Trivia / The Poseidon Adventure

• Actor-Inspired Element: Carol Lynley supplied Nonnie's boots from her own wardrobe.
• Actor-Inspired Heroism: The original script called for Rev. Scott to send Mrs. Rosen on her underwater mission, and for her to be trapped and needing rescuing by him. Gene Hackman decided that his character would never ask her to do this, and suggested their characters' situations be reversed. Director Ronald Neame agreed, and they persuaded Shelley Winters that this was, indeed, better for her character.
• All-Star Cast: Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons, Carol Lynley, Roddy McDowall, Stella Stevens, Shelley Winters, Jack Albertson, Pamela Sue Martin, Arthur O'Connell, Leslie Nielsen...
• Artist Disillusionment: Gene Hackman apparently sees this film as this; he even treated Ben Stiller's admiration for this film with contempt on set of their film The Royal Tenenbaums.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Waddy Watchel, who plays the guitarist in Nonnie's band, was meant to be cast as her brother. But because the two actors had different coloured eyes, Stuart Perry (the drummer) became her brother instead.
• Channel Hop: The first film was released by 20th Century Fox, but Beyond the Poseidon Adventure moved to Warner Bros. during its development due to a three-picture deal Irwin Allen signed with them.
• Dawson Casting: In Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, 26-year-old Angela Cartwright plays a teenager, signified by her "innocent" 1950s-style wardrobe. Inverted with Peter Boyle (b.1935) as her father, playing a World War Two vet, despite being only ten when the war ended (it's worth noting the film takes place six years earlier than its release, lessening Boyle's age disparity).
• Dyeing for Your Art: Shelley Winters gained 35 pounds for the part of Belle Rosen. Afterward, she complained that she was never able to get back to her original weight, no matter how hard she tried. She also trained with an Olympic swimming coach so that Mrs. Rosen would come across as a natural in the water.
• Fake Scot: Roddy McDowall as Mr. Acres.
• Franchise Zombie: The huge success of the movie led to author Paul Gallico being commissioned to write a sequel, which he did start, only following the movie (as in the book the Poseidon sinks, making it unlikely that people could explore it like with a capsized but still afloat ship), and ending up a posthumous release as he died two years before the book came out.
• Hostility on the Set:
  • Red Buttons and Carol Lynley, whose characters fall in love in the movie, actually disliked each other intensely during filming. They refused to have anything to do with each other, except when the cameras were rolling. Ironically, after being constantly reminded of this, they ended up becoming great friends in later years.
  • Despite their game attempt at portraying happily married seniors, Jack Albertson once told a fan that he couldn't stand working with Shelley Winters: "The happiest moment making the movie for me was when she died."
• Irony as She Is Cast: Carol Lynley, who played terrified non-swimmer Nonnie Parry, was actually an avid swimmer in real life.
• Money, Dear Boy: According to Ben Stiller, he told Gene Hackman on the set of The Royal Tenenbaums how big a fan of the film he was, to which Hackman replied that it was strictly a "money job" and walked away with nothing but contempt for Stiller's admiration for the film.
• No Stunt Double:
  • Except for the most dangerous sequences, all of the stunts were done by the actors themselves. All the actors, at one point, complained to the production staff about how difficult the shoot was physically.
  • Gene Hackman fought to perform the stunt where Rev. Scott lets go of the valve wheel and drops into the flaming pool of water. In fact, Hackman pushed to do all of the stunts for his character himself. However, since he still had additional scenes to shoot after Scott's death scene, the filmmakers weren't willing to take the risk of their leading actor being injured in the stunt, and denied him the opportunity. They allowed him to perform the first part of the drop, seen from a distance, when Scott lets go of the valve wheel and drops out of frame, but the jump cut to Scott falling into the flaming water and disappearing was performed by a stuntman.
• Non-Singing Voice: The Award-Bait Song "The Morning After" is sung by Carol Lynley's character Nonnie, but Lynley's voice is dubbed over by singer Renee Armand.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: Esther Williams, in her autobiography, claims that she was offered the role of Belle Rosen because she had done many swimming roles in the past. This is open for debate, as Mrs. Rosen was specifically written to be a large woman. Of course given that at the time she was fluctuating up and down from her glory days weight, she probably felt appropriate.
• Prop Recycling: In the scene where Rev. Frank Scott is giving his sermon on the deck, Pamela Sue Martin is wearing a white and yellow poncho that was actually made for actress Rosemary Forsyth who wore it in City Beneath the Sea (1971), the Made-for-TV Movie that Irwin Allen produced the year before.
• Real-Life Relative: Irwin Allen's wife Sheila played the nurse.
• Recycled Set: The dining room set reuses part of the restaurant set from Hello, Dolly! and sets from Cleopatra.
• Referenced by...: Fascinating Horror's April Fool's 2023 video was about "The Sinking of the S.S. Poseidon".
  "Further, almost identical disasters took place in 2005 and 2006, onboard ships which were also named Poseidon."
• Throw It In!: While he and the others are lifting the giant Christmas tree, Rogo mutters, "Holy fuck, it's heavy." This was a genuine reaction from Ernest Borgnine and the line was kept.
