The ship was still sinking seven years later in 1979's Beyond the Poseidon Adventure. With a 0% Rotten Tomato score, it's one of the most disliked movies I've ever seen. Yet failure of this magnitude is somehow impressive.
It has an impressive cast including Michael Caine, Sally Field, Peter Boyle, Telly Savalas, Karl Malden, and Slim Pickens. Caine and Malden play Mike and Wilbur, respectively, two scavengers who come across the still sinking Poseidon after the cast of the first film has already been evacuated. They're joined by Sally Field, who's a stowaway on Mike's little boat.
They have competition from Telly Savalas and his crew. They greet each other politely enough but Savalas remarks he and his men are already prepared to enter the wreck--Savalas says this in a pure white double breasted suit which, of course, is perfectly practical for boarding the capsized and partly flooded cruise ship.
Mike and Wilbur aren't much better, wearing just button downed shirts and slacks. Despite all the talk from Mike claiming all the treasure he can grab as his legal right, he doesn't bring so much as a satchel to carry it in. When they do find the goods, Mike just slings a pathetic little bag over his shoulder.
All the interior sets are perfectly level and evenly lit. Challenges include Slim Pickens wanting to take all the wine, a blind man and his wife who're still holed up in quarters, and a double cross from Telly Savalas. It all feels like a peculiarly expensive TV movie.
I guess what I learned from this movie is there's never a wrong time to dress up; even the most ruthless of scavengers may prefer to be unencumbered by material wealth; no ship is ever in so much danger an ensemble cast can't stand around inside it, arguing about salvage rights; and to some people, wine is dearer than life itself. Thanks, Irwin Allen.
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