Movie for a Sunday afternoon: "The Cassandra Crossing" (1977)

You Tube ^ | 1977 | George P. Cosmatos

[ReformationFan]

With tomorrow being the inauguration of the disastrous 2nd Obama Administration(a/k/a the 3rd Jimmy Carter Administration that never was), what could be more appropriate for today's MFASA pick than a disaster film released the same year as the inauguration of the Carter presidency? A plague infected terrorist stows away on a passenger train which gets rerouted to a quarantine camp that will have to cross a rickety bridge with a good chance of not being able to sustain the train's weight. Come to think of it, the innocent train passengers probably have more reason to be optimistic about their fate than the average U.S. citizen does. Anyway, enjoy!

[ReformationFan]

I discovered this film on Turner Classic Movies on a Sunday afternoon a few years back and found it quite involving and underrated.

[TEXOKIE]

Thanks for the link. I don’t think I ever saw it!

[Joe 6-pack]

OJ Simpson plays an FBI agent?!?!!?

[ReformationFan]

Makes about as much sense as BHO being elected twice, doesn’t it?

[ReformationFan]

You’re welcome. It didn’t get great reviews so I never bothered to watch it until I stumbled across it on TV. It’s actually one of the more exciting entries in the disaster films of the seventies. Let me know what you think of it.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Ironically, one of the very few dangerous pulmonary diseases that exists is out there right now: H5N1 Avian flu, which has not resulted in a worldwide pandemic of unprecedented scale only because of pure dumb luck. It could emerge into a strain that is easily spread human to human at any time, and it is a mystery why it has not yet done so.

Like the disease in the movie, it has about a 60% mortality rate, and because it is a novel pathogen, nobody has even a partial immunity to it.

This means only a tiny amount is needed to establish an infection, not a significant amount that is needed for influenza for which we have partial immunity. But it is much, much worse.

H5N1 affects a much larger spectrum of animal vectors than any other flu, even animals with markedly different immune systems. So even if it doesn’t emerge among people, it could wipe out much of the world’s supply of food animals.

Typically, over time, diseases become less virulent, but H5N1 has mysteriously maintained its 60% mortality rate since its discovery in China in 1996.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Watched a Danny Kaye film festival in honor of what would have been his hundredth birthday on TCM all day - The pellet with the poison’s in the chalis with the palace... - someone with Kaye’s humility, humanity, and grace would have been so superior to what we’re stuck with for the next four years - but at least as of tonight we do have less than four years to go......

[ReformationFan]

Kaye was a great comedian. He was one of the many who showed it was possible to attain laughs without stooping to crude humor.

I think my favorite film of his is the 1961 WWII comedy/spy thriller “On the Double”

http://clzimages.com/movie/large/09/09_d__0_OnTheDouble.jpg

I got it on DVD after it was finally released after 50 years. If someone ever puts it up on youtube, I plan to make it a future MFASA.

[Intolerant in NJ]

He was one of the many who showed it was possible to attain laughs without stooping to crude humor...for sure - Kaye, Hope, Skelton, Lucille Ball - all were essentially laughing at themselves, or at least the silly characters they created - nothing like today, when socalled humor consists almost entirely of poking fun at the foibles of others, as though the attackers were beyond reproach and criticism - what a small-minded, venomous bunch today's "comedians" really are.....