City On Fire (1979)

After being fired from an oil refinery, a bitter employee (Jonathan Welsh) opens valves to storage vats and floods sewers with chemicals and gasoline. Soon the unnamed city (filmed in Montreal, Canada) explodes into flames. The first half of this disaster film suffers from the incredibly inept situations and dialog and some rather poor acting. It just looks slapdash and shoddy. The second half fares better when the characters shut up and action and adrenaline kicks in. It still doesn't make it a good movie but at least the intensity kicks up several notches and it becomes very watchable. The special effects are a mixed bag, some are good and some look fake though to be fair, much of the "special effects" are actually pre-existing footage from other films and newsreels. The story lines are trite and uninteresting with the exception of a TV news producer (James Franciscus) having to deal with an alcoholic newswoman (Ava Gardner) and trying to keep her sober enough to do her job. The cheesy and noisy underscore by Matthew and William McCauley only adds to the tawdriness. Directed by Alvin Rakoff. With Henry Fonda, Shelley Winters, Leslie Nielsen, Susan Clark, Barry Newman and Cec Linder.