Seeming on the surface as if it must be one of Irwin "The Master of Disaster" Allen's TV projects, this 1973 TV-movie in fact has nothing at all to do with him. It was produced by Harve Bennett (of the four
Star Trek sequel movies) and David Lowell Rich, who also directed. Allen was still in the throes of his big screen period, having finished the stellar
The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and now working on the even bigger
The Towering Inferno (1974), so it was up to other folks to bring disaster crashing to the small screen. (Allen would indeed return to the small screen towards the end of the decade with
Fire!, Flood!, Cave-In! and other television opuses.) Yes, we're still caught in the
TV-Movie Time Tunnel and before we come out, we're looking into
Runaway!
The ostensible star of
Runaway! is Ben Johnson, then a recent Oscar-winner for
The Last Picture Show (1971), a movie he endlessly referred to as dirty even as it brought him to a higher level of fame and acting notoriety. Johnson later appeared in
The Swarm (1979.) He plays a Colorado train conductor, about to turn sixty-five and retire, who is guiding a group of more than 200 skiers down a mountain after their shenanigans on the slopes.
On board also is
Vera Miles (of
Inter- national Airport and countless other TV-movies and feature films) as a smoking, drinking sophisticate with a sarcastic air and a detached sense of anti-camaraderie.
Long and curly-haired stud Ben Murphy sidles up to her and attempts to pick her up! She's flattered, but sends him packing as it's quite clear he intends to use her as a meal (and travel!) ticket...
...oh, and also her husband Ed Nelson is with her! He asks her who her youthful friend is and we soon discover that this couple, who share children together, is on the verge of permanent break-up, all revealed through arch, trite dialogue between them. Nelson would soon pop up in
Airport 1975 (1974) as the navy pilot who first attempts the mid-air transfer of the stricken plane.
Also among the other passengers of this train are pretty Laurette Spang (already a veteran of
Short Walk to Daylight, 1972, and about to be cast as a stewardess in
Airport 1975) and Kip Niven (who managed to appear in not only
Airport 1975, but
Earthquake, 1974, and
The Hindenburg, 1975, as well!)
Then we have dreamy
Ray Danton as a college professor along on a school ski trip. He's been strapping on more than skis, however...
...he's also been trying out the slopes of a coed, Darleen Carr. She wants to continue their sleepover slaloms even beyond the weekend they've just shared, but he's back in family man mode and wants none of it.
She happens to catch the penniless Murphy stealing someone's train ticket and graciously pays his way, though she still can't get her mind off Danton. (And, even though he's quite the jerk in this, who couldn't, cute as Murphy is!)
Still filling out the roster of featured passengers, we come upon Martin Milner and his young son Lee Mont- gomery. Montgomery has just disappointed his dad by failing to succeed on skis.
Milner, who looks like he could use some better lighting, was still starring on
Adam-12. He would proceed to
Hurricane (1974) and
Flood! (1976), the latter for Irwin Allen. (He also starred on Allen's adventure series
Swiss Family Robinson.)
Montgomery, whose sister Belinda figured heavily in our previous post, had just starred in
Ben (1972), the sequel to
Willard (1971) and would continue as a young actor through the 1980s. Some might recall him from
Burnt Offerings (1975.)
Once we've become acquainted with the key people on board, about 12 minutes in, it becomes apparent to Johnson that the train, in fact, has no brakes!! The vessel begins hurtling along its tracks at up to 60 miles per hour, eventually reaching 70 mph while a considerable curve awaits!
Because of all the unruliness of the half-drunk skiers in back, Johnson can't raise the conductor on his walkie-talkie. He also cannot do anything from behind the train's engine since the man he sent back there to work on it has fallen and been knocked unconscious!
When he is finally able to contact the conductor, the old man pulls the lever, but practically nothing happens! The train is going so fast that the emergency brakes are useless...
Panic starts to set in as the passengers begin to discover that something isn't right. There is scurrying and flailing around as they are all told to remove everything that's being stored overhead and to nestle themselves in around the seats on the floor.
