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Most people credit The Poseidon Adventure with having started the disaster movie genre of the 70's. It actually was the release of the film Airport two years earlier that gave life to the idea of throwing an all star cast together then cooking up some disastrous event for the lives of their characters to become intertwined. Having learned a thing or two, Producer and Director Irwin Allen decided to move the disaster more towards the beginning of the film and have his all star cast work from there.Allen lined up several Academy Award winners because it doesn't hurt to be able to put "starring Academy award winner" next to your cast members on the theater marquee or in the newspaper ads. For Poseidon, he lined up Academy Award Winner Gene Hackman as Reverend Frank Scott (The French Connection), Academy Award Winner Shelley Winters as Belle Rosen (The Diary of Anne Frank, A Patch of Blue), Academy Award Winner Jack Albertson as Manny Rosen (The Subject was Roses), Academy Award Winner Red Buttons as James Martin (Sayonara), and Academy Award Winner Ernest Borgnine as Det. Lt. Mike Rogo (Marty.) But the fact that you've won one of those dust collectors has no bearing on whether you get to live or die. In disaster films, all bets are off.Along with all the award winners you have to fill up the passenger list with other actors and actresses who may be hanging around the studio in need of a job. Along for the ride are Carol Lynley as Nonny, Stella Stevens as Linda Rogo, Roddy McDowell as Acres, Pamela Sue Martin as Susan Shelby and Eric Shea as her over bearing and obnoxious little brother Robin. Most disaster films always have the obnoxious kid lurking about somewhere. I think the writers feel it's necessary to punish the audience since the cast has to go through hell also.A good deal of the first half hour of Poseidon Adventure is spent letting us get familiar with the characters and how they ended on this ship so that when they become nothing more than shark fodder, you'll be able to feel more emotionally involved.Reverend Scott is being booted overseas for having some strange ideas about God and preaching. He goes around shouting pithy phrases such as "It's to let God know that you have the guts and the will to do it alone. Resolve to fight for yourselves, and for others, for those you love" In other words, if you can't help yourself you're out of luck babe because the man upstairs isn't answering the phone.As for the Mike Rogo, he bellyaches, yells, screams, and complains a lot. Linda screams back at him twice as much. As it turns out, Linda was a former prostitute that Mike had to arrest over and over again to get her to marry him. It's as good an explanation as there could possibly be because there is nothing else on earth that would have brought together this match made in hell.The Rosen's are headed over to Israel to see their daughter and their grandson whom they've never met. They like to hand out dating advice to the lovelorn with the lovelorn in this case being lonely haberdasher, Martin, who has spent just about every day of his life as a haberdasher. Frankly, I think the Rogo's needed their help more.Susan and annoying kid brother Robin are headed overseas sans parents. Once you meet Robin, you'll understand why the parents left town and you'll have the utmost sympathy for poor Susan. As for Nonny, she is traveling with her brother as part of his band and being their lead singer. And, she also has the privilege to sing or possibly lip sync the academy award winning song The Morning After. As for her brother, his picture does not appear on the movie poster. That's known as a very bad sign.Akers is just part of the crew. However, the fact that we never get to know him on a first name basis, added to the fact that Akers has a bum league tells you he's only a hair of a notch better off than poor Leslie Nielsen.The upside down sets of the ship are well done for the most part, although at some stages it does appear as if they could just as easily be in an upside down warehouse. When the ship capsizes, we mainly see what happens in the ball room as bodies roll around and end up mostly dead but it's well done for a film over thirty years old. It was a lot more impressive in 1972 then it will probably be for today's CGI jaded film goers but it's all good.There's also some fun stuff that goes on in Poseidon. You just know that any film that has Shelley Winters being shoved up a Christmas Tree while wearing a formal, then later has her diving like Greg Louganis and swimming like Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan is worth viewing. Then there's Susan, who has the foresight to wear a hot pants outfit under her outfit, you know just in case she happens to be in a capsized ship. There never was a better lesson in upside down survival.The thing about Poseidon Adventure is that you'll have fun watching it in spite of some of the silly stuff going on. Everybody on board plays their roles to the hilt and do a good job. As long as you know it's all just for fun, you should get a big kick out of it if you've never seen it. Even after all of these years, I still do and if I can do that I have no choice but to give The Poseidon Adventure my grade of B. Heck, if the obnoxious kid hadn't been on board, I might even have seen my way through to giving it a B+.
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