Steel (1979)

The construction of a steel skyscraper becomes a race against time and challenges the sanity of a building foreman and his crew.

Director:

Steve Carver

Writers:

Leigh Chapman, Peter S. Davis (story)

Stars:

Lee Majors, Jennifer O'Neill, Art Carney

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Lee Majors	...	Mike Catton
Jennifer O'Neill	...	Cass Cassidy
Art Carney	...	Pignose Moran
Harris Yulin	...	Eddie Cassidy
George Kennedy	...	Big Lew Cassidy
Redmond Gleeson	...	Harry
Terry Kiser	...	Valentino
Richard Lynch	...	Dancer
Ben Marley	...	The Kid
Roger E. Mosley	...	Lionel
Albert Salmi	...	Tank
Robert Tessier	...	Cherokee
Hunter von Leer	...	Surfer
R.G. Armstrong	...	Kellin
Joe De Nicola	...	Tom

Storyline

Mike Catton was once a world-renowned construction foreman (at least in the construction world), but an accident left him with a serious fear of heights. Unable to climb the big skyscrapers while under construction, he retired and became a truck driver. But when an old friend needs him to help put up a building, and when the old friend gets harassed and threatened by an Evil Corporate Type, he comes out of retirement and assembles the creme de la creme of the construction world. Together, they race against time to finish the building while the Evil Corporate Type tries to stop them.

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Plot Keywords:

construction | building | race against time | truck driver | truck | 

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Taglines:

They Reached For An Impossible Dream... And Built A Miracle.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Drama

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Certificate:

PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

There was a scene that did not make into the movie that was filmed on South Broadway in-between Boots Hotel and a restaurant involving an intoxicated man with a bottle of Maker's Mark with a brown bag covering the bottle and he walks towards Lee Majors asking him for money while Majors is driving a white car.

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Quotes

Mike Catton: Isn't there a law against these guys all being in the same state?

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Connections

Referenced in In Praise of Action (2018)

User Reviews

Engaging little "B"

Lee Majors made several pictures during his stardom period of "The Six Million Dollar Man." Most weren't particularly good ("The Norseman" was the absolute pits), but this is a neat little surprise. It's along the same lines as "The Magnificent Seven" in that it brings together a disparate group of professionals in order to achieve a seemingly impossible goal--in this case they're a construction crew that has to finish off the top nine stories of a building in the short span of three weeks. The tone is a bit lighter than usual for this kind of film, with some welcome humorous touches, notably the antics of Terry Kiser and Albert Salmi as a libidinous steelworker and a prankish crane operator, respectively. Majors was never an actor with much range, but here he's actually quite good as the crew leader and plays well off the other actors. The movie has a roster of first-rate character actors whose presence raises its interest level several notches. It's also one of the few films where veteran heavy Richard Lynch gets to play against type as a good guy (albeit a tough one), and he's quite effective at it. Jennifer O'Neill is still as beautiful as ever and still can't act to save her life, but she doesn't drag the picture down as she did, for example, in the John Wayne western "Rio Lobo", in which she was so astoundingly inept it was actually embarrassing to watch her; she's better than that here. Director Steve Carver paid his dues with Roger Corman, and while he never attained the levels of success as fellow Corman alumni Martin Scorsese or Jonathan Demme, he was usually a more than competent filmmaker, and he's done a good job of putting this one together. It's well paced, with a few twists and turns, and the cast seems to be having a good time. You could do worse than rent this on a night when you have nothing much to do.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 July 1979 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

Steel

Filming Locations:

Interstate 75 Kentucky river overpass, Clay's Ferry, Kentucky, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Davis/Panzer Productions, Fawcett-Majors Productions, Steel Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1