• Underage Casting: Even though her character is presented as an elderly, retired woman, Shelley Winters was only 51 years old when the film was made. Ernest Borgnine was actually three years older than Winters, despite the fact that his character treats hers like a old woman.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Burt Lancaster turned down the role of Rev. Frank Scott because he didn't think it was right for him. George C. Scott also passed on it.
  • Gene Wilder was offered the role of James Martin, but had to turn it down due to a scheduling conflict (He was working on the movie "Rhinoceros" when Poseidon's filming began).
  • Sally Kellerman turned down the role of Linda Rogo.
  • Irwin Allen commissioned Paul Gallico to write a novelised sequel to the film before he died. The resulting Beyond the Poseidon Adventure was ignored for the eventual film. The book features Rogo and Manny returning to the Poseidon Manny to recover his wife's corpse. Martin tagging along to prove he is a man. Manny is brutally gunned down by thugs hired by the ship's owner. Rogo would be revealed to have been on board doing undercover work among other undercover officers posing as crew, guarding gold being transported to Greece. New characters would include Hungarian pirate captain Bela and some henchmen, a teenage girl named Coby and her father, an albino adventuress named Heloise, and a shipwrecked sailor named Jason who is rescued by Coby and her father and engages in Teeth-Clenched Teamwork with Rogo after they converge on the ship. Jason, as it turns out, was shipping guns on the Poseidon. Heloise is a grave robber, shunned by Jason when he discovers the truth. The two factions engage in a major firefight using Jason's weapons. In the climax, Heloise finds the ship is floating over an active undersea volcano and gives herself the bends and dies warning Jason to get off the ship. Rogo is seemingly killed by a stray bullet and Jason gives up the fight, asking to leave safely and take Rogo's corpse with them. Bela grants the request. They get to their own ship and leave, and the Poseidon, and Bela and his remaining men, are vaporized when the volcano erupts. It's revealed in the end that Rogo's death was faked, and he, Martin, Jason, and the others, part company. Rogo reveals he saved one gold bar and gives it to Jason so he can purchase a new boat for himself. And yes, there's a tiger that plays in the events, being shipped in the same location as the gold. The survivors also find and rescue the ship's nurse, who reveals Dr. Caravello and the rest of the survivors who went to the bow were drowned, and that Scott was right.
  • A rival attempt by Fox to create a sequel may have influenced Allen's decision to not include any original cast. Their idea was Atlantis: Poseidon II, set five years later, beginning with the Reverend Scott's vengeful sea captain brother leading a raiding party on the sunken, abandoned Poseidon. There, they find robot manta rays created by the Poseidon's owner Nikaros to guard the wreck. When one of the party is killed and the Poseidon all but vaporised by the exploding manta rays, Scott goes out on an all-out revenge quest to find what Nikaros is hiding. He tracks down Rogo, now living an unhappy simple life in Rome, mostly retired, but a Mafia informant on the side, and together they work out an uneasy alliance. We learn that James and Nonie are married and unwilling to help, and Manny Rosen raising his grandchildren in Tel Aviv, so the only other people around to help are Robin and Susan Shelby, now living in England with their mother and stepfather, and Robin a Royal Navy cadet. Together, they would uncover that Nikaros is planning to build a floating superhotel, the Atlantis, on the site of the Poseidon's wreck, a fault line that will lead to catastrophe once more, especially as a North Sea oil platform lies on the same line. A vengeful Ahab-ish Scott would try to bring down the Atlantis before it is opened, his plan bringing the unauthorised construction to the British, French and Italian authorities. Nikaros, resilient throughout thinks he's doing the right thing becomes engaged in his own battle to keep the Atlantis afloat, eventually holding rich and famous European aristocrats hostage there. More people start to gather for Nikaros' party, until it is too late, and the unfinished Atlantis collapses, Scott, Rogo, Robin and Susan leading a gargantuan Titanic/Dunkirk-type rescue attempt. It would have been more of a spy thriller, ending with a helicopter gunship attacking the in-construction Atlantis. The Spy Who Loved Me and Orca perhaps killed this incarnation.
  • Another proposed sequel idea, according to Word of God Gene Hackman during a Tonight Show interview, involved Scott's twin brother. When he was approached about the idea, Hackman stated he was confused as to how he would be in a sequel considering his character died at the end. He was told that the idea would have been to have the film pick up right after the rescue, with Hackman's character, Scott's twin brother, coming out of the cockpit and asking the survivors if his brother had made it. Hackman said his response was, "I think I'll pass on that."
  • Another pitched sequel idea, according to The Other Wiki, would have had the group from the original film traveling to testify at an inquest about the ship's sinking. They would have become trapped in a tunnel collapse and had to navigate their way out much like when they were trapped on the ship.
  • Composers in the running to score the movie included Jerry Goldsmith, Laurence Rosenthal and Jerry Fielding. Fielding would later score the sequel, Goldsmith would score a much worse movie for Irwin Allen. Rosenthal would arguably score the worst Disaster Movie of the lot.
• Write What You Know: Paul Gallico was aboard the Queen Mary when she was hit broadside by a rogue wave during a storm off the Scottish coast in 1942. The ship listed 52 degrees before righting herself; had the wave been even a little stronger, she would have capsized. From there, Gallico started thinking about characters in that particular situation...

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