Beyond The Poseidon Adventure (1979)

The skipper (Michael Caine) of a salvage tugboat discovers the capsized S.S. Poseidon the morning after it was overturned by a tidal wave. When he reaches the ship, he discovers a medical ship with a crew lead by a doctor (Telly Savalas) who claims they are looking for survivors. But his intentions are much more nefarious. Based on the novel by Paul Gallico (author of the original THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE) and directed by Irwin Allen (THE SWARM). After the massive success of POSEIDON and TOWERING INFERNO which Allen produced but were directed by other people (Ronald Neame on POSEIDON and John Guillermin on INFERNO), for some reason Allen decided he wanted to direct his films too. The result was the disastrous THE SWARM (1978) which he followed with this film. While not as bad as THE SWARM, this one is pretty dreadful too. In THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, we got to know the characters and care about their fate. Here, the characters are ciphers spouting the most vapid dialog. The film is crammed with talented actors (6 Oscars among them) but they all pretty much give the worst performances of their careers. I've never seen Sally Field (2 Oscars) as bad as this and Michael Caine (2 Oscars) barks all his lines in a monotonous cadence. To be fair, they're all hampered with an impossibly ludicrous script. With Karl Malden (1 Oscar), Shirley Jones (1 Oscar), Jack Warden, Shirley Knight, Mark Harmon, Angela Cartwright, Veronica Hamel, Slim Pickens and Paul Picerni.