The Swarm (1978)

User Rating:

3.9/10   

Director:

Irwin Allen

Writers:

Arthur Herzog Jr. (novel)
Stirling Silliphant (screenplay)

Release Date:

14 July 1978 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Sci-Fi | Horror

Tagline:

It's more than a speculation - it's a prediction !

Plot:

A huge swarm of deadly African bees spreads terror over American cities by killing thousands of people.

Plot Keywords:

Swarm | Bee | Killer Bee | Military | Small Town

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Michael Caine	...	Dr. Bradford Crane
Katharine Ross	...	Capt. Helena Anderson
Richard Widmark	...	Major General Thalius Slater
Richard Chamberlain	...	Dr. Hubbard
Olivia de Havilland	...	Maureen Schuster (as Olivia De Havilland)
Ben Johnson	...	Felix
Lee Grant	...	Anne MacGregor
José Ferrer	...	Dr. Andrews (as Jose Ferrer)
Patty Duke	...	Rita (as Patty Duke Astin)
Slim Pickens	...	Jud Hawkins
Bradford Dillman	...	Major Baker
Fred MacMurray	...	Mayor Clarence Tuttle
Henry Fonda	...	Dr. Walter Krim
Cameron Mitchell	...	General Thompson
Christian Juttner	...	Paul Durant

Runtime:

116 min | USA:157 min (expanded video edition)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (35 mm optical prints) | 4-Track Stereo (35 mm magnetic prints)

Certification:

Netherlands:12 (orginal rating) | France:-12 | West Germany:16 (nf) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 (1978) | Sweden:15 | UK:12 | USA:PG | West Germany:12 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Houston, Texas, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Managing the bees was a huge challenge on this film. The production went through several bee keepers before finding one who solved the problem by hiring people to clip the stingers off of the bees. This was accomplished in a refrigerated trailer, as bees are incapacitated by freezing temperatures. This operation, which went on all summer, made the bees safer for use around the cast and crew, although a few stingers were missed. But, as it turned out, some lingering venom got into the air on the sound stages and produced some allergic reactions. In addition, everyone had little yellow dots on their clothing - bee poop, probably.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: When Rita goes to the doctor for a prenatal visit, the chest X ray in the background is upside down.

Quotes:

[Crane is talking to a sting victim who is hallucinating a giant bee]
Brad Crane: [while the giant bee is hovering next to him] There's no bee here. I promise you, there's no bee here.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Inside 'The Swarm' (1978) (TV)

Reach for the Windex!

Whenever I bother to watch "The Swarm," I'm always tempted to get out the Windex and spray the TV screen until I remember those dark smudges are supposed to be killer bees, the star attraction of what proved to be disaster flick king Irwin Allen's last box-office hit (and a modest one at that). That's the number one problem with this movie. How can killer bees incite terror in the viewer when they only amount to a bunch of dots on the screen?

Since the "horror" has no sting, the only thing left to do is gawk at the movie stars. Give Allen credit. Even if he wasn't much of a director (this film marked his debut in that capacity), and was strictly a schlockmeister as a producer, he did what many others, including the producers of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," had tried and failed to do when he brought megastars Steve McQueen and Paul Newman together to headline "The Towering Inferno." The lineup for "The Swarm" doesn't have quite the same star power, but we do get Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, and Richard Widmark, as well as cameos by Henry Fonda and Fred MacMurray, along with the TV names that always round out these "all-star casts." If star watching doesn't keep you occupied, Allen's dreadful direction may keep you glued to your chair in bewilderment by his idea of style. My favorite scene is the first confrontation between bee expert Caine and short-tempered military man Widmark. While the two stars argue back and forth, the camera slowly circles the pair as if something very dramatic is taking place. It must be the worst staging of a scene since Ed Wood was grinding out another kind of B movie. But Wood's movies were more entertaining than "The Swarm," and although there are more unintended laughs to come, there not enough to combat the boredom.