Deja View: Disastrous Designs

If you looked at the tale end of my most recent post, then you know I had the glorious opportunity not long ago to see two of my top ten favorite movies on the big screen: The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974.) I thoroughly enjoyed watching them this way (in the case of Poseidon, it was my first time seeing it in a theater.) In fact, I'm still not over Inferno and over the last couple of evenings have been re-immersing myself in all the extras to be found on the Blu-ray. (If you've ever met me - or even if you haven't! - you know that I am totally obsessed with Faye Dunaway in said movie and can hardly believe how much of her footage was cut from the release print, thankfully saved in blurry, cropped form for the 4-hour network TV premiere in 1980.) 

My partner-in-crime for this foray into disaster on the big screen was longtime pal Joe, who did me one better than most anyone I know by once portraying Belle Rosen in "Poseidon! An Upside Down Musical" and bringing down the house with his shenanigans. Note "Nonnie" in the background with a stuffed figure meant to be her brother Teddy...!

Anyway, today, we're going to take a gander at a couple of the set design features of these two classic disaster epics and point out why they might seem familiar to loyal 20th Century Fox moviegoers. 

The extraordinary set for the S.S. Poseidon ballroom was symmetrically designed so that it could be used both before and after the stirring capsizing of the luxury liner. It just needed some materials to be reversed or relocated to the opposing point of the film stage. As you glance at the photo above, do take notice of the gilded panels in the back-left near the Christmas tree.  

Sprinkled throughout the dining salon are various large, gold panels depicting any manner of old-world activity from hunting to harvesting and the offering of said revenue to the gods, be it vegetation, fowl or who knows what else.

Though the ship is the S.S. Poseidon and so far as I know that was a GREEK god, the various etched panels are not!

Though it really only stands out after one closely inspects the artwork, these panels seem less self-contained than a designer might intend and appear more as if they are culled from a different far more elaborate overall scheme. Perhaps one like this...

Here we find one of the elaborate rooms to be found in the palace of Egyptian Queen Cleopatra! You may be aware of the 1963 movie which bore her name? 

I'm hard-pressed (and, in truth, don't exactly have the time) to match up specific bits of these pieces of wall art from film to film, but they were definitely recycled from Cleopatra to Poseidon.  

What I believe was done is that the Poseidon production designers wisely chose portions from the massive montage of etchings that were either just beyond camera range or otherwise less featured than some of the examples seen here. 

With that said, there's no mistaking the presence of the huge gent seen to the right of the door in back, with his bow drawn.  

He and the opposing figure were used for the Poseidon ballroom, but switched sides so that they were oriented to face one another rather than have their backs to each other. 

Once the overturning was complete, these panels were flipped the other way so that they'd be part of the upside-down effect. 

This is, of course, where the water eventually began pouring into the ballroom, drowning everyone who didn't climb upstairs with Gene Hackman's bombastic reverend. 

Thus, regardless of their initial design, they suddenly became topsy-turvy water-bearers to the hapless victims of the capsizing!

By the way, on the subject of deja "view," raise your hand if you knew that the attractive brunette seen here in-between The Rosens is Elizabeth Rogers a close friend and frequent cast member in Irwin Allen projects. She also happens to be (albeit with a totally different look) ----

-- one of the ten ladies selected at random to be rescued by helicopter in The Towering Inferno (1974.) 'Course, that doesn't exactly go according to plan. So the same ten ladies, along with two additions, are supposed to then be the only ones able to descend in the disabled scenic elevator. So conceivably she would be among them. 

However, the elevator takes off and, inexplicably, Rogers is left in the Promenade Room and now is primed to be the first woman to escape the fire with that method! (See her standing at the far left of this grouping.) 

Paul Newman asks who is the first to go and she raises her hand...

...then proceeds to make a whole spectacle out of being placed in the chair and lowered to presumed safety. See? Ya shoulda stayed with the elevator! LOL

For this exercise, Rogers received billing in the credits as "Lady in Buoy" at a time when not everyone in a movie got their name on screen! Rogers is but one of many people who appeared in both films. Some of the staff at The Glass Tower were crew members of the S.S Poseidon and there are many crossover party guests as well. 

But back to the subject at hand, which is set pieces being recycled, not people! Take this gargantuan tiered planter situated in the corner of the Promenade Room near the windows. It's HUGE and we're only seeing a small part of it. (The set was built eleven feet off the ground so that cameras could aim upwards towards the skyscraper's inhabitants and also so that water could drain off without collecting - and potentially drowning someone! - during the big finale.)

