An incoming swarm, coming to a television near you.
Well, sometimes I like to let people know of when a good movie coming up. This morning I'd like to let everyone know that one of the worst disaster movies ever made will be on at 8pm on TCM in Mountain Standard Time. I could also say they are airing one of the biggest movie disasters of all time. It works either way.
Here we see Michael Caine take out his rage at being cast in this movie on poor Richard Wydmark.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzUvaVUWT5o]
Bees will happen, people runnng from sting attacks, car chases, flame throwers, helicopter crashes, and worst of all michael caines leisure suit willl happen! I can't really remember most of that stuff very well honestly, but the image of that horrific leisure suit which he wears through the entire film is seared into my brain.
One strange fact about the Swarm is that there were a lot of really great actors in this movie, and I don't just mean great because they were famous. Fred McMurray and Olivia de Havilland did great work in their day. Fred McMurray starred in what could be called the very first film noire, Double Indemnity, and he was great in it. I believe this was his last film.
Actors are only as good as the script allows them to be. I don't think any actor could have made the above few minutes of video work.
Comments
If only Obama had made that
impassioned plea about drones and killing civilians. He should've watched this performance.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Yes.
Its interesting the way that people would say that Hillary Clinton's positions were almost exactly as Bernie Sanders. Somebody that once and I said, "You mean Bernie Sanders wants to murder people in Afghanistan with drones? When the hell did he say that?"
The reaction was a bit icy.
I actually love the impassioned bee speech.
"The honeybee is vital to the environment! If you kill the bees you kill a lot of people."
We need more of that.
Sure, all
true, but airing it this way makes it sound silly. The scientist is the one yelling at the general. In this contest it's extremely silly.
Oh, I agree - it's totally corney and hackneyed!
I like it anyway, or perhaps because of that.
Can he yell that at Bayer? (vicious laughter)
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Amazing cast!
I remember this and need to order the DVD as I hadn't seen it since it first came out.
It was always a kick to see so many familiar faces popping up in the Irwin Allen disaster films. And at least Henry Fonda got to show his acting chops in one scene in this film,
There's also an interesting statement in the credits, praising the hard-working American honey bees in contrast to the African super-predator variety.
When I saw this movie in the theaters
when it first came out my date jokingly said, "I bet Henry Fonda insisted on performing his role from a wheelchair because he couldn't be bothered to stand while reciting the horrible script."
We didn't see the whole movie. We left somewhere in the middle.
The people, united, will never be defeated.
Hard working
in contrast to the Africans? I think its nice that they managed to work racial framing in there.
All through the movie they referred to them as the Africans.
i don't remember that one...
...and i lived through Earthquake, The Poseidon Adventure and Airport. incidentally, TCM is showing Gaslight tomorrow. how appropriate!!
This was in the Golden Age of Diasaster Movies
Ship sinkings, volcanoes, hi-rises collapsing, nature's revenge movies, airport problems, earthquakes, and all usually with an A-List Love Boat type of assemblage playing parts both small and large.
Another Nature's Revenge movie that I am incredibly fond of for all the wrong reasons is from an earlier era, The Naked Jungle starring Charleton Heston as a lonely but virile and frustrated cocoa plantation owner in South America who orders a mail-order bride from the states whom he rejects as damaged goods when she turns out to be a widow.
But, fortunately for the non-virginal widow, the plantation becomes threatened by shitload of migrating army ants and she gets to show her grit and courage to the completely idiotic and undeserving husband played by Chuck. Heston has never gnawed a ham so thoroughly down to the bone as he does in this movie. I recommend this to the other feature on a twin bill with Swarm for a movie night with friends. It was really, really hard to find for a long time but it finally popped up on Amazon or Netflix.
" “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.” FDR "