POSEIDON ADVENTURE & Leslie Nielsen

[John Clifford]

Jim Kalafus, I hope you will join me, in remembering the many classic lines that the late Leslie Nielsen uttered, in THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE.

A great one was "Where the devil did you come from!!", after Eric Shea's storm scene entry on to the Bridge.

After that were the ones:
"You picked a fine time to accept my invitation"!!
and
"Master Shelby, we'll continue our tour at another time!", i.e. "I need to get the kid out of here!!".

Jim, I invite you to note the other memorable lines.

 

[Jim Kalafus]

"When I say string all lifelines, that includes C Deck. Now, see to it"

I liked the Ed Wood like juxtaposition of C and "see"

I also like his deadpan response to Linda Rogo's "So, that's the cat this ship is named after?" conversational gambit, which was brilliantly paired with a master visual ~ when his red alert phone silently sounds, Irwin Allen framed the hot so that all of Stella Stevens that was visible were her massive breasts, pointing directly at the flashing red light just in case any audience members might have missed them.

His voiced dripped with sensitivity...not touchy feely Alan Alda sensitivity, but understandable masculine sensitivity... as he told Linarcos "The Poseidon is too fine a lady to be rushed to the scrap heap. And, moments later when he was overruled on the ballast issue, his "You irresponsible dratsab" was truly a resonant cry from the year.

Captain Harrison's most Frank Drebin moment, however, was the "By the way, Happy New Year" non-sequitur which came as he and the First Officer watched trouble piling up in the nearbye shallows.