Smash-Up on Interstate 5 (1976) (TV)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

John Llewellyn Moxey

Writers:

Robert Presnell Jr. (writer)
Eugene Price (writer)

Release Date:

3 December 1976 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A disaster movie opening with an enormous multi-vehicle crash on a Californian highway. After the opening stunt-filled action...

Plot Keywords:

Disaster | Illness | Nurse | Expectant Father | Pregnant

Cast

Sian Barbara Allen	...	Barbara Hutton
Jeff Chamberlain
Robert Conrad	...	Sergeant Sam Marcum
Cindy Daly	...	Debbie
Bonnie Ebsen	...	Penny
Buddy Ebsen	...	Al Pearson
Herb Edelman	...	Danny
David Groh	...	Dale
Barry Hamilton	...	Randy
Harriet Hilliard	...	June Pearson (as Harriet Nelson)
Scott Jacoby	...	Lee Bassett
Tommy Lee Jones	...	Officer Hutton
Joe Kapp	...	Officer Estevez
Sue Lyon	...	Burnsey
Vera Miles	...	Erica
Donna Mills	...	Laureen
Terry Moore	...	Trudy
David Nelson	...	Officer Berman
George O'Hanlon Jr.	...	Pete (as George O'Hanlon)
Joel Parks	...	Andy

Runtime:

USA:100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Interstate 210, La Crescenta, California, USA

Company:

Filmways Television

Trivia:

Interstate 5 runs north-south on the west coast of the United States paralleling US Route 101 from the Mexican to the Canadian borders connecting the cites of San Diego, Los Angeles, Sacramento (California), Medford, Eugene, Salem, Portland (Oregon), Tacoma, Seattle, Everett and Bellingham (Washington).

Interesting little time capsule.

Incredible that but for one review, and even that only two months ago, no-one has seen fit to comment all through the years on this above average telemovie. Inarguably dated now, as evidenced by the vehicles themselves, the flares, hair-do's and music, SMASH UP ON INTERSTATE 5 is a reasonably faithful reconstruction (disaster-movie style) of the events leading up to the true-life pile up not so many years earlier.

Better than average script give the cast of well known actors and actresses something to work with. Robert Conrad, still looking the part of Jim West plays the police patrol officer most closely involved in the fifty car collision. Tommy Lee Jones, also a cop, looks like a youthful long haired refugee from WOODSTOCK and Buddy Ebsen is well, Buddy Ebsen, as always!

The film does not attempt to sensationalise the events, merely presenting them as is, albeit with considerable literary license one suspects. The actual collision is quite well done for its day, showed in stop-frame at the beginning and in full gory detail at the conclusion. I have this film in our library and decided to compile this review having watched it this evening, the first time in ten years or so. An absolute time-capsule!

Titled COLLISION COURSE in Australia, and several European countries.