Flood!

Let's face it, we're all probably more than a little guilty at watching 'disaster movies' to see the scale of whatever carnage is being inflicted on our helpless protagonists. I don't want to spoil 'Flood!' but in this case a small town is being threatened by a plague of locusts from the future. Only kidding. It's a flood. Or rather a big dam just by their town and if it breaks - and it's already starting to crack - it'll flood the town and home insurance is going to go through the roof when it comes to the residents' next premium.

So we're introduced to the two men who have an idea as to what might happen and they try to warn the rest of the town. Or at least they try to warn the town's leader, who - in tried and tested stubborn style - refuses to believe them because if they drain the water from the dam it will impact on the revenue that fishing brings into their local economy.

So our heroes persist in their efforts to warn more people (in between popping home to their respective women who look about twenty years their junior, but that's another story). And then they go to a different location and warn a different person. In fact, most of the film is set in - very dry - houses with people talking to people about what might happen, i.e. The flood.

It's only the last twenty minutes or so where you see the actual flood. Now, maybe this pay-off is so awesome and ground-breaking that it makes the build up worth the wait? Sadly, this is a TV movie and there wasn't much of a budget for big practical effects, let alone an alien invasion with a skybeam.

So you have a film which is quite long and desperately wants to be an epic in its genre, but the lack of anything that really happens just makes most of it drag. Pity really, as it does have its charms and with a little more money behind it for the effects in the final act and a little less scenes building up, this could have been quite good.

You ever watch a movie where the protagonist, even if he's in the right, is just so pushy and unlikable that you root against him? That's how it is with me and this TV disaster movie from producer Irwin Allen. The hero here is played by Martin Milner. He spends the entire first hour of the movie yelling at everyone, including women and senior citizens, one of whom he manhandles. He's so intense in every scene. It's like he's looking for a fight, even when he's talking to his buddy or his (much younger) girlfriend. He really got on my nerves. Then the flood comes and yay he was right - I guess - but I just kept hoping the flood would get him. Really obnoxious character. I found the selfish mayor putting people's lives in danger more sympathetic than this guy. Imagine watching Jaws and you root for the shark because Brody is such a dick.

Anyway, once the flood starts the movie becomes more entertaining, although even that is limited by TV budget restrictions. The rest of the cast is solid, with Robert Culp my favorite. There's a subplot involving a bandana of his that I found more interesting than every single thing involving Milner's character.

Disaster movie mega-god, Irwin Allen takes his formula to the small screen with FLOOD! In it, a town is threatened by the wall of water of the title, due to a crumbling dam. Robert Culp plays helicopter pilot, Steve Brannigan, who first notices the problem.

Not-so shockingly, when Brannigan brings this to the attention of the powers that be, it's dismissed out of hand. Naturally, big money plays a key role in their disinterest.

In typical Allen fashion, the tension builds slowly, while the various characters bicker, and the dam continues to decay. This takes quite some time to really get going, making much of the 90 minute running time feel like sitting on a hot stove!

In reality, disaster films are monster movies, with fires, tidal waves, floods, and other calamities taking the place of the marauding behemoth. This isn't a terrible example of this. It just takes an eternity to get this monster going!

There is the expected all-star cast, including Roddy McDowall, Cameron Mitchell, Carol Lynley as an unnaturally huge pregnant woman, and Barbara Hershey as the world's hottest nurse. Also, watch for Leif Garrett, just before his teen heart-throb days...

I did not know at all this disaster film made for TV industry, and produced by the master of disaster films, I mean Irwin Allen. Forget the plot, only concentrate on the flood sequences instead, forget the dialogues and concentrate on the message that this story is supposed to bring. Especially now, in 2025, with the climatic disruption problems all over the world. So this old fashioned disaster flick is on the contrary very current. Besides this, all the ingredients of disaster - or monster - films are here. Warnings from the "good guys " and ignored by the greedy "villlains" politicians....

Irwin Allen disaster movie about a flood.

Wonderful Richard LaSalle (Land Of The Giants) music scores the great location footage of the town and the endless helicopter footage. That is what Irwin Allen calls film showmanship. Irwin always gets the correct music for what is on the screen. Many producers do not.

In the first half of this movie Robert Culp (Outer Limits) and Martin Milner (Swiss Family Robinson) do wonders as they move around the town warning of disaster to come. Both actors perform very well. Richard Basehart is all wrong for this role of the man with something bad to hide, what was Irwin thinking by casting Basehart in this role? Poor old Whit Bissell is looking v-e-r-y old in 1976.

When the flood happens in the second half of the film, this is the problem area. We, the viewer, do not feel like we are watching a real flood. In 1977, Irwin Allen made another TV movie like this called "Fire", in that, the fire seemed real. In yet another 1979 Irwin TV movie "Cave-In", we had the Flood problem of a TV budget not being good enough for a disaster movie.

See Flood, just to get another taste of Irwin Allen showmanship, but don't expect too much.