I’m delighted to inform you that there was only disappointment this time around, no provisos to save the day, no reassessment to make me change my original views. This truly is a terrible picture. Possibly the worst to involve Michael Caine, who was no slouch when it came to making inadvisable choices. Just as with The Island (1980) which on paper appeared a slam-dunk hit coming as it did in the wake of Jaws (1975) and The Deep (1977), based on Peter Benchley bestsellers, this looked like a no-brainer, another Irwin Allen disaster picture following on from mega-hits The Towering Inferno (1974) and Earthquake (1975).
It’s tempting to blame it on the bees. The special effects creating the sky-borne swarm makes them look like nothing more than a strange smudge on the screen. And the bodies or cars or helicopters smothered in millions of static bees score pretty low, actually, on the scare-o-meter, nothing like a giant shark on the loose. Anyone caught in the swarm has to go into some kind of slow-motion dance that fails to shake them off.
Sure we’ve got a runaway train coming off the tracks and sliding down a hill, but the action quotient is surprisingly pretty low. The opportunity, a la The Birds (1963), to lay low a town is ignored and after a few peremptory shots of bees causing havoc we’re stuck with TV reports. Even giant bees, caused by hallucination, might cause an audience to vaguely squirm but it doesn’t replicate the gut-wrenching terror of a killer shark or the tension of a burning skyscraper.
The cast spend most of their time in exposition mode, or arguing with each other as to whose exposition is better. We know a heck of a lot more about the bees, and why they’re on the rampage, some nonsense about alarm horns replicating the sound of bees mating, than we do about any of the characters.
There’s a smidgeon of romance between Dr Bradford Crane (Michael Caine) and Capt Dr Helena Anderson (Katharine Ross) but it doesn’t get beyond the teenage (“am I walking too fast for you?). And there’s a truly terrible attempt at romantic comedy as old codgers Felix (Ben Johnson) and Clarence (Fred MacMurray) fight over school marm Maureen (Olivia De Havilland) who looks as if she’d like to crack their heads together.
A young boy is caught up in the melee and a pregnant woman, and I was looking out for the statutory nun, a strange omission is a disaster narrative.
The only effective bit of the movie is the opening when a squad of soldiers all Hazchem-med up descend on a deserted missile base and find the entire garrison – apart from a half-dozen – lying dead on the floor. That Dr Crane happens to be passing by leads to a stupid subplot where Major General Slater (Richard Widmark) and sidekick Major Baker (Bradford Dillman) take the suspicion option and look for an excuse to bang up the academic.
This initially went on general release in a curtailed version running just short of two hours rather than the original 155-minute cut which you can now catch, as I did, on YouTube.
You can’t blame Michael Caine (The Island, 1980) for this mess and he would have acquitted himself well if there had been any actual acting to be done outside of the exposition and arguing with the major general. His best scene is when he gently carries crippled mentor Dr Krim (Henry Fonda) into his wheelchair. Katharine Ross (Hellfighters, 1968) has such a restrained screen persona half the time you think she’s going to burst into tears.
Uber-producer Irwin Allen (The Towering Inferno) had decided by this point that he could dispense with a name director and take on that chore himself. But I doubt if anyone could have made a better job given they were stuck with bees and a terrible script by Stirling Silliphant (In the Heat of the Night, 1967).
A true stinker.
The Magnificent 60s 
Some stinky bits:
“In Arthur Herzog’s 1974 novel, the climax takes place in New York City, not Houston, TX, as in the movie, noted the 7 Jul 1978 NYT.
The 28 May 1974 HR reported that Twentieth Century-Fox had purchased film rights to Herzog’s novel, The Swarm, and that screenwriter Stirling Silliphant would adapt the book for Irwin Allen Productions. Publishers Weekly noted on 25 Nov 1974 that the studio planned to release the film in 1976. One year later, however, the 30 Oct 1975 HR announced that The Swarm would be the first movie made under producer-director Irwin Allen’s new multiple-film deal at Warner Bros. Inc. David Z. Goodman would write the screenplay and the picture would shoot at Warner Bros. studios and on location in South America, Mexico, AK, Houston, TX, and Washington, D.C. In the 18 Dec 1977 LAT, Allen noted that he changed studios because “it was simply a time to move on, and Warner Bros., came along with an offer so dazzling that it couldn’t be turned down.”
