The Swarm (film)
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The Swarm | |
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Directed by | Irwin Allen |
Produced by | Irwin Allen |
Written by | Arthur Herzog (novel) Stirling Silliphant (screenplay) |
Starring | Michael Caine Katharine Ross Richard Widmark Richard Chamberlain Olivia de Havilland Ben Johnson Lee Grant Jose Ferrer Patty Duke Slim Pickens Bradford Dillman Fred MacMurray Henry Fonda Cameron Mitchell John Furlong |
Music by | Jerry Goldsmith |
Cinematography | Fred J. Koenkamp |
Editing by | Harold F. Kress |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date(s) | July 14, 1978 (USA) |
Running time | 116 min. (Theatrical Version) 156 min. (Video Version) |
Language | English |
Budget | $21,000,000 (estimated) |
Gross revenue | $10,000,000 (USA) |
IMDb profile |
The Swarm is a 1978 disaster film about a killer bee invasion of Texas. It was adapted from a novel of the same name by Arthur Herzog.
The director was Irwin Allen, and the cast included Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson, Lee Grant, Patty Duke, Slim Pickens, Bradford Dillman, Fred MacMurray, and Henry Fonda.
Many filmgoers and critics consider this film one of the worst "disaster films" ever made, along with Allen's subsequent films Beyond the Poseidon Adventure and When Time Ran Out (1980). It was one of two disaster films directed solely by the "master of disaster", Irwin Allen (the other being 1979's Beyond the Poseidon Adventure), who had experience directing several movies and many episodes of his TV shows. The film was a notorious box office bomb upon its release in 1978, barely making it two weeks in theaters.
Contents |
[edit] Running times
The film was released initially at 116 minutes. When released on laserdisc in the 1980s, it was expanded to 156 minutes. This 156 minute version is the one available on DVD.
[edit] Score
The musical score was composed by Academy Award winner Jerry Goldsmith and used French horns and such to sound like the humming of bees.
The score was originally released on Warner Bros. Records in 1978 at the same time of the movie, but has since gone out of print. An expanded, remastered score was released in a limited edition by Prometheus Records and contained over forty minutes of previously unreleased material. It has also gone out of print.
[edit] See also
- The Savage Bees - a 1976 TV movie
- The Bees - a 1978 film
- The Deadly Bees - a UK-made film from 1966
[edit] External links
- The Swarm at the Internet Movie Database
- Irwin Allen News Network (The Irwin Allen News Network's Swarm page)