Flood!

Among many other contemporary trends, hypes and sub-genres of the glorious 70s decade, yours truly is a diehard fan of typical disaster movies of that era! I love them so much! I've seen so many that I even developed a specific rating principle to check, via five simple little traits, if a certain disaster movie qualifies as good enough cheesy & clichéd entertainment!

Condition #1: without producer Irwin Allen, there wasn't a budget for special effects and thus no movie. Well, Allen was the producer of "Flood", but it's a made-for-TV film and hence the budget was significantly smaller than in, say, "The Towering Inferno" or "The Poseidon Adventure". Still, for a TV-film, it's looking quite good, so I'll give it 0,5 points. Condition #2: all disaster movies star one major star (Charlton Heston and Paul Newman were prime choices) and a long list of "secondary" stars (like Ernest Borgnine, Leslie Nielsen...). Another 0,5 points scored here. For reasons linked to the TV-movie status, there isn't a major star, but the list of secondary stars is nevertheless long and impressive: Robert Culp, Barbara Hershey, Richard Basehart, Cameron Mitchell, Roddy McDowall, Francine York, Teresa Wright, ... Condition #3: The characters are usually split into two camps with completely opposite ideals and/or initiatives. Oh, definitely the case here! The little Oregon fishing town of Brownsville is recovering after weeks of heavy rainfall and storm winds. Local entrepreneurs Steve and Paul are persuaded that the ecologically built dam will burst and drown the entire town, whereas the stubborn mayor irresponsibly keeps proclaiming that the dam will hold. Who do you think is right? Full point! Condition #4: Regardless what type of disaster we're dealing with, variants of the exact same perilous situations are always applicable. Yes, but limited. We have 9-months-pregnant women trapped in their homes, missing children and elderly women sacrificing themselves to rescue others, but that's about it. 0.75 points! Condition #5: always remember that, when the situation appears to be at its worst, it can and will still get even worse! I'm not handing out a point here. There aren't any sharks or piranhas coming along with the flood, the central hospital doesn't collapse, or the helicopter doesn't crash. So, theoretically speaking, Brownsville could be worse off.

All this adds up to a proper 2.75 rating, meaning "Flood!" is a recommendable and engaging disaster movie IF you are already familiar with the genre and if you are relatively tolerant. In case you seek pure blockbuster-fun, better stick to the mastodons of the era, like "Towering Inferno", "Earthquake" or the "Airport"-series.

PS: I'm still waiting for news on Roddy McDowall's character! Did he make it?

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...

Earl Bellamy directed this TV movie produced by Irwin Allen that stars Robert Culp as a helicopter pilot who becomes involved in the plight of the town of Brownsville, which is in a state of alarm because heavy rains have caused the nearby dam to overflow, and threaten to destroy it all together. Martin Milner plays the man trying to warn the stubborn mayor(played by Richard Basehart) about the threat, but he doesn't want to hear it, which will lead to disaster for all... Cameron Mitchel, Carol Lynley, Barbara Hershey and Teresa Wright costar. Disappointing film is a big build-up to very little, and contains a talky story that generates little interest, though the good cast tries.

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.