The 23 Apr 1976 HR stated that the film would be released the following year and that Silliphant and Goodman had co-written the script. However, Goodman’s name does not appear in onscreen credits and Silliphant is credited as the sole screenwriter. Likewise, although the 23 Jun 1977 HR announced John Williams as the film’s composer-conductor, he is not credited as such onscreen.
While the 23 Jun 1977 DV announced that principal photography was scheduled to start 10 Aug 1977, an Aug 1977 press release from Warner Bros. announced that production would begin 22 Aug 1977. A full-page advertisement in the 22 Aug 1977 Box confirmed that The Swarm started filming that day.
While several sources, including DV and production notes in AMPAS library files, reported that location shooting would take place in Houston, the Los Angeles, CA, basin and Northern CA, the 20 Jul 1977 LAT specified additional sites, including the Southern CA cities of Lompoc, Newhall and Redlands.
Accounts of the number of bees used during production ranged from as many as twenty-two million, reported by production notes and the 20 Jul 1977 LAT, to as few as fifteen million, according to the 18 Dec 1977 LAT, which further stated that 800,000 bees had their stingers removed so that the cast could safely interact with them. The only cast member reportedly stung was Olivia de Havilland. When the bees were not on set, they were housed in various Burbank, CA, locations and cared for by one hundred people whose duties included moving the insects nightly for foraging purposes, according to LAT and the 7 Jul 1978 NYT.
Reports of the film’s budget also varied widely. While the 7 Nov 1975 DV announced that The Swarm was budgeted at over $8 million and the 23 Apr 1976 HR reported the movie would cost $5 million, production notes and the 23 Jun 1977 HR noted the picture would cost $10 million or more. The estimate climbed to $11 million, according to the 20 Jul 1977 LAT, and in a 21 Feb 1978 HR news item, Allen suggested the film would cost approximately $13 million. The 7 Jul 1978 NYT reported that the film cost $12 million.
While the 4 Oct 1977 HR mentioned that The Swarm was scheduled to complete production 8 Nov 1977, and the 18 Dec 1977 LAT noted that principal photography took sixty-five days, the 1 Dec 1977 HR announced that filming had been completed that day and that the studio would release the picture 14 Jul 1978.
The 10 Feb 1978 HR reported that Frank Van der Veer was responsible for the effects in The Swarm, but he is not listed in the onscreen credits.
While the American Bee Association considered suing Allen for defaming the American honeybee, according to an article in the 21 Feb 1978 HR, it has not been determined whether such a lawsuit was ever filed.
A news brief in the 24 Feb 1978 HR reported that the studio’s plan to open The Swarm in over 1,100 theaters would make it the widest opening in Warner Bros. history to date. The studio later increased its order, bringing the total number of ordered prints to 1228, according to the 30 Jun 1978 DV.
The 22 May 1978 HR stated that studio executives responded so enthusiastically to a screening of the film that Allen spoke with Silliphant about writing a sequel. However, no sequel was ever made.
The Swarm opened 14 Jul 1978 at the Bruin Theatre in Westwood, CA, and the Hollywood Pacific Theatre in Hollywood, CA, according to production notes. As reported by the 25 Nov 1978 LAT, the film subsequently grossed $11.5 million, an underperforming disappointment when compared to Allen’s previous successes The Poseidon Adventure (1972, see entry) and The Towering Inferno (1974, see entry).
Paul Zastupnevich was nominated for a 1978 Academy Award for Costume Design.
The following statements appear onscreen during the end credits: “We gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of the Department of Defense and the United States Air Force for their assistance in making this motion picture.” And: “The African killer bee portrayed in this film bears absolutely no relationship to the industrious, hardworking American honey bee [sic] to which we are indebted for pollinating vital crops that feed our nation.” And: “Filmed at The Burbank Studios, Burbank, California.”
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Thanks very much for that.
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