Flood!

Irwin Allen did great on The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, Beyond The Poseidon Adventure, and The Swarm but this one was not one of his best. The special effects could have been much better. The acting was alright. I would recommend this movie to people who like disaster movies. Or people who have nothing else to do for the next 98 minutes

The first project for Warner Bros. For "Master of Disaster" Irwin Allen, this TV movie stars Martin Milner ('Adam-12') as Paul Burke, who just KNOWS that leaks in the local dam mean BIG trouble. Their local lake is already overflowing with rain water. Naturally, when town mayor John Cutler (Richard Basehart, "Moby Dick") keeps mum about engineering problems with the dam, it ends up bursting and flooding their whole town. Burke has no time to say "I told you so" what with all the chaos that erupts.

There isn't much room here for large-scale death & destruction given that Allen probably didn't have a big budget for special effects. The story itself, written by Don Ingalls ('Honey West', 'Fantasy Island') is as routine as you can expect, and awash in cliches: too many of the characters remain Stubborn Dummies (with Cutler being the worst offender; he's a profit-minded politician who thinks that Burke is just being an alarmist) until everything happens that Burke said would happen. Still, there are people like hard-working Sam Adams (Cameron Mitchell, 'The High Chaparral') who never give up trying to solve the problem.

Directed in strictly workmanlike fashion by Earl Bellamy ("Part 2: Walking Tall"), 'Flood' is nevertheless reasonably entertaining, although it does naturally get more involving once the disaster is underway.

The cast of familiar faces gives it all the gravitas that they can muster: Robert Culp ('I Spy'), Barbara Hershey ("Black Swan"), Teresa Wright ("Shadow of a Doubt"), Francine York ("The Doll Squad"), Whit Bissell ("Creature from the Black Lagoon"), Leif Garrett ("The Outsiders"), Ann Doran ("Rebel without a Cause"), James Griffith ("The Killing"), and Gloria Stuart ("Titanic" '97). Also among the guest stars are Carol Lynley and Roddy McDowall (Roddy is given practically nothing to do), from Allens' "The Poseidon Adventure".

'Flood' is far from the best or the worst of its kind; at its best it's basically a decent example of this genre. But it should entertain you if you dig disaster flicks.

Five out of 10.

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...

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.