In the aforementioned finale, Jack Collins (as the mayor of San Francisco) has tied himself to a post near the planter, but the force of the water coming towards him quickly knocks him from his position. 

Soon he, having already signaled a possible heart issue, finds himself being washed over to the edge of the pit which is holding the planter. 

And he's hurled into the abyss, presumably drowned. (We're not expressly shown this, but William Holden seems to indicate that he was lost and he's never shown again.) This towering plant holder was not dripping with water for the first time, however... 

It can be spied here in 20th Century Fox's 1969 release Hello, Dolly! There, it was part of the eye-popping Harmonia Gardens restaurant set. (In fact, there wasn't just one. There was a set of them.) 

Thus, the "planter" which wound up serving as Mr. Collins' watery memorial headstone had once been a fountain in the vast splendor of a movie released five years prior. 

Who'da thunk that this hefty background piece (understandably being overshadowed by La Streisand during the title number!) would one day find itself on the 135th floor of the world's tallest building!? 

To bring this post fully around 360 degrees, the windows seen behind Dolly and the waitstaff in the prior pic are the same ones used to form the skylight-style fixtures on the "ceiling" of the Poseidon ballroom, one of which was the recipient of the legendary fall by Ernie Orsatti! And with that I'll say goodbye till next time. 

Deja View: "Gunsmoke" in the "Valley"

Gunsmoke was a phenomenally successful western that ran on television for 20 seasons (and had been on the radio before that - as well as during the early part of the series' run.) When it was canceled in 1975, it was still a Top 30 program (!), but its demographics weren't the "desired" ones... There were 635 episodes filmed in all. Yet I probably have only personally seen about 35 of those! Still, every once in a while I check it out, especially if there is a guest star I'm interested in seeing. Such was the case when I recently tuned in to an installment from January, 1969.

The episode begins with a stagecoach furiously tearing across a bumpy road. This being a western drama, the chances of it arriving at its intended destination are rather slim.

Inside is a sole passenger, Miss Kitty Russell (as played for 19 seasons by Amanda Blake.) She's returning from an extensive shopping spree and the coach is filled with various hats and cases of other items of hers. By this point, Ms. Blake was seriously on the verge of entering Baby Jane Hudson territory with the makeup...

I'm not joking...

The stagecoach is flagged down by a horseless rancher who needs a lift. With saloon owner Blake inside and the surprise passenger carrying a rifle and a saddle, I thought we might be in for a retread of the plot from John Wayne's Stagecoach (1939.)

I'm not joking. Ha ha!

Blake, managing to get both her head and her hat out the window, wants to see why the trip has come to a sudden halt.

We find that the man who's halted the coach is John Ericson. We have always liked Ericson and did a long ago tribute to him here.

Blake is less than trilled at having to move her stuff around to make room for an unexpected passenger, but gives up a spot for him on the opposite side. That's really the least of her troubles, though.

Soon enough, the stagecoach is held up by a pair of robbers and before it is all over, Ericson has been shot in the torso and everyone else besides Blake and him is dead!

In a truly hooty sequence, Blake takes the reins of the four horses and ferociously heads on down the road, grimacing and growling all the while. This brought to mind her 1954 role as a nomadic, sword-wielding, tribal leader in The Adventures of Hajji Baba!

I'm. Not. Joking.

Anyway, I keep getting off topic with my various shenanigans. Blake, after having to confront some gray-toothed, mining squatters, then picking up a little girl playing near the road, finally manages to get her injured pal home. It's at this point that a potential "Guest Who" post instantly morphed into a "Deja View" one...

As she approaches the mansion where Ericson lives, it's abundantly clear that the house...

...is the very same one used for four seasons of Underworld favorite The Big Valley! The Barkley mansion of The Big Valley was very rarely photographed from the angle shown above, but I did find this example.

A more familiar angle is seen here. Though this facade looks very much like Tara from Gone with the Wind (1939), it is really not the same set. The real Tara set had been dismantled and shipped to Georgia in 1959. What remains of it can be seen at The Margaret Mitchell House and Museum. The Barkley's house was built in 1947 for The Fighting Kentuckian, albeit based on Tara, and was reused many times thereafter.

I'm not joking. (Sick of me yet? I thought so.)

Ericson's mother is portrayed by veteran character actress Virginia Gregg. This iron-fisted gal is even tougher in some ways than Barkley matriarch Barbara Stanwyck.

