Saturday, October 20, 2012

Movie review - "Hospitals Don't Burn Down" (1977) ***1/2

It's a great shame Brian Trenchard Smith never got the chance to direct an Australian disaster movie because on this evidence he would have been terrific - this is a 22 minute short for Film Australia about a discarded cigarette which causes havoc in the hospital. The response of the staff is basically professional - a few people make mistakes, others do the right thing, some die simply from bad luck.

It's very well directed - tight, fast paced, gets straight into the action. Jeanie Drynan is attractive and likeable as the heroine (a nurse), there are some great support turns by people like Ray Marshall (whose cigarette causes the tragedy), some funny lines. Film Australia made a number of non-memorable feature films in their day - I wonder why this was never expanded?

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