Meanwhile, at the train station, repre- sentatives who are tracking the situation have informed Johnson that there is no way he can make the upcoming turn at the speed the train is careening at.
Carr is desperate to be held by her older lover, but he still won't have it. Now he's afraid that if they are killed and discovered in one another's arms that his family will know he was unfaithful! (Carr, by the way, was a busy TV actress whose sister was Charmian Carr, Liesl of
The Sound of Music, 1965.)
Milner assists train employee Lou Frizzell in trying to clear some snow and ice off of the brake equipment, but that turns into an epic
fail, er fall, when Frizzell can't hold on to Milner's hand any longer and falls to his death under the thundering wheels of the train!
Murphy, who heretofore has been a mostly selfish lout, initially refuses to comfort little Montgomery while his father is outside helping to get Frizzell killed, but eventually acquiesces and invites the boy to snuggle into his ready-made bunk with him under one of the cocktail tables. He also assists a couple of blonde coeds get situated amongst their seat cushions on the floor.
Meanwhile, all the authorities wait for the runaway train to reach the dreaded curve in the tracks and when Johnson somehow manages to slide it along the tracks with success, they seem almost disappointed that they didn't get to run out and extinguish any fires or sweep up corpses...!
But it gets worse. Since the train has made it around the severe curve, the only place left for it to go is the train station, which is a dead end!
Literally, the track runs out right in front of the station and, at the rate it's going, this steel panel won't stop it. It will tear right through the wall into the interior. So the place is evacuated.
Their petty differences now meaningless in the face of this horror, Miles and Nelson cling to each other in fear and newfound devotion. Once disaster hits, she never again wants either a drink or a cig...! It's a miracle cure.
One of the passengers is in total shock and keeps loudly moaning and refusing to take his place on the floor much to Spang's dismay.
She repeatedly tries to get him to join her and Niven on the floor, but he's completely unres- ponsive. (Niven has virtually a non-role. On-hand merely to embrace Spang, though there are worse things one could be assigned to do!)
Danton looks on disdainfully, refusing to do anything about the situation. Incidentally, the man beside him, Ross Elliott, was in
Skyjacked (1972) and was soon to be cast as a fire deputy chief in
The Towering Inferno (1974.)
Finally, Miles gets up and goes to comfort the shock-laden man. She presses him up against her chest and begins to gently rock him into submission. This maternal act brings out the adoration of her estranged husband Nelson who decides maybe he'd still like a little of that after all. (Even this man, Than Wyenn, had a role in
Black Sunday, 1977, as an Israeli ambassador!)
Milner, though, has decided he's had enough of the whole damn thing. He drags Montgomery out of the cubby he was enjoying with Murphy, puts his coat on and explains that they are going to jump from the 70 mph train before it crashes! The conductor is adamant that they'll be killed in the process.
Milner ultimately cannot do it. Though he had told Montgomery he was sick of hearing "I'm sorry" over the spoiled ski trip, he now utters those very same words to his son as he realizes he cannot get them off the train as he'd hoped to.
At the train station, the potential demise of 214 people has brought out a swarm of three (...) reporters and one ambulance! They for reasons known only to them find it necessary to congregate on the very spot where the train is expected to crash and derail.
Nelson, with Miles' input, composes a letter to leave for their children, so that they'll know that their parents spent their last few moments alive together in love again.
Carr doesn't have it nearly so good. Because Danton refuses to hold her, she now feels hopelessly alone and unwanted and decides to end it all by hopping off the train!
Murphy, sensing something amiss, follows her out to the platform and tries to talk her back off the ledge, but she's awfully reluctant.
The unforeseen way in which this hazardous situation with the loss of brakes is resolved is tied in, timing-wise, to the fate of Carr on the precipice of the train steps. The writers were chugging (forgive me) for maximum suspense. They got a modicum of it instead. Still, we love these creaky, but endearing, prolific old telefilms packed with people who belong to our very own Disaster Movie Club. (
Runaway! here.)
