.
In which we find out that the British do disaster movies…just a little differently.
Richard Attenborough heads an ensemble cast as Ernest Tilley, a man literally maddened by grief when his young daughter is killed by a hit-and-run driver. After a two-year search, Ernest finally tracks down and corners the man responsible, meaning to take a full revenge on him. And if that requires blowing up a plane and killing not only the guilty party but himself, his own wife, and everybody else on board, well, so be it.
Fortunately, however, the plane is under the command of Stanley Baker; and if a man is capable of taking on the entire Zulu nation, he should certainly be up to the task of dealing with a deranged Dickie Attenborough – right?
Maybe…
#1 by RogerBW on July 31, 2011 - 6:07 am
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Sounds much more like fun than most of what came later (OK, I’m obviously thinking of the Airport series, I might as well admit it); I’ll have to see what I can find. Any clues to its availability?
One of these days I’m going to have a Disaster Movie Night. But last time I put on the original Poseidon Adventure everyone ended up in the kitchen. Hey ho.
#2 by lyzard on July 31, 2011 - 2:40 pm
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You must have some sad, sad friends. Though of course, I say that as someone who finds the entries in the Airport series quite entrancing, each in its own way.
I’d never seen Jet Storm before I watched it for this review. It showed up on middle-of-the-night TV here for the first time shortly after I tracked down a DVD-R – heigh-ho. I have an idea it may now be commercially available.
#3 by RogerBW on July 31, 2011 - 3:38 pm
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What can I say, Shelley Winters isn’t for everyone. Don’t suppose anyone else reading this site is near High Wycombe/UK (45 minutes by train from London)?
To me, the Airport series can only be enjoyed at the humorous level, whereas something The Towering Inferno works on its own terms.
#4 by lyzard on July 31, 2011 - 5:12 pm
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Oh, yes, I mostly do enjoy them on the humorous level, no argument; it’s the people who can’t do that that I worry about.
But all of them (okay, maybe not the fourth) have moments that work in a proper thriller sort of way, too, I find.
I never finished it – maybe one day – but at one point I was working on a film essay called “The Many Deaths Of Shelley Winters”…just a natural victim, poor Shell!
#5 by Read MacGuirtose on July 31, 2011 - 11:54 pm
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Excuse, once again, my ignorance, but I was puzzled by this sentence. I went to Wikipedia to find out who Kim Wilde was, but am little closer than before to divining why exactly she should be so much better known than her father in “these parts”, or even exactly where “these parts” are, in this context. Is (or was) Kim Wilde especially popular in Australia?
#6 by lyzard on July 31, 2011 - 11:58 pm
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I can’t actually explain it: there was just a phase here when any reference to Marty Wilde was always followed by the comment, Kim’s dad, even though Kim herself was never all that big. And I still hear people doing it from time to time. Just one of those weird pop cultural blips that somehow stick with you.
#7 by Jen S on August 1, 2011 - 11:10 am
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Ah, the days when people had a hard time believing someone would be nihilistic enough to blow up a plane.
#8 by lyzard on August 1, 2011 - 4:39 pm
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Underscored by the fact that when they arrested James Graham, they found out it was not actually illegal to blow up a plane. Presumably there were property laws against it, but no criminal statute.
The slow – and I do mean slow – introduction of airport security is one of things things I look out for in these movies, which just make your hair stand on end. I know as late as The Parallax View, which was 1974, Warren Beatty was allowed to buy his ticket on the plane with no ID.
And here, even when they know something’s really wrong, Stanley Baker searches Richard Attenborough for a gun, not a detonator. The imagination just didn’t stretch further than that…
#9 by RogerBW on August 2, 2011 - 2:22 am
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I’d have thought multiple manslaughter counts would have done the job, but I haven’t read the trial transcripts…
The vast majority of airport security has always been, and especially is now, either to make the sheep feel good (metal detectors) or to make life more profitable for airlines (requiring ID means you can’t resell tickets).
#10 by lyzard on August 3, 2011 - 4:32 pm
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Well, this may indeed make me a sheep, but I quite like the idea of guns and detonators being kept out of Economy. (They can do what they like up in First.)
I’d like to know more about the Graham case, too. I think they just decided to stick with the simplest option, knowing they would be walking through a minefield of possible technicalities. They could prove he intended to murder his mother, so that’s what they did.
#11 by supersonic on August 1, 2011 - 2:04 pm
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“Shelley Winters isn’t for everyone”??!?!!?
#12 by jason farrell on August 3, 2011 - 7:00 am
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Shelly Winters is for all of us. WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO? and WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH HELEN? are the proof (albeit perhaps a little too inquiry-based in their titles).
#13 by lyzard on August 3, 2011 - 4:33 pm
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Oh, man, I love What’s The Matter With Helen?
#14 by jason farrell on August 8, 2011 - 7:03 am
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What’s not to love? A Psycho riff 30’s period piece with musical numbers is not something you’re going to be seeing a lot of from contemporary Hollywood.
#15 by lyzard on August 8, 2011 - 8:20 pm
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And that marvellous opening sequence…
#16 by Richard on August 9, 2011 - 6:46 am
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Is it time for a Shelly Winters Roundtable?
#17 by RogerBW on August 10, 2011 - 9:01 am
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They said it couldn’t be done.
Well, all right, they said it shouldn’t be done. Close enough.
I’m in favour…
#18 by El Santo on August 9, 2011 - 7:32 am
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“Is it time for a Shelly Winters Roundtable?”
Whenever it is, I call dibs on Cleopatra Jones.
#19 by Braineater on August 9, 2011 - 8:41 pm
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Having already done Tentacles, I guess I’d be more or less obligated to go with Stridulum. “Mammy’s little baby loves shortnin’, shortnin’…” (shudder)
#20 by lyzard on August 9, 2011 - 9:41 pm
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Hello, Poseidon Adventure…
(Isn’t that where this conversation started??)
Ooh, ooh, City On Fire!! I could do a Shelley Winters / Leslie Nielsen double feature!!
#21 by jason farrell on August 10, 2011 - 7:22 am
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You could call it your BLOW, BLOW, THOU WINTERS WIND Roundtable.