Hi!
I've been working on my China photos, and have made lots of progress on the I SPY/Hong Kong ones. I caught part of "The World of Suzie Wong" last night .... and though it was filmed several years before I SPY was there, there were many sites that were familiar from the episodes.
So until my "THEN & NOW" Hong Kong photos are ready, I wanted to mention .... FLOOD!!
There is a new videoclip of Bob's movie, FLOOD , (1976) up on Google.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?client=safari&rls=en&q=%22robert%20Culp%22%20flood&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wv
(Here's the direct link from Video Detective, which doesn't play for me.)
http://www.videodetective.com/movies/FLOOD/trailer/P00002127.htm
FLOOD was an Irwin Allen made-for-TV film. Irwin Allen was the
king of the disaster films producing "The Towering Inferno," "The Poseidon Adventure," "The Swarm," "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" (both the movie and TV versions) and on TV - "The Time Tunnel," "Lost in Space," "Land of the Giants," etc., etc. He often used his favorite actors over and over in his other productions - which always had huge casts.
FLOOD had a great cast, itself - besides Bob (who is mentioned first in the videoclip), it also starred Martin Milner, Richard Basehart, Barbara Hershey, Carol Lynley, Roddy McDowell, Cameron Mitchell, and Leif Garrett, among many others.
O.K. I hope I don't give anyone a headache, but I
love those "I SPY" and "Culp" connections (as in "he's worked with everyone out there twice") - so sit back, get comfy, and follow along ... lots of connections here!!
The director of
FLOOD was no less than
Earl Bellamy (One of Our Bombs Is Missing, The Beautiful Children, Laya, The Medarra Block, Philotimo, Now You See Her, Now You Don't, An American Empress, etc. etc. He directed 14 "I SPY" episodes in all.)
The story is basically about a long-time mayor of a small town who does not want to admit that the dam protecting them is about to burst - big-time! .... It was not a terrific film, but I did think seeing the fantastic cast made up for that a good deal.
Martin Milner played the town "good guy" - who no one listens to ... and Bob plays his friend, Steve Brannigan, a helicopter pilot was comes in and tries to help when the disaster occurs.
As to "connections" ... Mona had asked about who was standing to the right of our Mr. Culp - in this photo of "Hollywood Squares Crime Fighters Week" (2004) I had posted awhile ago. Yep, that's Marty Milner, of "Route 66 and Adam-12." And that's Henry Winkler (The Fonz) and the producer of the show on his left.
and that's
Dennis Weaver, sitting on the far left. Bob co-starred with Dennis Weaver in 1977 in the excellent
POLICE STORY episode "A Cry for Justice" - where Culp plays Weaver's flamboyant partner. Morality and personality come to play when they need to re-examine new evidence that will impact a closed case they both handled together.
"A Cry for Justice" also co-starred "I SPY" alumni guest stars
Diana Muldaur (This Guy Smith), who plays Dennis Weaver's wife (and who you may remember appeared as "McCloud's" girlfriend, Chris Coughlin, in that series ....).
Nehemiah Persoff ("The Honorable Assassins" and " Rome Take Away Three") is also in "A Cry for Justice" playing a small role as a psychiatrist.
Plus
Larry Hagman is featured as a lawyer (Culp and Hagman starred in "Last of the Good Guys" together in 1978 - and - the other famous Hagman connection
from IMDB, Bob .... "would have replaced Larry Hagman as J.R. in "Dallas" (1978) if Hagman decided not to return to the series because of contract negotiations. There was a storyline all ready to explain JR`s new face: a bullet had struck him right in that evil smile and he would require plastic surgery, and when the bandages came off there would be Robert Culp. However, the pay dispute was resolved and Hagman came back."
There are
more connections with "The Last of the Good Guys" (Marlyn Mason), but I'll save them for later. I don't want to spin too far out of orbit here --- so back to
FLOOD !
Cameron Mitchell also starred in
FLOOD , as another town member trying to get the mayor to listen to reason about the impending dam break.
OK, back to my beloved "connections" ... Cameron Mitchell co-starred in one of my "all-time" favorite Bad Bob Movies (as I always say - "Bob is never bad in a movie, but some of those movies he's been in were really bad."
) Bob and Cameron appeared in
Joshua at Jericho, one of those films in the "Greatest Heroes of the Bible" series (1978).
Need I say more ...
Bob was Joshua (bet he asked for the biggest beard they'd give him to hide behind) and Cameron played Assurabi, the General of Jericho. Subtlety was NOT the keyword to describe Cameron's performance ... in fact, I couldn't find a director listed for this one at all. Whoever he was, he really must have encouraged his actors to play things
way over the top. You really wanted to hiss out loud whenever Assurabi or the King (Sydney Lassick) appeared on screen. This one was so bad, it was stellar!!
And then there's
Leif Garrett also appeared in
FLOOD. At one time, Leif was listed as Bob's son in "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,"(1969) but IMDB now lists him as Ted and Alice's son. But Leif did play Bob's nephew in
STRANGE HOMECOMING, a very interesting made-for-TV film from 1974. The casting was a bit strange, with Glen Campbell playing Bob's brother. Glen was a small-town sheriff who cool, uncle Bob comes to visit after a long absence. Unbeknownst to everyone, Bob is also a jewel-thief and murderer, using the visit to hide out for awhile. There were some very interesting dynamics going on in this one, and it was quite well-done. (I'm not giving anything away here, the storyline is given at the opening of the film.)
The writer/producers of
STRANGE HOMECOMING happen to be
Eric Bercovici (Turkish Delight & One Thousand Fine) and
Jerry Ludwig (The Name of the Game, A Few Miles West of Nowhere, Cops & Robbers, and Now You See Her, Now You Don't) - AND the production manager and asst. director was
Leon Chooluck. Old home week!! ... and probably the reason for the quality of this one.
Anyone else ever see
FLOOD or any of these other Bob films??
Let us know what you thought of them! ( ... And any of your always interesting insights to share, MBF??)
O.K. everybody go take 2 aspirins and I'll have more later.
As always,
Tatia
P.S. Hey, Lindy ... how is the I SPY DVD viewing going? Any special favorites??
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