elisabethbeighton

Michael Winner was not the best director for an Agatha Christie blockbuster - and this is far from being a blockbuster. Despite a cast that includes Peter Ustinov, Lauren Bacall, John Gielgud, Hayley Mills and Piper Laurie, the film never comes alive and lIndeed these actors are wasted in the film. David Soul is miscast as a 1930s crooked lawyer and lacks any sense of chemistry with Carrie Fisher, though there is not much between her and Nicholas Guest playing her husband. Guest does look better if bland with his 1930s slicked back hair and slick suits.

Perhaps the twist comes with the actress Jenny Seagrove who was to be in a relationship with Winner, the director. Her love interest in the film could not be more different in image from Winner. The handsome young John Terlesky poses romantically in white dinner jacket, black tie tuxedo, cream double breasted suit, blazer, sportswear, shorts and v-necked t-shirt. Unfortunately, his costume and grooming are more memorable than his performance. Seagrove does get the heartthrob, compensation perhaps for getting the director in real life.

Nice exotic locations, nice dresses, nice suits, period detail, handsome young men, beautiful young women but ... The jaunty music and opening/closing credits set the tone for this shallow product which lacks atmosphere. There is no sense of menace or jeopardy. By the end it has all been a jolly romp for all concerned.

One of the defining images of The Poseidon Adventure is of a young man in a tuxedo plunging from the table to which he is clinging down to his death on an ornate light fitting after the ship capsizes. We see him lose his grip before falling with hands outstretched. We share his sheer terror and horror as he drops. Bow tie impeccably intact and hair unruffled but with dirty shirt and debris on his tuxedo, he is almost a martyr laid out in a coffin imploring mercy.. Around him there are similar scenes of men and women in evening dress falling to their dooms but his death is the memorable and iconic one. Yet the actor is uncredited.

Ernie Orsatti's character Terry actually has a minor role in the story and we do get to know him briefly which makes us feel for his violent end. Terry is the love interest of Susan, one of the main character played by Pamela Sue Martin, though he seems more in love with her than she is with him. Her interest is in Gene Hackman's morally suspect preacher.

With his wide lapels, snazzy tuxedo, frilly shirt and big ties, Terry is very much a fashionable and flamboyant young man of the 1970s - and a handsome one. His taste in eye-catching evening clothes is in contrast to that of the more casual preacher but Susan can not keep her eyes off the older man even when Terry is talking to her or asks her to dance with him. Terry also relates well to Susan's younger brother, but that does not advance his cause. Susan does not express any sorrow when Terry meets a violent death. Indeed she shows no further interest him or his fate. It is left to the audience to be affected by his spectacular death.