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THE SWARM (1978)
STARS: Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Henry Fonda, Fred MacMurray, Olivia de Havilland, Lee Grant, Patty Duke, Ben Johnson, Jose Ferrer, Slim Pickens, Bradford Dillman, Cameron Mitchell.
DIRECTOR: Irwin Allen. DURATION: 111mins.
SYNOPSIS: Ferocious killer bees from South America descend on Texas, leaving a trail of terror behind them - and resisting all attempts to stop them.
RC PLAYS: Dr. Hubbard.
Yet another all-star cast - but even they and the might of producer-director Irwin Allen could not save it.
Embarrassingly enough, everything about The Swarm was appalling: The performances, the script, the special effects - which were quite frankly pathetic. The 'bees' were simply black spots painted into the film, and it's pretty obvious that's what they are.
However, Chamberlain proved he was brave enough to work with Allen once again following the success of The Towering Inferno - but his reason for taking this job showed he had at least something in common with Michael Caine, his co-star here. Caine is famous for saying, "I've never seen Jaws: The Revenge, which by all accounts is terrible. But I have seen the house I bought with my paycheque, and it's very nice." Richard claimed he did The Swarm, "for money. I was paid $300,000 for a couple of weeks and it helped me buy a home in Hawaii," where he still lives today, so at least some good came of the project. In fact, that was the only good to come from the venture.
For once during the disaster movie era of the Seventies, it was the film which was the disaster.
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