, but it instilled in me an obsession with light fabric caught in the wind that has never left me. I suppose our early experiences at the cinema tend to leave an imprint on us and this was mine. All I know is that I could watch any clip of Faye Dunaway in this movie on a continuous loop and never tire of it! There's something also about the way she is clearly trying desperately to make some sort of impression in the film when her role is thankless window dressing. She imparts all of her few lines with a delicious repressed urgency and parades around like a goddess, frequently using her dress to draw attention to herself. (Check out, especially, the scene in which a crowd of people is listening to Paul Newman announce the use of the glass elevator and when it starts to break up, she remains behind on purpose and then grabs her dress in a way that grabs our eye!)


Costume designer Paul Zastupnevich worked almost exclusively with producer Irwin Allen and was Oscar-nominated three times for his trouble. Astonishingly, he was NOT nominated for The Towering Inferno, in which he created one of the most remarkable dresses of all time. In a bizarre twist, critics and audiences began chiding the man for having Faye "wear chiffon to a fire." This is lunacy! Of course, she was wearing chiffon to the dedication party of the world's tallest building that just happened to catch fire. The clothes he designed for the movie lent incredible visual interest to it and wouldn't have been the same if the ladies had been in brocade or velvet. It's one of the great oddities of Academy Award history. However, even he knew that Faye's dress was, perhaps, attention-getting for the wrong reasons. He was quoted as saying that "half of the suspense was wondering whether Faye was going to fall out of that dress." He was once quoted as having admitted that he'd employed tape to hold it in place and another time saying that there was none and that only Faye's regal posture held it in check, so who really knows...?
Her descent in the scenic elevator is one of my all time favorite shots in a movie. As the car begins to lower, she turns to face the outside of the building, clasps her hands together in an almost prayer-like formation and holds her head a certain way under the overhead light. This serves to turn her high-cheekboned face into a skull-like death mask. And the ride down does turn out to be a deadly one for one of the passengers.
  
Faye spent countless hours making sure she looked just so for this movie and she caught some major heat for it from William Holden who was tired of waiting for her on the set. Reportedly, he pressed her up against a wall and gave her what-for and her punctuality improved afterwards. In any case, I have never been more grateful to an actress/designer collaboration than I am to Faye and Paul (Z.) who together presented the movies with an unforgettable image.

Someone decided that a hefty chunk of her scenes would be better left out of the final print. Thankfully, an extended TV version included these and the 2-disc DVD includes them as well, as a bonus feature. I can think of quite a few other story fragments which could have been snipped instead, but at least they're available to see!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hilarious and informative! I look forward to reading more of these entries!

Gingerguy said...

Hi Poseidon, I traveled through misty watered colored memories to reread this post from years ago. I watched this over the weekend and I think it's been at least 30 years or more since I have seen it. Of course having read this and other chiffon mentions all I did was pay attention to Faye and her goddess gowning. She really contrasts with the Mayor's wife, who is wearing very matronly hot pink velvet and a hairpiece. The Actress is very sweet looking but something about pink with blond curls says Miss Piggy to me. I digress....why in the world would the costume designer get criticism over a fabric choice? That's so odd. Her character didn't know she was literally headed for disaster, else she would have worn hiking boots or stayed home. It's great that these are archived to revisit.

Poseidon3 said...

Hey, Gingerguy! So glad that you took the express elevator back to this post! LOL 30 YEARS....?!??! I'm lucky if I can go 6 months without a TTI viewing. I just love the entire thing and can never get enough of it, especially Faye and her diaphanous gown. Glad you got to see it again!

Masa prozaiczna said...

Thanks for this! My fav movie gown ever but I couldn't find any references in Polish language. I love your passion and your emotional, meticulous detailing (so important in haute couture as well;-)).

Poseidon3 said...

Masa prozaiczna, thanks so much for discovering this old post and taking time to comment! I appreciate it a lot and am so glad someone else enjoys this deceptively simple looking gown, which afforded so much visual delight. Take care!

Ptolemy1 said...

A wonder of a gown for sure. An odd sort of burnt bronze color, and the plunging, I won't call it a neckline, almost a waistline, is incredible for the time. There are precious little photos of it online, trust me I've looked, LOL. This gown and Mitzi Gaynor's "nude illusion" that Mackie made for her in her "Let Go!" number for her tv special are obsessions of mine. I also adore the gown Stella Wears in "The Poseidon Adventure", When I met her at an autograph convention she was so happy to talk about it, it gave her a welcome break from all the men wanting her to sign their vintage Playboys, LOL. That gown, which was one of several made, is preserved in the Smithsonian. Stella said they made several copies of the costumes for reshoots, because the ones they were were all but destroyed while filming. I do so hope somewhere, Mitzi's incredible gown and this masterpiece of a dress are preserved somewhere!!

