It hardly seems like it’s been 35 years since Irwin Allen’s The Towering Inferno was released. The sparkling look of the film on Blu-ray makes it look like it finished filming yesterday. Only the aged visages of some of the actors in the accompanying documentaries draw attention to the passage of time, and all nine of those documentaries were made for previous DVD releases, the latest three years ago.

The Towering Inferno is an important film in many ways, not the least of which is that it was one of the last films made by the flamboyant Allen, the writer-producer-director best known for his disaster films. Better known as a producer than a director, his directorial work on the The Towering Inferno was relegated to the action sequences. John Guillerman directed the non-action sequences from two competing novels, “The Glass Inferno” optioned by Warner Bros. and “The Tower” optioned by 20th Century-Fox. The two studios split the cost and Fox got the U.S. distribution rights, Warner Bros. the international distribution rights.

It was also important in its casting. Though Allen was no stranger to all-star cast movies, none had ever had as a big a cast as this one. Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, William Holden, Fred Astaire and Jennifer Jones were all legends and Faye Dunaway was fast becoming one. Richard Chamberlain, O.J. Simpson, Robert Vaughn and Robert Wagner were hardly unknowns either.

The film briefly fell out of popularity in the wake of 9/11, but like Die Hard and other films of terror, both natural and man-made, set in high rises, has regained its hold on the imagination of audiences worldwide.

Allen first came to attention when he won an Oscar for the 1953 documentary The Sea Around Us. His first live action film was the 1957 critical and commercial flop The Story of Mankind, an overly ambitious film with a bizarre cast headed by Ronald Colman as the Spirit of Man, Vincent Price as the Devil, Hedy Lamarr as Joan of Arc, Virginia Mayo as Cleopatra, Marie Wilson as Marie Antoinette, Groucho Marx as Peter Minuet, Harpo Marx as Isaac Newton, Peter Lorre as Nero, Charles Coburn as Hippocrates, Agnes Moorehead as Elizabeth I, Dennis Hopper as Napoleon and so on.

He fared better both artistically and commercially with 1959’s The Big Circus (Victor Mature, Vincent Price, Rhonda Fleming, Red Buttons, Kathryn Grant, Gilbert Roland) and 1960’s The Lost World (Michael Rennie, Claude Rains, Jill St. John, Fernando Lamas, Richard Haydn). 1961’s Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (Walter Pidgeon, Joan Fontaine, Barbara Eden, Peter Lorre, Frankie Avalon) was a commercial hit but a critical failure.

After the failure of 1962’s Five Weeks in a Balloon (Red Buttons, Fabian, Barbara Eden, Peter Lorre, Cedric Hardwicke), Allen turned to TV where he produced several successful series. He returned to the big screen in triumph with 1972’s The Poseidon Adventure (Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Carol Lynley, Shelley Winters, Jack Albertson, Red Buttons, Roddy McDowall) which was nominated for eight Oscars, winning one and a Special Achievement Oscar for its visual effects.

The Towering Inferno, however was his supreme achievement. It was nominated for eight Oscars including the big one, Best Picture, and won three.

His next theatrical film was the critically lambasted 1978 bee movie The Swarm, which was the career nadir of several of its stars including Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, Lee Grant, Patty Duke, Henry Fonda and Fred MacMurray. Then came 1979’s even more poorly received Beyond the Poseidon Adventure wasting the talents of the likes of Michael Caine, Sally Field, Jack Warden, Shirley Knight, Shirley Jones and Karl Malden.

The title of Allen’s last theatrical film was When Time Ran Out, an appropriate name for the 1980 film that ended his ability to receive backing for any further projects. The stars marking time in this one included Paul Newman, William Holden, Jacqueline Bisset, Edward Albert, Red Buttons, Ernest Borgnine and Burgess Meredith, all of them looking painfully like they wanted to be someplace other than the beautiful South Pacific island resort that was about to blow up.

Irwin Allen died in 1991 at 75.

The Oscar winning documentary Man on Wire looks at the life of Philippe Petit, who at 23 traversed the twin towers of the World Trade Center on a high wire. His illegal 1973 walk 1,350 feet above the streets of Manhattan is often cited as the artistic crime of the last Century. The film documents his plans, starting with reading about the building of the towers several years earlier and his practice runs across the towers of Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris and the towers of the bridge over Australia’s Sidney Harbour. As extraordinary as his accomplishments were, one wonders if the Oscar and all the other awards the film has won, were for the man and/or nostalgia for the twin towers. The film itself, though fascinating, doesn’t seem all that special.

Man on Wire is available on standard DVD only.

A moody period piece set in World War II London and post-war Wales, John Maybury’s The Edge of Love features strong performances by Matthew Rhys as Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, Sienna Miller as his wife, Keira Knighley as his one-time lover and Cillian Murphy as Knightley’s soldier lover, later husband. To say more would give away the twists and turns of the plot. Suffice it to say it’s much in the vein of Maybury’s first film of a decade ago, Love Is the Devil about the painter Francis Bacon. Knightley, in particular, is excellent.

The Edge of Love is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

It’s been well over two years since Universal released 1942’s Arabian Nights, the first Jon Hall-Maria Montez adventure yarn filmed in dazzling Technicolor. Made to capitalize on the success of the breathtaking 1940 film The Thief of Bagdad, the film was far less elaborate but did feature that film’s Sabu along with Hall and Montez. Extremely popular at the wartime box office, the film went on to win four Oscar nominations. The trio of Hall, Montez and Sabu made two more films together and Hall and Montez made another three without Sabu.

Now Universal has released 1944’s Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, an equally elaborate and dazzling adventure film with third-billed Turhan Bey who played a minor role in the original Arabian Nights tale receiving third-billing behind Hall and Montez or Montez and Hall as they were now billed.

Arabian Nights and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves are available on standard DVD only.

Thirty-four years after the documentary film Grey Gardens, which wowed audiences with its startling look at Jackie O.’s eccentric aunt and cousin. HBO’s TV movie version, also called Grey Gardens, uncannily presents Jesssica Lange and Drew Barrymore as Big Edie and Little Edie, respectively. Barrymore, in particular, astounds with her pitch perfect inflections as Little Edie. Both the documentary and TV movie should be seen in tandem.

Both versions of Grey Gardensare available on standard DVD only.

HBO is also responsible for the recent Taking Chance, another TV movie based on fact, albeit one that tells of more recent events. Based on the journals of Army Lt. Col. Mike Strobl, the film tells of his experiences in escorting home the body of 19-year-old Marine Chance Phelps to Dubois, Wyoming for burial at a time when the Bush administration did not allow the showing of flag-draped military caskets being transported on television. Kevin Bacon’s dignified, somber portrayal of Strobl is arguably the finest of his career. You’ll need plenty of Kleenex to get through this one.

Taking Chance is available on standard DVD only.

A well regarded concept album when first released in 1984, but an artistic and commercial failure when mounted in London’s West End and later in an altered version on Broadway, the musical Chess has found a new audience thanks to the concert version first broadcast on PBS.

The DVD of Chess in Concert nicely captures that performance which starred Josh Groban as the volatile Russian chess master, Adam Pascal as his cocky American opponent and Idina Menzel as the woman who loves them both at different times. Memorable hit songs from the ‘80s include “One Night in Bangkok” and “I Know Him so Well”.

Chess in Concert is available on standard DVD only.

Also from TV, the second season of the critically acclaimed Mad Men has been released.

Mad Men is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

-Peter J. Patrick (July 14, 2009)