By 1978 the Hollywood disaster movie model, which fueled 1970s mega-hits like THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972) and THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974), was successful enough that it was bound to be filched by Roger Corman. Hence the Corman produced AVALANCHE, a cut-rate alternative to the Hollywood formula that emphasized movie stars (albeit of the B and C list variety) caught up in a disaster (a Styrofoam avalanche) that was more budget-friendly than those of the previous films.
The fact that it takes until nearly an hour into this 91 minute film for the titular catastrophe to occur is the first and most pressing of AVALANCHE’s problems. Most of the film is taken up with dull character development and even duller melodrama, involving a cast that includes Rock Hudson as David Shelby, owner of the Colorado based Paradise Ski Lodge; Mia Farrow as Shelby’s ex-wife Caroline Brace, who happens to be staying at the lodge; and Robert Forster as Nick Thorne, an environmental activist who tries to warn Shelby and his subordinates of the potentially deadly snow buildup around the lodge, but is of course ignored.
Once the ‘lanch finally happens—before which director Corey Allen tries to keep our attention with gratuitous T&A, a skiing competition and Thorne firing cannon blasts at snowpacks—the lassitude only gets worse. Allen uses a variety of low budget trickery to convey the devastation, from clumsily incorporated stock footage to equally poorly integrated model work to Styrofoam “snow” blocks that are rendered all the more unconvincing because they’re mixed with actual snow (which highlights the unreality). Only the stunt work, incorporating people flung against walls and thrown through windows, manages to impress.
The avalanche sequence lasts around eight minutes, with the remainder of the film comprised mostly of efforts made by the more heroic characters to dig trapped people out of mounds of snow. The special effects in this portion aren’t much better than those of the avalanche sequence, and Allen’s by-the-numbers staging and camera placement do nothing to heighten the excitement, much less atone for the crushing inertia of the first hour.
Sylvester Stallone, speaking about RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II (1985), claims to have told its editor Larry Bock, a longtime Corman associate who also edited the film under review, to “Cut it down to the action—the way Roger cuts his pictures.” Bock would have done well to follow that advice on AVALANCHE, which is shockingly dull and uneventful. Corman is said to have considered directing AVALANCHE himself, and he’d have done well to follow through on that decision.
Vital Statistics
AVALANCHE
New World Pictures
Director: Corey Allen
Producer: Roger Corman
Cinematography: Corey Allen, “Claude Pola” (Gavin Lambert)
Editing: Larry Bock, Stuart Schoolnik
Cast: Rock Hudson, Mia Farrow, Robert Forster, Jeanette Nolan, Rick Moses, Steve Franken, Barry Primus, Cathey Paine, Jerry Douglas, Anthony Carbone, Peggy Browne, Pat Egan, Joby Baker, X Brands, Cindy Luedke, John Cathey, Angelo Lamonea