What a Disaster!
Disaster Movies of the 70s
Hello and welcome to Cinema Wellman. I am your host, David, and as a “‘70s kid,” I am well versed in the disaster movie genre since it was born at the very time in my life that I became obsessed with movies.
Once upon a time it all began with Airport (1970).
The Airport phenomenon launched an entire genre; the big-budget all-star disaster film.
Big budget all-star disaster movies that have posters featuring actual pictures of the cast!
The posters for all of these movies are phenomenal.
Do you want poster taglines?!
We’ve got poster taglines!!!!
“One man’s madness might send 1,200 to the bottom of the sea - only one man can save them!”
“Something hit us…the crew is dead…help us, please, please help us!”
“Of 97 aboard, eight had a motive, one had a plot. By some miracle 62 survived.”
“91,000 people. 33 Exit gates. One sniper…”
“Watch out for the man watching the…ROLLERCOASTER”
“It’s five miles wide…it’s coming at 30,000 mph…and there’s no place on Earth to hide!”
“The great novel - now an outstanding motion picture.”
“Hell, upside down!”
“An Event…”
“One tiny spark becomes a night of blazing suspense.”
On the heels of The Crowded Sky (1960), and Zero Hour! (1957) (the inspiration for Airplane), Airport set the stage for a decade filled with disasters of all types.
An entire sub-genre of “Animal Disaster” movies also took place during the 70s, giving us such cinematic treasures as Frogs (1972), Bug (1975), Grizzly (1976), Squirm (1976), Empire of the Ants (1977), Claws (1977), The Swarm (1978), and Killer Fish (1979).
I have a feeling that we’re looking at a future episode right there.
Before we get into this Top 10, I need to make it very clear that there is a definitive Mt. Rushmore of 70s Disaster Movies in my mind.
There are four 70s disaster films that supersede all others, and they are Airport, The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake, and The Towering Inferno.
After those four, there are dozens to choose from to fill out a Top 10 in this category, which is what I did for you today.
I will begin with my lower-tier six before getting into our Final Four/Mt. Rushmore/whatever you want to call it.
In the name of Irwin Allen, let’s begin with…
Juggernaut (1974)
PG/109 m/IMDb: 6.6/directed by Richard Lester
IMDb: “A blackmailer demands a huge ransom in exchange for information on how to disarm the seven bombs he placed aboard the transatlantic liner Britannic.”
Juggernaut features one Oscar winner (Anthony Hopkins) and four Oscar nominees (Richard Harris, Shirley Knight, Omar Sharif, and Ian Holm), so check the box for “All-Star Cast.”
And with seven bombs placed aboard a cruise ship, we certainly have our disaster, so check!
Lots of “Cut the blue wire!” suspense in Juggernaut, a film shot mostly aboard a real luxury liner cruising the North Sea.
Producers advertised looking for people to play extras. They were told they’d be on a lengthy luxury cruise for free, BUT that the ship was going to purposely seek out bad weather since that was going to be important to the movie’s plot.
They received 2,500 applications and selected 250 people.
The weather was so bad that everyone tried to stay drunk all the time to combat the conditions.
The ship’s bar was only closed for a half hour a day.
Would being drunk all day help in that situation?
I guess it wouldn’t hurt.
Airport 1975 (1974)
PG/107 m/IMDb: 5.8/directed by Jack Smight
IMDb: “A 747 in flight collides with a small plane and is rendered pilotless. Somehow the control tower must get a pilot aboard so the jet can land.”
Pre-flight all-star cast check: two Oscar Winners (Charlton Heston & George Kennedy), and five Oscar Nominees (Karen Black, Linda Blair, Nancy Olson, Martha Scott, and Gloria Swanson).
Non-Oscar cast members worth a mention; Helen Reddy, Myrna Loy, Sid Caesar, Jerry “Frank Costanza” Stiller, Larry “F-Troop” Storch, and Norman “Mr. Roper” Fell.
The tag-line for today’s episode is, “The Stewardess is Flying the Plane!” which is from this film and also the title of a book about movies of the 70s by Ron Hogan that is a total treat.
Karen Black is at her frenzied wild-eyed best in this movie as the stewardess pressed into duty to land the crippled airliner.
