THE DEATH OF OCEAN PARK

US, 1979, 120 minutes, Colour.
Mike Connors, Diane Canova, Mare Winningham, Martin Landau, Perry Lang.
Directed by E.S. Swackhammer.

The Death of Ocean Park is one of many disaster telemovies of the late '76s - no better, no worse.

A real amusement park was demolished for the film - with explosions and collapsing roller coasters and ferris wheels etc. The crowds rush away in terror. The film was directed by E. W. Schwackhammer, a prolific director of telemovies.

The tile's screenplay borrows a great deal from Jaws and other disaster films - especially with a 4th. of July celebration, a hurricane, an amusement park which seems to be dangerous and a businessman who insists, despite advice, that the show must go on. Mike Connors (almost looking and sounding like David Janssen) is the tough former owner of the amusement park with the heart of gold. Martin Landau looks quite mad at times though dying heroically saving a young couple on a ferris wheel) as the seemingly ruthless businessman.

The film has a difference: heroine Diane Canova has premonitions about the collapse of the amusement park. This is attributed to her nerves, to her pregnancy, perhaps to psychic powers. There is a pleasant sub-plot with Perry Lang as an awkward sailor (egged on by fellow sailors from the Coast Guard and trying out with a local prostitute) and hare Winningham as an awkward attendant at the park. Though their encounter is the material of cliche and sentiment, the two handle the romantics very well indeed.

There are cheerful scenes at the park, there is a hurricane with a special tide that undermines the park and boys getting in and trying out some of the turns which go berserk to their horror, a kindly negro superintendent -and any number of expected characters and situations 1rom telemovies.

The file lives up to its expectations, television style.