THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 6, 1997 TAG: 9702060097
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 53 lines
IT WAS IN a 1940s musical, not an action flick, that an anonymous starlet mouthed the line: ``When I did that hulu, in old Honolulu, they called the cops. Six volcanoes blew their tops.''
Moviemakers are betting serious money that 1997 audiences will blow their tops over volcano movies. ``Dante's Peak,'' with a price tag of $100 million, opens in theaters Friday for Universal Pictures. ``Volcano,'' produced with an even bigger budget, is set to open in early summer.
But few volcano movies of the past have been big hits. In fact, ``When Time Ran Out'' was such a flop that it ended the 1970s heyday of disaster flicks.
Will the public love that lava this time around?
Here's a look at the volcano flicks of the past.
``Bird of Paradise'' (1932 and 1951) Joel McCrea and Dolores Del Rio starred in the original, which was remade as a big-screen Technicolor epic with Louis Jourdan, Jeff Chandler and Debra Paget. Paget's virginity is sacrificed to the volcano when she is flung into the volcanic pit. Ugh!
``The Last Days of Pompeii'' (1935 and 1960) Trouble, right here in Pompeii. Mount Vesuvius blows its top and the movie special effects folks go wild. The first version starred Preston Foster. The second starred Steve Reeves.
``The Devil at 4 O'Clock'' (1961) A quality cast failed to make up for the mediocre script. An alcoholic missionary and three convicts work to save a colony of leper children from a South Seas volcano. Spencer Tracy and Frank Sinatra starred.
``When Time Ran Out'' (1980) A volcano erupts on a remote Polynesian island populated by expensive hotels. The all-star cast included Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset, William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Edward Albert, Burgess Meredith, Noriyuki ``Pat'' Morita and Red Buttons. It was directed by James Goldstone who subsequently directed ``Rollercoaster'' at Ocean View Amusement Park.
``St. Helen's, Killer Volcano'' (1982) Art Carney plays Harry Truman, a real-life guy who refused to leave his cabin during the devastation surrounding the eruption of the Mount St. Helen's volcano.
``Nutcase'' (1983) Seldom seen, and deservedly so. Three children in New Zealand attempt to drive off a group of terrorists who threaten to reactivate the city's volcanoes.
``Joe Versus the Volcano'' (1990) Symbolism is everywhere in a very misunderstood movie. Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack and Amanda Plummer starred. It was a goofball comedy with Hanks as a dopey guy who finds he has only months to live. He makes a contract with a millionaire to leap into a volcano. The farce was strange. The public, not knowing what to make of it, stayed away.
That's a lot of lava over the celluloid, yielding very few hits. Which makes the 1997 big-budget flicks even more of a risk.
- Mal Vincent