Do you have any pity and sympathy over the character played by Shelley Winters, Nurse Andrea Harper? Shelley Winters has played sacrificial characters before, like The Poseidon Adventure. Here, she tried to attend the villian Herman Stover before she was killed.
I find it very disturbing that when the remaining characters who returned to the hospital didn't even try to help and attend her to see if she might be alive.
The late Shelley Winters was good in City on Fire(1979). Her death scene was chilling. It was also chilling to see a man get set on fire...and then hit by a car! It looked very realistic! Today, the same effect would be crafted with fake-looking digital FX and CGI.
City on Fire(1979) gets a lot of bad reviews. Even Mystery Science Theater 3000 poked fun of it...twice. It's as solid as any disaster movie. By 1979, disaster movies were losing popularity after the success of Star Wars(1977).
COF was made in Canada with no funds from Hollywood and it's difficult to find on home video.
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If you have the opportunity, check out ABLAZE (2001), starring Tom Arnold, Cathy Lee Crosby, and an assortment of medium-level TV performers. All of the fire special effects sequences are lifted in their entirety from CITY ON FIRE. In addition, much of the plot is identical.
One surprising (to me, anyway) alteration is that Shelley's character, portrayed by Mary Jo Catlett, doesn't die in the finale. She's in much the same situation, dressed the same, and just as vulnerable, but rather than being crushed or burned, she's led to a waiting ambulance by firemen and given oxygen. It was a nice difference. Steve V.
Honestly she was such a forgettable character that I only remembered her because she was played by Winters, so sorry if it sounds harsh but not really.
shareYes, I have pity and sympathy for her, but you really need to pay attention to a movie when you watch it. No one came back to the hospital. Everyone was being led out to safety. The fire took out the hospital. No one could go to where she was killed to check on her-it was too hot and no oxygen. I doubt if she was alive.
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