"Hurricane" the movie

[Cookiely]

Does anyone remember the movie "Hurricane" starring Patrick Duffy, Larry Hagman and Martin Milner? I just finished watching it and I would like to know if this was based on a real hurricane Hilda? The storm was 180 mph and landed in Mississippi. In the movie a small private vessell got trapped in the eye of the storm and a submarine saved them. The hurricane recon plane lost two engines and was lost. I did find a reference that said this was taken from real stories that happened during Camille. I thought no recon planes had every crashed. It just sounded so far fetched.........

[clfenwi]

"The made-for-TV Hurricane was based on William C. Anderson's novel Hurricane Hunters, which, in turn, was inspired by events surrounding Hurricane Camille in 1969. The scene is Cassler, MS, where a pair of hurricane chasers, patrol-plane pilot Major Stoddard (Martin Milner) and seafarer Paul Damon (Larry Hagman) do their best to rescue the citizens of the community from a devastating storm. Other key characters include: feminist TV weatherperson Lee Jackson (Michael Learned); old-fashioned (but shrewd) meteorologist Dr. McCutcheon (Will Geer); Damon's imperiled wife, Louise (Jessica Walter); and oblivious Bert Pearson (Frank Sutton in his final movie role). Hurricane originally aired September 10, 1974, as the first installment of a brand-new ABC Movie of the Week season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide"

Haven't seen the movie myelf, but wouldn't be surprised if they used Camille as the general model and then threw in extreme elements from other storms. For example, we have lost a recon plane in the Atlantic basin before, but it wasn't in Camille, it was in Janet of 1955.

[mikey mike]

I barely remember when that movie first aired.Must have been 16 yrs old then.I can remember the family laughing at ‘‘Cassler,MS’’.

[SouthernWx]

"Hurricane" was based loosely on events surrounding hurricane Camille in 1969...

While a USAF recon aircraft did indeed experience mechanical problems and was forced to 1) feather their #3 engine...2) abort the rest of their mission...and 3) make an emergency landing near Houston, Texas....no recon aircraft has been lost in an Atlantic hurricane since 1955 (and the only USAF C-130 I'm aware of ever being lost in a tropical cyclone anywhere occurred during WPAC typhoon "Bess" in October 1974; none in the Atlantic basin).

There was indeed a hurricane Hilda to strike the U.S. as a major hurricane.....but it was a cat-3 in early October 1964 which struck south central Louisiana (west of Morgan City). A rare violent (F4) tornado spawned by Hilda killed dozens in Larose, Louisiana.

Also, there were some other "little things" I noticed about the movie "Hurricane" which are laughable. First of all, as the movie opens....the very first recon flight by "USAF gull-ten" finds 182 kt (210 mph) winds at 1500' flight level (which brings up the question what kind of USAF pilot would be insane enough to penetrate such an intense hurricane at 1500'?); followed by a young black crew member stating "I think we got ourselves a hurricane" (duh!!

Also, you notice in the movie the same doomed USAF crew and same C-130 kept flying mission after mission into the ferocious hurricane (geez, no wonder it experienced catastrophic engine failure). I also noted that on the final recon pass (before the plane caught fire then lost another engine as it blew up), the flight engineer reported 220 kt flight level winds....apparently again by major Stoddard inexplicably flying a recon mission into a record intense hurricane only 1500' feet above the ocean; 220 kts at 1500' flight level would equate to 185-190 kts at the surface, or an estimated sustained surface wind of a mind boggling 215 mph......yikes!! no wonder the 4th engine failed

It was also quite interesting to see a couple young future stars in this flick....Patrick Duffy for one (along with his future Dallas co-star/ brother Larry Hagman); also Michael Learned and Will Geer....who were both stars on the network series "The Walton's" at the same time the movie was produced.

I remember seeing the movie as it aired in September 1974...but had forgotten some of the details until recently purchasing a VHS copy of "Hurricane" at the local Wal-Mart for the measly sum of $1.00 (I'm a big spender huh?


Perry

[EDR1222]

I never saw it, but is sounds like it would be worth watching.

I would spend a dollar for it at Walmart

[GalvestonDuck]

I bought that one and "Terror Storm" on Ebay last year to add to my collection of disaster flicks.

[djones65]

LOL
Yes, I remember the Hurricane movie.
It was based "loosely" on Hurricane Camille.
If you noticed the Cassler AFB is amazingly close to the actual AFB "Keesler" located in Biloxi, MS where the Hurricane Hunters take off.
In addition, the old man with the "instincts" is likely the much loved and revered "Nash Roberts" who is a New Orleans "legend" in forecasting hurricanes.
At times during Camille's life the aircraft which was flown (the Navy Gull's were used for reconnaissance up until I believe 1974) stated "the eye was too small to penetrate, so many recon missions only made radar fixes and did not actually fly through the eyewall.

I thought it was amazing when the submarine rescued Larry Hagman and the pleasure craft in the "eye" of Hurricane Hilda.

Also, the infamous "mythical" hurricane party in the Richielu <sp?>
apartments in Pass Christian was used in this movie, to further justify my assertion that "Hurricane" was based on Hurricane Camille, also by the fact the movie was made less than 5 years after this devastating hurricane made landfall.

[JaxGator]

I've seem some of it and it looked good. Though I wonder why they haven't made another hurricane movie yet. There's also some novels that have them as a sub-plot, but I would think that a book or movie on hurricanes could help raise awareness as some people might forget what they can do if they hit.

[tropicwatch]

I remember the movie and was disappointed that it bombed because part of it was filmed at Pinnacle Point on the west end of Panama City Beach. My stompin ground

What's Ironic is that Hurricane Eloise came through the year after the movie and did some damage to Pinnacle Point.

[ftolmsteen]

I remember a made for tv movie in the 90's about Hurricane Andrew showing what happened as it hit and right before. I remember Bryan Norcross being the main role. Acting was subpar, but was interesting.

[ninel conde]

Weather movies generally dont turn out so well.

[JaxGator]

Weather movies generally dont turn out so well.

I wouldn't say that. Twister is a good weather movie and one of my favorites.

[crownweather]

I remember a made for tv movie in the 90's about Hurricane Andrew showing what happened as it hit and right before. I remember Bryan Norcross being the main role. Acting was subpar, but was interesting.

It was called "Triumph Over Disaster: The Hurricane Andrew Story". YouTube link to the movie - https://youtu.be/srcP-Fu4v78

[beoumont]

"The Perfect Storm", 2000 with George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg was basically a movie about a hurricane (absorbed by a hurricane strength large extratropical low) at sea. The ocean scenes created in a computer were pretty good as well as the acting and the based on fact storyline; but the "meteorological" entries were absolutely dumb.

"The Hurricane", 1999, with Denzel Washington was an excellent movie, but was a boxing movie, nothing to do with weather.

"The Hurricane", 1937 was partially shot on Pago Pago, black and white of course, and had some of the best, or at least most exciting tidal surge shots ever seen on film; albeit fake. The whole island totally overtaken except the top of a few palm trees where the hero of the movie survived. http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/78725/The-Hurricane/notes.html
It comes on TCM once in a while. Overall the movie was about a 2 star movie on the 1-4 movie scale.

On "Twister": I thought the computer generated tornado scenes and structure were very exciting and realistic looking. The storyline of Helen Hunt's goal (and trite movie romance) to get hundreds of her silver balls into one tornado, which would supposedly improve future forecasting techniques and save lives, was silly.