I was just listening to an old audio tape I recorded in the early 80s and realized that a genre of movies I watched a lot back in the CDF days hasn't really been touched on much at the board yet--disaster movies! In addition to horror/sci-fi movies I was also very interested in war movies as a kid. For the most part, the majority of the war movies shown on Boston TV in the early 80s were ones about World War II that were made in the 1960s. One of my all-time favorite movies is still "The Great Escape", which I was introduced to by channel 56 when they'd show it as a two-part movie over two nights.

But I also enjoyed disaster movies. They had the drama of a "real" movie, plus a certain amount of horror, sort of like the monster movies shown on CDF (just that the horror came from natural or man-made disasters rather than giant monsters). Irwin Allen was the king of disaster movies, and I always had to watch "The Towering Inferno" and "The Poseidon Adventure" when these movies were on TV. It always seemed like an event when one was featured as the Sunday Night Movie or somethig like that. Can't recall ever seeing any disaster movies at the theater as a kid, but I saw many of them on TV. I had a keen interst in the Titanic as a kid (and was absolutely riveted by the stories that came out on TV and in the newspapers about how they FINALLY found it in 1985), so "The Poseidon Adventure" held a little extra meaning. In addition to movies actually about the Titanic, I had a little extra interest in any movie that dealt with sinking ships (another that comes to mind was "Goliath Awaits"--though that's not a disaster movie per se).

The other main source for disaster movies was probably all the "Airport" films that came out in the 70s. I always got them confused (kind of like the James Bond movies), but always liked watching them when they were on. And, of course, that whole series was excellently spoofed by the "Airplane" movies!

Did anyone else have a soft spot for disaster movies as a kid? Any favorites?

Great topic!

The Poseidon Adventure is my favorite! I actually remember seeing it at a movie theater with my mother when I was really young! (She was/is cool...had/has good taste in film!) I love Roddy McDowall, Ernest Borgnine and Shelley Winters, as well as Grandpa Joe from Willy Wonka (another ALL TIME favorite of mine!), even though I do not like Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka. I have both the original and remake on dvd, even though I don't really like the remake.

I'd like to know which one of the Airport movies William Shatner is in where he plays the alcoholic reverend...

I love disaster movies too and was fortunate enough to see a few in the drive-in or theaters. The very first one I saw was The Poseiden Adventure at the drive-in. I don't know if it's because Poseiden was the first or because of my young age, but it definitely is my favorite. I also saw Towering Inferno , and Earthquake in the theaters with the latter in "sensurround". I enjoy all the "Airport" movies including the last one where Petroni is now a pilot (of a Concorde).

I think part of the charm of these movies is the use of the "all-star cast"...something you don't see anymore. This is probably because A) it would be too expensive or B) movies are not star driven any more.

That would be The Horror at 37,000 Feet which I proudly own! It stars the aformentioned Mr. Shatner as the drinking reverend, but also Chuck Connors, Buddy Ebsen, and Russel (The Professor) Johnson. Great little horror movie that totally creeped me out as a kid. It made such an impression with me all those years ago, that I had to hunt it down and finally see it again.

Great point about the all-star casts of most horror movies Beastball. It's almost like the first "Airport" movie (or whichever disaster movie first employed an all-star cast) introduced the idea that if you were making a huge disaster movie you also just HAD to have a huge cast of stars too. It's almost like making a movie where The Love Boat (with all it's rising and fading stars) sinks!

I noticed that "Meteor" was on This TV last night. Another all-star, big-budget disaster (or near disaster at least) flick that forshadowed "Armageddon" and "Deep Impact". Come to think of it, those newer versions of the disaster movie also had pretty lengthy lists of stars in them.

Don't forget that William Shatner was also in "Airplane II: The Sequel". That, along with "The Horror at 37,000 Feet", would make for a good Shatner airborne double feature! Throw in the Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" as a palate cleanser between the two movies to complete the night of Shat!

Here's some of the "Airport" (and similar) movies from IMDB:

"Airport" (1970)

"The Horror at 37,000 Feet" (1973) (TV)

"Airport 1975" (1974)

"Airport '77" (1977)

"SST: Death Flight" (1977) (TV)

"The Concorde...Airport '79" (1979)

"Starflight: The Plane that Couldn't Land" (aka "Airport 85") (1983) (TV)

I'm sure there's more, but thats a start anyway. I guess you can tell the "official" "Airport" movies, because they all have George Kennedy in them! And notice how filmmakers started cashing in a bit on the new Concorde planes toward the end.