Poseidon3 said...

That gown on Stella fit like a glove (a satin opera glove!) I recall either her or the designer noting that the cleavage was so pronounced that the rhinestone cluster in the front had to be added to tone it down a bit, though that added some fun glitz to it. I always liked the straps, too, with a circle detail worked in. :-) BTW, Faye's dress (or one of them) has been sold online before and has little bits of char and distress on it! She and Sheila Matthews had cinders landing on them while filming the elevator rescue with Steve up top using an acetylene torch!!!

Ptolemy1 said...

Now see, I LIVE for replies like that! HAHHA. I have to say if you pushed me up against a wall and held a gun to my head I'd HAVE to choose Mitzi's "Let Go!" dress, it's just so, SO. But yeah, Faye's really steals the movie and I do think Faye knew it. I've been trying to decide if it's way ahead of its time, or VERY seventies, hahahha.

Poseidon3 said...

Totally forgot to mention, have you ever watched/listened to this???

https://youtu.be/rwQRDCo5b80

Ptolemy1 said...

Wow, how incredible. She's totally on point with her observations, and despite the fact that indeed the gown IS "of its time", it's also timeless. Seeing it on the mannequin in the photo still it looks rather simple. But on Faye it transforms. I still maintain the color is hard to nail down, but seems so metallic to me, bronzy or faded gold. I went back and revisited the film and have to say I enjoy it every time. I notice something different each time I watch it. I was struck by how well the illusion of extreme height is conveyed, I love the slow pan outside the ballroom when we first see it. Then the slow pan again when they frantically prepare the room for the escape rope chair. Rather than stay with the lobby and offices style, we get a huge rather bizarre ballroom set with a sort of "Hello Dolly" garden-ish theme. (those flower arrangements made out of...feathers?!). I also ADORE that office complex, so multileveled and "futuristic", with those enormous floor to ceiling windows, that convey the scale of the building even more. It's MUCH more open and expansive than "The Poseidon Adventure" which is downright claustrophobic in comparison. Allen knew how to do adventure, like a boy who never grew up and loved adventure too. Thank you so much for these convos, I do love gushing about films.

Ptolemy1 said...

I also have to comment (for the nerdy science geek in me) that it's interesting that the production has the elevators go straight to the top of the building in one go. Having worked in the World Trade Center for a time years ago, those buildings had "sky lobbies" where you transferred elevators. It was almost a second commute. The reason was in a building that high, the elevators would create what's called "The chimney effect" and if the elevator opened on the ground floor, it would theoretically blow a hole in the roof of the building. I have no doubt Allen was aware of this, but he wasn't going to have HIS stellar cast standing around in a sky lobby, looking at their watches waiting for an elevator! HHAhah. Watching it this time around I was impressed with the design of the scraper, it's very beautiful and almost organic looking. I love the scene when they first light it! 138 stories, 28 more than the trade towers....

Poseidon3 said...

I don't know if you happened to see, but there is a young lady out there on the interwebs who MADE Faye's dress and models it. But she's got porcelain white skin and big boobs, so it certainly doesn't come off the same way. But it was an admirable project to try... Funny you should mention "Dolly" because I believe that the fountain (the one the mayor falls into at the climax) was also used in the Harmonia Gardens restaurant set! Both 20th Century Fox films, five years apart. :-) You've also helped solve a personal mystery of mine. Here in Cincinnati, we have The Carew Tower, which has more floors than any other skyscraper, and you cannot take the elevator all the way to the observation deck. You have to get out a couple of floors below and take another mini-elevator (or walk up stairs), but I never knew why until now! Thanks..!!! Oh, there is a YouTube reviewer who refers to John Williams' score as "forgettable." !!!!! I LOVE the score and never more so than when those lights in the tower are being turned on in shifts. Perfect.

Ptolemy1 said...

I love the score. As a huge fan of how a director does credits, the opening sequence with the helicopter is fab with the music. Seeing the film as a child with my father who was a fireman, the pause honoring firefighters is especially effective, I know it made and impression on my father, who commented at the end of the film, "They should never build them that high". Tell that to Dubai, LOL. I would maintain the opening credits for "The Poseidon Adventure" beat it tho, I never tire of watching that model-work, it's just SO well done. I like to watch "Inferno" and keep track of the back and forth contest between Newman and McQueen over lines and scenes, I'm aware of that insistence on the part of the two of them. I remember once in the 90's working for a public relations company in New York the film had been on television the night before. It was THE talk of the office the next day, which thrilled me, people were going nuts about it that many years later. I almost felt like a proud papa, HAHA. And here we are still loving it and going nuts over it. Such is the personal magic of films and those who love them.