FLOOD (1976)

Mildly interesting, mid-70's, made-for-TV disaster movie about the small town of Brownsville, who's entire economy depends on the fishing tourism dollar.  And what's the best way the get a lot of fishermen to spend money in your town?  Have a big ass body of water full of fish!  Unfortunately, Brownsville's big ass body of water full of fish is about to overflow the dam that's holding it back.  And if that happens...bye, bye Brownsville!

For an Irwin Allen production, I was hoping for a lot of excitement, but while the build-up was alright, the actual disaster itself was pretty lame.  The dam conveniently doesn't bust until nighttime, so the viewer really can't see much, just some lame miniature with water rushing over it.  Following that, there's only a few unexciting scenes of people splashing around in waist high water.  Whoopee!

Good cast, passable story that could have used more tension, lots of helicopter footage, 1970's vehicles and fashions, pretty scenery, Leif Garrett, runtime padded with stock footage of real life floods.  If you're into older disaster movies, then FLOOD is worth checking out, but most other people will probably be unimpressed.  My number one biggest gripe is Roddy McDowall's appearance was just a cameo!  That really pissed me off.

I've read that network publicity at the time said this film cost $2.5 million dollars.  Producer Irwin Allen and legendary TV director Earl Bellamy teamed up again the next year to make the much improved FIRE starring Ernest Borgnine, Vera Miles and Lloyd Nolan.

THE STORY OF MANKIND (1957)

In 1957 humans invent the "Super H-Bomb" sixty years ahead of time, so now the "High Tribunal of Outer Space" must convene to decide whether humans are worth keeping around or should we just be allowed to blow ourselves up.  Taking the side of the humans in this pathetic court room drama is poor Ronald Colman as The Spirit of Man.  On the other side is dapper Vincent Price (probably the only actor to get out of this disaster unscathed) as The Devil a.k.a. "Mr. Scratch".  Both sides present evidence for their case.  The Spirit of Man spouts off moralistic soliloquies about Joan of Arc, Moses, Shakespeare, early Christians, Alexander Graham Bell, Sir Isaac Newton and reads from the Bible (vomit!) while The Devil makes a much more convincing argument by showing Nero, Hitler, Cleopatra, Khufu, Attila the Hun and talking about stuff like genocide, slavery and the Salem Witch Trials.  Good thing he didn't mention SLIMED or we'd all be dead right now.  Anyway, as expected, the High Tribunal of Outer Space's final decision is a total cop out complete with a "Is This The End?" flashing across the screen in giant red letters.

As much of a train wreck as all that sounds it's actually more dull than anything else.  The historical events are all short with background sets that look like they were just slapped together with stuff found laying around the studio, there's a bunch of mysterious stock footage (the burning train came from 1939's DODGE CITY) and the actors all look pretty embarrassed.

Worth a watch for the curiosity value, but I'd be much more interested in reading about how this misguided turd ever got green-lit in the first place?  Also, what was the budget and did it make any money at all?  What did audiences and critics back in 1957 think?  In the book "The Fifty Worst Films of All Time" where they quote Newsweek as saying "...some of the weirdest casting ever committed".  A 44-year-old Hedy Lamarr as 19-year-old Joan of Arc or Harpo Marx as Sir Isaac Newton...yeah, I can see what they are talking about.

"The Great Clock of Outer Space"