What other disasters were there on the screen? We've mentioned sinking ships, crashing planes, fires, and meteors. How about earthquakes ("Earthquake" (1974))?

I don't know if it qualifies as a true "disaster movie", but I remember as a kid being frightened by the prospects of the fire ant invasion and the killer bee invasion that were supposed to occur in the 1970s or soon after. These fears spawned movies like "Empire of the Ants" (1977), "The Deadly Bees" (1967), "Killer Bees" (1974) and "The Savage Bees (1976) (TV). I guess along those lines there were also movies like "Piranha" (1978), "Food of the Gods" (1976), "Night of the Lepus (1972), "Willard" (1971), "Frogs" (1972), "Squirm" (1976), and all the spider movies, like Shatner's "Kingdom of the Spiders" (1977) and the MST3k classic "The Giant Spider Invasion" (1975). To me, these kinds of creepy movies had a very similar feeling to the "real" disaster films. I suppose they could be looked at as true "creature features"!

Interesting story I read... It seems that Charlton Heston really wanted the part of Chief Brody in "Jaws". He spoke with Steven Spielberg and Steven said something along the lines of that he was too well known and that he wanted people to relate to "lesser known" actors and not think that this was another "disaster movie". At which Mr. Heston has declared that he would never work with Spielberg EVER after that meeting.

DW

That IS very interesting Doctor. It touches on the whole star-studded aspect of the disaster movie genre, and shows that it was well established enough by the mid-70s that Speilberg was afraid "Jaws" would be lumped together with all those movies.

I guess you could say that the disaster movie genre could actually be called the "star-studded disaster movie" genre as the two seem to go hand in hand. There must be some disaster movies from the 70s that didn't feature all-star casts, but I can't think of any at the moment.

I think the only disaster movies not to employ the multi-star cast would probably have to be a low budget feature. They may have one or two "star quality" actors--if that. Heck, even the well-made TV disaster movies had a large all-star cast of TV actors. I'm thinking of movies like Fire or Flood that were made in the mid 70's.

Great thread! I love Posidon Adventure, Toweing Inferno & Earthquake, they are so "70s"!! I'm surprised nobody metioned the 1978 bomb "The Swarm", which actually wasnt that bad, and it too boasted a bunch well known (for the 70s) actors including Henry Fonda!

Oh yeah, that's one I forgot to mention. What other disaster flicks do people remember (whether you loved or hated them)? I saw a listing in an old TV Guide from the early 80s for "Rollercoaster". Seems like they could make a disaster movie out of anything! "Rollercoaster", following the pattern, also has a pretty impressive cast--including...Henry Fonda! What a coincidence. I seem to recall watching at least part of this one on TV at one point.

"Rollercoaster":
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076636/

Fonda was also in City on Fire, though only in a few scenes.

Here is a list of all the disaster movies made. They're broken down into individual categories for ease.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_disaster_films

I think When Time Ran Out (1980) is probably the last Irwin Allen all-star cast disaster movie....anyone see it?

Wow, what an awesome list! Thanks Beastball! I don't think I ever saw "City on Fire".

Not sure if this fits exactly, but I remember it created a stir when I was a youth:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq0aQTrlWkw

How about AVALANCHE?

I remember seeing CONDOMINIUM on TV once or twice, where a big wave takes out a beachside condo complex.

I used to love the annual screening of POSIEDON on WSBK, though I rarely was allowed to stay up long enough to see the end. Either that or I fell asleep. At any rate, I know it took me a few viewings to finally see the survivors get rescued. Anyone remember RETURN TO THE POSIEDON ADVENTURE?

There are still tons of disaster movies I've yet to get around to watching. Some day...


Man, THE DAY AFTER. I was in 4th grade when this aired, and my elementary school sent letters home with the kids essentially telling parents not to let the kids watch it. The day after (ahem) it aired, we were taken in groups into the school library to talk with guidance counsellors about the film, even though only a few kids talked about it. For years my impressions of the film were based solely on what one or two kids had to say about it during those talks. I thought it was quite good when I finally saw it 5 or more years later. My memory of the climate in the US at the time THE DAY AFTER aired was that everyone had a very real fear (at the time, at least) that nuclear war could happen at any time, so films that addressed the issue in a realistic manner were pretty chilling. Another good film on the subject that was released around the same time was the UK TV production THREADS, which I rented on tape before I got around to seeing THE DAY AFTER.