St. Helens

St. Helens is a 1981 made-for-cable HBO television film directed by Ernest Pintoff, and starring David Huffman, Art Carney, Cassie Yates, and Albert Salmi. The film centers on the events leading up to the cataclysmic 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington, with the story beginning on the day volcanic activity started on March 20, 1980, and ending on the day of the eruption, May 18, 1980. The film premiered on May 18, 1981, on the first anniversary of the eruption. The film is noted for being the first Hollywood soundtrack of the italian prog-rock group Goblin (Massimo Morante, Claudio Simonetti, Fabio Pignatelli, Agostino Marangolo and Antonio Marangolo). Plot On March 20, 1980, an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale struck Mt. St. Helens, signaling the first signs of volcanic activity there in 123 years. During the earthquake, a flock of quail becomes disoriented and smashes into the windshield of an Aerospatiale SA341G Gazelle helicopter in use for logging operations. The helicopter's pilot, Otis Kaylor (Ron O'Neal), makes a successful emergency landing, only to be accused of nearly killing a group of loggers. Shortly afterward, United States Geological Survey volcanologist David Jackson (David Huffman), a fictionalized version of David A. Johnson, arrives to investigate the activity. Upon arriving in the small town of Cougar, he quickly befriends Linda Steele (Cassie Yates), a single mother who works as a waitress at a restaurant named Whittaker's Inn. While at Whittaker's Inn, he stirs up concern with its owner, Clyde Whittaker (Albert Salmi), and a group of farmers and loggers. Meanwhile, the 83-year-old owner of the Mount St. Helens Lodge, Harry R. Truman (Art Carney), has a defiant attitude toward the idea of leaving his home on the slopes of the volcano.