WIFE VERSUS SECRETARY (1936)

Big time publisher Clark Gable is happily married to Myrna Loy.  She doesn't have a job or really appear to do anything, so when her "friends" start filling her ear about Gable's sexy secretary, Jean Harlow, she at first dismisses the rumors but then when Gable spends a lot of time working on a business deal (phuff!  "business deal.  business deal?!" whoever heard of a guy running a giant corporation spending time on a "business deal"?  Hardy-har-har!) she doesn't ask any questions and immediately moves out then files for a divorce.  At the same time Harlow's boyfriend, James Stewart, gets all butthurt over Harlow working long hours.

I wrongly thought this was suppose to be a screwball comedy, but instead it's a badly written story about an idle wife causing her husband a bunch of needless headaches.  I love Loy to death, but I didn't care for her character here at all.  If Clark's secretary had been a snaggle-toothed sea donkey she would've been just fine with it, but instead since Harlow is hot she just jumps to conclusions and wrecks havoc with people's lives.  That's not funny or entertaining at all.

Amazing cast that deserves much, much better than this dead on arrival script.  Not really worth watching, but with such an amazing cast I don't see how you can resist.  If you need me I'll be in my room watching THE AWFUL TRUTH.

THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974)

THE TOWERING INFERNO never got quite as epic as the posters promised, but it is a fun ride and the 165-minute run time flies by.

Paul Newman is the architect for a new 138 floor skyscraper in San Francisco.  The building is his baby, he knows it inside and out, but then right before the big grand opening with a party in the Promenade Room on the top floor, he discovers that some of the electrical wiring he demanded was replaced with shoddy second-rate stuff that can't withstand the awesome load of such an awesome building!  Oh shit.  Naturally, a fire breaks out on the 81st floor.  This traps the partiers on the 135 floor, so now at the 43-minute mark enters badass fire chief Steve McQueen to do what bad ass fire chiefs do: fight fires, talk sternly, save lives left and right, tie himself to a pole, stare down an elevator shaft, ride on a wire underneath a helicopter, talk to O.J. Simpson without suffering a 14 cm-long (5.5 inches) gash across their throat, set off massive explosions with C4, get drenched in water, pat people on the shoulder and repeatedly bitch at Paul Newman for building skyscrapers too damn tall!  When will you ever learn?!!

Out of all the 1970's disaster movies I've seen, THE TOWERING INFERNO is probably the most exciting.  And the one I revisit the most.  Quick pace, good special effects, above average acting, the term "breeches buoy" used a lot, McQueen barking orders all over the place, control panels full of lights, McQueen and Newman with the exact same amount of lines, C4, awesome supporting cast.

Required viewing for fans of vintage disaster movies. I'd absolutely love to see a serious reboot of this story. Even an animated version that tries to match that badass poster artwork would be awesome!