In case you didn’t know, the singing nun and the sick little girl on the plane in Airplane! is taken DIRECTLY from this film!
Helen Reddy is the nun, and Linda “The Exorcist” Blair is the sick little girl.
Land that plane, Karen!!! Helen Reddy can’t sing forever!
Oh, and the in-flight movie on this plane is American Graffiti!
The Hindenburg (1975)
PG/125 m/IMDb: 6.3/directed by Robert Wise
(3x Oscar Nominee: Sound, Cinematography, Art Direction/Set Decoration)
IMDb: “A chronicle of the Hindenburg disaster in which a zeppelin burst into flames.”
This was released on Christmas Day!
Who releases a movie about the Hindenburg disaster on Christmas Day?!?
Pre-flight all-star cast check: Three Oscar Winners (George C. Scott, Anne Bancroft, and Gig Young) and two Oscar Nominees (Burgess Meredith, and Charles Durning).
Non Oscar related cast worth a mention; Katherine “S.O.A.P.” Helmond, Robert Clary (from Hogan’s Heroes), and William Atherton who is probably best known for playing a total asshole in both Die Hard and Ghostbusters. (and most likely everything else he was in)
The real Hindenburg took about 34 seconds to go down in flames, but the cinematic version took over six minutes!
The Hindenburg is the only film on today’s list that is based on a true story, which lessens the opportunity to camp it up a bit like most of the others seem to do. (accidently or not!)
Two-Minute Warning (1976)
R/115 m/IMDb: 6.2/directed by Larry Pearce
(Oscar Nominee: Film Editing)
IMDb: “A crazed sniper is set to kill spectators at an L.A. Coliseum football championship game and the police race against time to eliminate him.”
Pre-game all-star cast check: Two Oscar Winners (Charlton Heston and Martin Balsam) and Three Oscar Nominees (John Cassavettes, Gena Rowlands, and Walter Pidgeon.
Non Oscar related cast worth a mention; Beau Bridges, David Janssen, and Jack Klugman.
The NFL refused to allow filmmakers to use the names of any real teams or the NFL brand after being told what the movie was about.
Interestingly enough, the NFL did allow the use of their brand and actual team names a few years later for the film Black Sunday which features terrorism at an NFL game with a bomb laden Goodyear blimp crashing into the stadium.
The football scenes in Two-Minute Warning were of a Pac-8 game (Pac 8!) between USC and Stanford.
Director Larry Pearce was very critical of the performances of some of the extras, which I find hysterical, but when you watch this, I see what he was pissed about. Many of these people are running for their lives in a very unconvincing manner.
It’s quite comical.
We have had a cruise ship, an airplane, a zeppelin, and a football stadium so far, so let’s go to an amusement park!
Rollercoaster (1977)
PG/119 m/IMDb: 6.3/directed by James Goldstone
IMDb: “A nameless young terrorist threatens to sabotage roller coasters at various American amusement parks if he isn’t paid a huge ransom. Safety inspector Harry Calder is reluctantly drawn into a game of cat and mouse, with many lives at risk.”
Pre-visit all-star cast check: Two Oscar Winners (Henry Fonda and Helen Hunt), and two Oscar Nominees (George Segal and Richard Widmark).
Non Oscar related cast of note; Timothy Bottoms, Harry Guardino, and Susan Strasberg.
This was Helen Hunt’s film debut, and also features an uncredited appearance by Steve Guttenberg.
Over 20 amusement parks were used in the production in order to create three different parks in the film.
This was the 3rd film presented in “Sensurround” (a low frequency bass speaker setup), and there’s another Sensurround movie on this list!
The original version included some very graphic crash sequences with gore and bodies flying everywhere, but it was edited down to avoid an “R” rating.
There’s a plaque still standing at the Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, CA marking the spot where the “young man” in this film was killed.
Really?!
I find that odd.
Next is the last of our lower-tier of 70s disaster films, and this disaster is coming from above.
Meteor (1979)
PG/108 m/IMDb: 5.1/directed by Ronald Neame
(Oscar Nominee: Sound)
IMDb: “The U.S. must join forces with the U.S.S.R. in order to destroy a gigantic asteroid heading straight for Earth.”
