Earthquake **** (1974, Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, George Kennedy, Geneviève Bujold, Lorne Greene, Richard Roundtree, Lloyd Nolan, Marjoe Gortner, Victoria Principal, Barry Sullivan) – Classic Movie Review 3431

Director Mark Robson’s epic 1974 disaster movie is preposterously entertaining with the right manly main star in Charlton Heston (as construction engineer Stuart Graff), an ambitious, costly production, tedious personal dramas and excellent Oscar-winning visual effects as Los Angeles falls down, struck by the dreaded earthquake.

Ava Gardner (as Heston’s jealous wife Remy Graff), then 52, plays the daughter of Lorne Greene (as Royce), then 59. Matthau has a funny cameo as a drunk, billed as Walter Matuschanskayasky, which he long pretended was his real name, though in 1997 he came clean and revealed it is plain Walter Matthow.

Also in the relatively starry cast are George Kennedy as Slade, Geneviève Bujold, Richard Roundtree, Lloyd Nolan, Marjoe Gortner, Barry Sullivan, Victoria Principal, Monica Lewis, Pedro Armendariz Jr, Donald Moffat, Jesse Vint and Alan Vint. However, there is a slight impression that the A-list stars were working on the rival The Towering Inferno (1974).

It was the first use of the rumblingly effective Sensurround stereophonic sound system in cinemas. The auditorium vibrated when the earthquake struck as Sensurround produced a low-frequency sound vibration along cinema seats. This was a useful gimmick in 1974, even if it did shake the plaster off the roofs of various cinemas and caused nosebleeds among audiences, but of course it won’t be a help at home. Effective though it was, Sensurround was used only three more times, on Battle of Midway (1976), Rollercoaster (1977) and Battlestar Galactica (1978). The producers actually considered dropping chunks of polystyrene  on the cinema patrons during the quake!

This fondly regarded disaster movie may not be art exactly, but still it is a lot of good hokey fun. It was an enormous popular success, taking a then vast $80million in the US on a cost of $7million. Even so, it was only the fourth biggest grossing film of 1974, with its rival The Towering Inferno at number one.

It runs 123 minutes but the TV version includes extra footage. Universal reinstated 18 minutes of cut footage involving Gortner and Principal and shot new footage of a subplot about a young couple in an airplane trying to land at the damaged airport. As NBC was screening it in two parts over two nights, a cliffhanger ending was also filmed to end part one.

Clunky and cheesy though it may look now, it was a technical triumph in its day, as reflected as the Academy Awards. The visual effects Oscar was a Special Achievement Award ‘for the realistic depiction of the devastation of Los Angeles by an earthquake’, and it went to Albert Whitlock, Glen Robinson and Frank Brendel. It also won as Oscar for Best Sound (Ronald Pierce, Melvin M Metcalfe Sr). There were also nominations for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and Best Film Editing.

Producer Jennings Lang ensures that is a crafted production, with cinematography by Philip Lathrop, score by John Williams and production designs by Alexander Golitzen. Williams also scored The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974).

Any of the problems the movie has all start with the struggling screenplay by The Godfather’s Mario Puzo and George Fox. Puzo did the first draft of the screenplay which was multi-layered and filled with characters. Puzo was asked to do a rewrite to bring the budget down but was unavailable to do it when Paramount greenlit The Godfather Part II (1972). Magazine writer Fox, who had never written a screenplay before, was hired and there were 11 drafts before the screenplay was approved.

The location on the first day of shooting was rocked by an earthquake and another earthquake struck the location on the last day of shooting.

Some of the scenes of panicking extras in the cinema come from Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain (1966).

Earthquake II was planned, and a draft screenplay was written by George Fox but it never made it into development.

George Kennedy, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Cool Hand Luke, and was a fixture of Seventies disaster movies including the Airport franchise and Earthquake, died on February 28 2016 in Boise, Idaho, aged 91. George and Nolan were both in Airport; . Kennedy and Heston both starred in Airport 1975.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3431

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/