Review of Terror on the 40th Floor

During the unsettled atmosphere of the late 1960s and the 1970s, films dealing with people victimized by natural and unnatural disasters were all the rage, and this tale of several couples trapped at the top of a tall burning building is an undistinguished example. An obvious attempt to capitalize upon the box-office success of THE TOWERING INFERNO, this effort, titled BLAZING TOWER before sagely being changed, is set in an unidentified New York City, on the opposite coast from the former production's San Francisco. Occurring upon Christmas Eve, the script follows obligatory romantic entanglements involving three pair of illy-matched employees during a company's annual holiday party, and with a much smaller budget than INFERNO, this work made for television displays lesser lights in its cast. Television film director Jerry Jameson routinely leads many of this type of calamity narrative, and mediocre describes this affair, although the skillful editing, largely by Jameson, effectively moves the action past points of tedium. While John Forsythe and Anjanette Comer are edging toward an adulterous romance, Don Meredith and Joseph Campanella are helping themselves to proffered charms from others of the secretarial class as the holocaust approaches. While actual New York City firemen struggle manfully with the encroaching blaze, flashbacks are utilized so that we may fully appreciate the risks, romantic and otherwise, milked by the threatened sextet. It is best to overlook some flawed tactical firefighting operations as presented in order to develop a sense of suspense as to the picture's outcome, but in any case the trite romantic machinations take precedence in the scenario. The cast performance is of a piece with its non-demanding script wherein lack the seeds to garner deep interest of performers, although Forsythe is as unruffled as ever.