Pre-launch all-star cast check: Four Oscar Winners (Henry Fonda, Sir Sean Connery, Karl Malden, and Martin Landau), and two Oscar nominees (Natalie Wood and Trevor Howard).
Non Oscar related cast worthy of a mention; Richard Dysart, Joseph Campanella, and Brian Keith (who isn’t Russian, but spoke fluent Russian, so he’s cast as a Russian!).
Meteor was a disaster in more ways than one.
In a recent episode, I mentioned American International Pictures while discussing Truck Turner and the Blaxploitation genre.
Meteor was one of the final films produced by A.I.P. and its failure at the box office helped to put it out of business.
The avalanches and mudslides and floods created for Meteor were huge, extremely expensive undertakings, and that helped to tank this disaster (of a) film.
And now, on to the cream of the crop. The following four iconic disaster films of the 70s will be presented in chronological order.
I will also cover the 30 Oscar Nominations and 6 Oscar wins for these four films.
There’s a lot to cover, so let’s begin with the movie that spawned this entire genre. In other words, it’s all their fault.
Airport (1970)
G/137 m/IMDb: 6.6/directed by George Seaton & Henry Hathaway
(10x Oscar Nominee: Best Picture, Supporting Actress (Stapleton), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Art Direction-Set Decoration, Costume Design, Sound, Film Editing, Music, Supporting Actress (Hayes))
(Oscar Winner: Best Supporting Actress: Helen Hayes)
IMDb: “A bomber on board an airplane, an airport almost closed by snow, and various personal problems of the people involved.”
Pre-flight all-star cast check: Five Oscar Winners (Burt Lancaster, Van Heflin, George Kennedy, Maureen Stapleton, and Helen Hayes).
Non Oscar related passengers worth mentioning; Jacqueline Bissett, Jean Seberg, and Dean Martin (who made BANK on this film since he was paid $7 million AND received 10% of the gross!).
I read that there are 16 people in this cast that appeared on the TV show “Bewitched” at some point or another, and 32 who appeared on “Dragnet.”
I’m not sure who came up with that or why, but I wanted to share.
Friend of Cinema Wellman Edith Head was the costume designer, and this was one of her 35 Oscar nominations! (but not one of her 8 wins)
The music is phenomenally suspenseful, and was composed by the great Alfred Newman who won 9 Oscars himself.
Even though these films may seem cheesy by today’s standards, they certainly were packed with talented people both in front of and behind the camera.
Airport (really the entire Airport series) has always been a guilty pleasure for me. I own them all on DVD. It’s called the “Terminal Package!”
I just watched this again last week, and it was such a treat to see what flying was like in the 70s!
We have, of course, smoking! Chain smoking!
We also have full blown shrimp cocktail on ice in first class!
Helen Hayes straight up walks on to the plane as if she’s walking onto an elevator!
Chicago to Rome in Airport was $474, and they had stale nuts!
This was rated G, and yet there’s a discussion about abortion (even though they don’t use the word), and tons of talk about divorce.
It’s G!
Airplane did such a phenomenal job spoofing this that it’s really hard not to laugh at this “serious” film today.
Our next film features quite a lot of overacting, but we really wouldn’t have it any other way.
The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
PG/117 m/IMDb: 7.1/directed by Ronald Neame
(8x Oscar Nominee: Supporting Actress (Winters), Cinematography, Art Direction/Set Decoration, Costume Design, Sound, Film Editing, Music, Original Song)
(Oscar Winner: Best Original Song: “The Morning After” +
Special Achievement Oscar for Visual Effects)
IMDb: “A group of passengers must embark on a harrowing struggle for survival after a rogue wave capsizes their cruise ship at sea.”
Pre-boarding all-star cast check: Five Oscar Winners (Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelly Winters, Jack Albertson, and Red Buttons), one Oscar Nominee (Arthur O’Connell).
Non Oscar related passengers of note; Leslie Neilsen, Stella Stevens, Pamela Sue Martin, Roddy McDowell, and Carol Lynley.
Nine members of this cast went on to star in episodes of “The Love Boat,” so I guess this disaster didn’t scare them away from cruise ships.
The music was composed by friend of Cinema Wellman John Williams, so you know that’s going to be solid throughout.
