The Swarm (1978)- coming from WAC (1 Viewer)

[darkrock17]

There is an on-line review somewhere that makes the argument that Silliphant was deliberately approaching the script as a 50s sci-fi "b" movie (no pun intended) and basically riffed on that theme to the max in tongue-in-cheek fashion, but that Allen missed the joke and was treating it all with lofty seriousness. The fact that Allen to put it bluntly had no business directing (one of the reasons why "Poseidon Adventure" and "Towering Inferno" work is because it has directors who know how to handle dramatic stuff) only made it worse.

Irwin Allen directed quite a lot of both The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, he was more than just a producer on those two films. He would set scenes up, rehearsed with the cast, he did everything just about. except score.

 

[Jack P]

Allen directed action sequences but the strength of what came from the actors is where having the likes of a Ronald Neame made a difference.

 

[John Morgan]

Irwin Allen was from the old school of asking the composer to highlight his name musically when it appeared in the credits. I think Goldsmith did this with great dramatic aplomb, although I sense a bit of irony.

 

[MatthewA]

Where were Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn when you really needed them?*

It's amazing how many other Oscar-winners are involved with this this when pretty much all the reviews said it was a bust and, if Dick is correct, a mishandling of the source material. Yet Hollywood seemed more than willing to forgive Henry Fonda for this film if he still won the Oscar for On Golden Pond. Lucky for WB that the $40 million Superman, released at the end of the year, would prove to be a hit.

Allen's film career continued to degenerate even further after this with Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (why was that at WB instead of Fox?) and When Time Ran Out, which had the misfortune of coming out two months before Mount St. Helens erupted.**

*Yet coincidentally they managed to link two Sherman Brothers musicals by casting The Happiest Millionaire's Fred MacMurray and The Slipper and the Rose's Richard Chamberlain while the Shermans themselves were trying to make a movie musical star out of James Stewart in The Magic of Lassie. And where MacMurray is concerned, a movie from 1967 that overshadowed his at the box office despite even worse reviews, Valley of the Dolls, gets a mini-reunion with the casting of Patty Duke (Astin) and Lee Grant.
**It also features Alex Karras along with a character played by John Considine (Tim's older brother) who just happens to be named Webster despite looking nothing like the other one. Red Buttons is in it, too, linking him to a Pete's Dragon cast member just as his wife Susan Clark had appeared in Airport 1975 with Helen Reddy (but without Irwin Allen's involvement). Good thing for Veronica Hamel she would soon have Hill Street Blues on which to fall back.

 

[Jack P]

I think the review I referenced before is gone, but here it is from the Wayback. It's hilarious and I think is spot-on.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160305200104/http://www.jabootu.com/acolytes/brandiweed/swarm.htm

 

[Matt Hough]

Obviously it didn't sour Caine on working with Irwin Allen as the following year, he worked with Allen again in the equally dismal Beyond The Poseidon Adventure. Caine liked a good paycheck and often admitted he did movies strictly for the money.

He also starred in the incredibly dismal fourth Jaws film passing up the Oscar ceremony in the process where he won his first Oscar.

 

[MatthewA]

Maybe they should have gotten the Bee Gees to do the soundtrack. Or cast Bea Arthur.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Maybe they should have gotten the Bee Gees to do the soundtrack. Or cast Bea Arthur.

I guess Samantha Bee was too young. Same goes for Mel B!

Coulda had a scene where the B Sharps got attacked during their rooftop concert...

 

[Stephen_J_H]

One of the most enjoyably bad movies I own, and it's in a WB snapper case to boot. The WAC BD will be tempting for sure.

 

[Matt Hough]

Yeah, the cast alone working tirelessly to make the story legit seems worth the price of the disc.

 

[Dick]

Sadly, these announcements look (to me) like another lost Warner Archive Halloween...

 

[Dick]

There is an on-line review somewhere that makes the argument that Silliphant was deliberately approaching the script as a 50s sci-fi "b" movie (no pun intended) and basically riffed on that theme to the max in tongue-in-cheek fashion, but that Allen missed the joke and was treating it all with lofty seriousness. The fact that Allen to put it bluntly had no business directing (one of the reasons why "Poseidon Adventure" and "Towering Inferno" work is because it has directors who know how to handle dramatic stuff) only made it worse.

If true, this would be a pity. Silliphant was a good enough screenwriter that he could have produced a terrific adaptation of Herzog's novel, which was very timely and believable because it was largely based on science of the day. When that aspect was lost and the military became the focus, with terrible dialog to boot, the film was doomed. Irwin Allen's traditional shtick of loading in as many borderline has-been movie stars as he could afford (or who would be willing to degrade themselves in order to keep food on the table) is embarrassing when they are forced to speak and behave in the ways Silliphant and Allen demand they do in this film. Olivia de Havilland and Michael Caine and just about the entire cast other than Henry Fonda is a total embarrassment. Richard Widmark, in my opinion, takes the big prize for the stupidest and most over-the-top performance of all. These actors have all been superb earlier in their careers and have even won Oscars. Hope they all earned enough for this disaster to make the blemishing of their filmographies worthwhile.

This is a movie ripe for remake by a responsible group of filmmakers. I suggest reading the novel (read the readers' reactions):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671217097/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=AYXIJCFRP3R02&psc=1

 

[MatthewA]

Olivia de Havilland and Michael Caine and just about the entire cast other than Henry Fonda is a total embarrassment. Richard Widmark, in my opinion, takes the big prize for the stupidest and most over-the-top performance of all. These actors have all been superb earlier in their careers and have even won Oscars. Hope they all earned enough for this disaster to make the blemishing of their filmographies worthwhile.

Lucky for them there's no AMPAS rule that says Oscar-winners who go on to make extremely bad movies have to give them back.

 

[Jack P]

All Widmark had to do was go into his old laughing bit when he took up the flamethrower against the bees!

 

[Jack P]

Allen's film career continued to degenerate even further after this with Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (why was that at WB instead of Fox?) and When Time Ran Out, which had the misfortune of coming out two months before Mount St. Helens erupted.**

"Beyond" was a case I think where Allen had purchased the rights to a sequel novel Paul Gallico wrote (Gallico made it a sequel to the film, not his original novel. The characters of Rogo, Martin and Manny return in this one in a tale of Rogo implausibly going back to the wreck because he realizes the ship is not going to sink right away and there are salvage vessels converging and he's now afraid they're going to find this security consignment he was responsible for. Martin literally goes back just because he wants more excitement......poor Nonny is dispensed with in just a throwaway line) and thus had the rights to proceed with any project he wanted regardless of which studio he was at (and at this point he had shifted from Fox to Warners).

But doing a Poseidon sequel had been something Irwin had wanted to do even before Gallico wrote a quick novel. Gene Hackman went on the Tonight Show in 1974 and told of how he was approached for a sequel and how the first line would be him appearing in front of the survivors in the helicopter and asking, "Did my brother make it?"

The commentary track also has Lynley and Martin mentioning they were approached for a sequel where the premise would have been the survivors are going by train to the hearings into the disaster when an avalanche takes place trapping them!