Movie of the Week: Heatwave!

With the current temperatures climbing all over the world and specifically, the high temperatures spanning the United States I thought this ABC Movie of the Week from 1974 would be appropriate.  This television movie follows a single couple, Frank (Ben Murphy) and Laura Taylor (Bonnie Bedella) as they attempt to deal with a society gone mad when an unprecedented heatwave grips their city for weeks without any relief.  Laura is seven months pregnant and her husband Frank works as a junior stockbroker, but they are struggling to make ends meet. Laura’s parents are well-to-do, and Frank resents that he has had to borrow money from them.  As the heatwave progresses, water becomes in short supply and power begins being cut as the draw from all the air conditioners is too much for the cities power grid.  When Frank’s work shuts down from a brownout that will remain in place until the temperature returns to normal, the couple decide to make the trip to the mountains where Laura’s family owns a cabin, thinking it will be cooler and with more supplies.  But on the way there, they are robbed of their car and must walk the rest of the way, finding that the town is nearly deserted with no power.  When Laura has a health crisis, Frank and some unlikely friends must find a way to save her life.  Will Laura and her baby survive?  Watch and find out! (Or don’t as I am not really going to recommend anyone watch this movie).

So, this was a movie about almost nothing at all and yet was treated like a major disaster film. Not helping the matter was the overly dramatic music that accompanied some scenes that really had no true meaning.  They seemed to build up as if there was going to be some great revelation, and then the scene would just end without ever giving us a reason for the musical build up.  Maybe I am jaded by the fact that our society has already dealt with heatwaves, earthquakes, pandemics and floods, and I just can’t see what the big deal was.  Temperatures regularly get to triple digits in many places in the country and emergency response teams are trained to deal with the situation.  Cities set up cooling stations and places to go to get water and emergency supplies, but this movie treated it as if it were the end of days and if there was no aid being given to those in need.  I think possibly, they wanted this to be a character driven film highlighting the struggling relationship between Frank and Laura, but they failed in that too, and for the most part, I didn’t really care for Frank and had a hard time connecting with the character.

The film does get better near the end, when Laura and her baby need medical treatment that is not available where they are, so Frank, with the help of some of the characters we meet along their journey, go on a scavenger hunt for the things needed.  This was appropriately dramatic and added a bit of urgency to what was otherwise a film about nothing. This lack of real drama or plot, made what in reality is a very short movie, feel like it dragged on forever.  This is one of the few times I am going to recommend people skip it and go on to another disaster!