It's hard to believe that this atrocity exists. Irwin Allen, who began his career producing inane, yet campy TV shows (Lost in Space, etc) reached his lowest ebb with WHEN TIME RAN OUT. It has something to do with oilmen and a toney resort and a volcano about to erupt...but what difference does it make. The real interest in this fiasco is wondering what the likes of Paul Newman, William Holden, and the great Valentina Cortese were paid to attach their names to such a movie. Newman, donning what looks like Chuck Heston's EARTHQUAKE safari jacket, leads a group of stranded vacationer away from the lava of an especially cheesy looking volcano. Echoes of THE POSIEDON ADVENTURE? You bet...and with such grade B talents as Pat Morita, Red Buttons, and Barbara Carera along for the trip. POSIEDON vet Ernest Borgnine plays a cop trailing crooked businessman Buttons. Edward Albert, Veronica Hamel, Alex Karras, James Franciscus, and Jacqueline Bisset are in it too. The film's highpoint: former vaudevillian Burgess Meredith piggybacking children across a lava flow via a tightrope. Don't bother to see it to believe it...take my word for it. This film gives a writing credit to Carl Foreman (could this really be the same person who penned BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, HIGH NOON, and THE GUNS OF NAVARONE?!?) Inexplicable. Although most of the characters appear to be wearing clothing from Sears (or in the case of the women, perhaps fashions from Jaclyn Smith's K-MART collection), the costumes were nominated for an Oscar! Luckily time did run out for Irwin Allen and he stopped making movies after this one.
Review of When Time Ran Out...