Stanwyck could take a kick, a punch and be dragged by horses, but she was kind, fair and possessed strong moral fiber.

Gregg could crack a half-smile, but was demanding, controlling and if, the mood struck her, could turn destructive and even deadly.

Back to the subject at hand, the entrance to Gregg and Ericson's home is the very same one as The Barkley's.

Early episodes of The Big Valley were minus the door knocker that appeared later.

Inside the home, Gregg enlists Blake's aid in seeing to Ericson's bullet wound.

This paneled room is familiar to fans of Valley. Here we spy Linda Evans and Stanwyck looking over a badly injured Peter Breck.

One of the perks of Blake's assignment in this ep was getting to paw all over the writhing Ericson as mama extracts the bullet from his midsection.

As he recovers, we can see that the Barkley's draped doorway has been augmented with actual doors.

...but it's definitely the same room.

That's hardly all, though. We then see that Gregg's home is nearly exactly the same as Stanwyck's, with only a few minor changes!

I'm not joking!

As seen during this pan across the landing and staircase, they even have the same painting on the wall!

It wouldn't be so odd except that The Big Valley was still an actively running show in January of 1969! It wasn't canceled until after that fourth season was over.

Thus one might tune in one night to see Victoria Barkley coming down the stairs of her home and then a few nights later tune into Gunsmoke...

...and find Miss Kitty and others standing at the bottom of the very same stairs! It would be like watching one of the hit shows today and finding their exact set used in a competing show with an altogether different cast. It goes beyond "Bitch stole my look" to "Bitch stole my house!" LOL

I don't really know why the carpet seems to vary in color from example to example. Anything from changes in lighting to degraded video being aired. But it's the very same.

Ericson's daughter is played by Lisa Gerritsen (who would later portray Cloris Leachman's daughter Bess on Phyllis.) Her bedroom is situated on the upper landing near the stairs.

The Barkley boys passed by here often during Valley's run.

Ericson thoughtfully gazes out one of the open French doors.

Many a Barkley problem was ruminated over in these doorways.

This is actually out further on the porch, but I couldn't resist sharing this mother-daughter moment.

One peculiarity of this Gunsmoke episode is that Blake has, literally, a wagonload of new clothes in that stagecoach, but wears the same outfit all the while she's staying at Ericson's. She'd ridden for 8 hours in it, horsewhipped her way to their house and still puts it on the next day! But look at the tat-work on her breast. That's an eye-opening spot for such decoration.

See what I mean, Vern?? But also, while we're at breakfast, take note of the chafing dishes.

They're the Barkley's, too!! Did Victoria rent her place out like an Air B&B?!

The dining room is precisely the same except for some of the furnishings and the chairs at the table.

One of the Barkley's sconces has been replaced by a framed painting in Gregg's house, but much of the rest is the same.

Stanwyck was always at the head of the table, with Jerrod at the opposite end, but the others tended to switch seats depending on the episode's dialogue. Here we see Nick having a meal.

But this time Blake is in that spot.

Do get a load of this makeup. I mean, she's not working at The Long Branch this morning... It's breakfast fer cryin' out loud! Ha ha! I'm surprised she could open her eyes with these lashes on.

Another view of the dining room.

The Barkley's china, linens and so forth are more understated and less garish in color than the items used for Gunsmoke.

The Big Valley has been a Top 5 favorite show of mine for practically all my life. I adored Stanwyck and thought no one on earth was more Barbie Doll beautiful than Evans.

Then there were the occasional perks of hunky Lee Majors doing chores around the ranch, shirtless.

Gunsmoke never quite caught my attention in the same way, but - like I said - I caught this one mainly to see Ericson. (Ericson had actually played Stanwyck's little brother in the 1957 western Forty Guns.) Five years after this, he appeared in a semi-nude Playgirl spread in an attempt to shift his image, though he later regretted it as a bit foolish. (The pics had him frolicking naked with a variety of wild animals!) 

Before I bid you adieu, there is one more tenuous connection between Gunsmoke and The Big Valley that I wanted to alert you to. You remember that Amanda Blake movie I noted earlier, The Adventures of Hadjji Baba? Well Hadjji was played by John Derek, who was the husband of Linda Evans while she was on Valley. (He was forever trying to get her to break her contract and quit.) The movie opens with Derek giving a shirtless Claude Akins (of all people!) an oily, vigorous rub-down.

 

See? I wasn't joking...!!!  Ha ha! Til next time.