One of the many commonalities between these four iconic disaster films is the use of practical effects on a grand scale to pull off some of the most epic visuals in film history.
The Poseidon Adventure and our next film, Earthquake, both won Special Achievement Oscars for Visual Effects before the creation of that Oscar category. They were two of the reasons that category was created.
That stunt of the guy going into the stained glass ceiling?!? Amazing!
The entire set turned upside down?!? Amazing!
My lasting memory will always be of Captain Leslie Neilsen looking through the binoculars at the rogue wave that will capsize them and saying, “Oh. My. God.”
These four films are definitely responsible, on some level, for my love of movies.
Earthquake (1974)
PG/122 m/IMDb: 6.0/directed by Mark Robson
(4x Oscar Nominee: Cinematography, Art Direction/Set Decoration, Film Editing, Sound)
(Oscar Winner: Best Sound + Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects)
IMDb: “Various interconnected people struggle to survive when an earthquake of unimaginable magnitude hits Los Angeles.”
Pre-shake all-star cast check: Three Oscar Winners (Charlton Heston, George Kennedy, Walter Matthau), and two Oscar Nominees (Genevieve Bujold & Ava Gardner).
Non Oscar related cast worthy of a shout out; Victoria Principal (check out her hair, and it’s NOT a wig!), Marjoe Gortner, Lorne Greene, and Richard “Shaft” Roundtree.
We’ve got the G.O.A.T. on music again with John Williams scoring, so at least it's got that going for it.
Charlton Heston and George Kennedy started filming Airport 1975 eighteen hours after Earthquake wrapped.
Heston turned down a chance to play Chief Brody in JAWS to star in this!
Thank god.
Ava Gardner did all of her own stunts!
At the time, this film set the record of the number of stunt performers used with a total of 141.
Not sure if that includes Ava Gardner or not.
Earthquake, like Rollercoaster employed “Sensurround,” and that really didn’t catch on at all since it was only used on a total of four films, two of which made this list.
There was debate of whether or not to drop polystyrene debris from theater ceilings during the “Sensurround” quake, but cooler heads prevailed.
One film remains on today’s list of Disaster Films of the 70s, and it probably had more behind the scenes chaos than the other three biggies combined.
The Towering Inferno (1974)
PG/165 m/IMDb: 7.0/directed by John Guillerman
(8x Oscar Nominee: Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Astaire), Art Direction/Set Decoration, Sound, Music, Cinematography, Film Editing, Original Song)
(3x Oscar Winner: Cinematography, Film Editing, Original Song)
IMDb: “At the opening party of a colossal San Francisco skyscraper, a massive fire breaks out due to careless building practices by the contractor, threatening to destroy the tower and everyone in it.”
All-star cast check: Four Oscar Winners (Paul Newman, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, and Jennifer Jones), and Three Oscar Nominees (Fred Astaire, Robert Vaughan, and Steve McQueen).
Non-Oscar related cast worth mentioning; Susan Blakeley, Richard Chamberlain, Robert Wagner, and O.J. Simpson.
Once again scored by John Williams who composed the music for three of our top four films on this list.
Some quick hits about production and finished product:
*Released about a month apart from Earthquake creating a “Shake & Bake” double feature.
*William Holden called the picture, “lousy.”
*Steve McQueen complained throughout that the fire helmet made him look “like an idiot.”
*McQueen fought with producer Irwin Allen and insisted he perform the stunt of jumping out of a helicopter onto the roof of the burning building. McQueen won that fight.
*McQueen insisted that he and Paul Newman had the exact same number of lines, and there were also arguments over billing on the movie’s poster and in the film itself.
*Newman later said, “I did this turkey for $1 million and 10% of the gross, but it's the first, and last time.”
*Faye Dunaway was constantly late to set and sometimes didn’t show up at all, infuriating cast members. William Holden reportedly threatened her one day resulting in perfect attendance from that point on.
*I guess things worked out since The Towering Inferno was the highest grossing film of 1974.
It wasn’t a total disaster after all.
Well, that is a wrap from here at Cinema Wellman as we took a look into a portion of my personal cinematic wheelhouse: Disaster Films of the 70s.
We hope you’re with us next time as we serve up a great big helping of REVENGE!!!!
Served cold, of course.
Until then, take care.
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