EARTHQUAKE (1974)

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: Mark Robson

SCREENWRITER: George Fox, Mario Puzo

FILM STARS: Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, George Kennedy, Lorne Greene, Geneviève Bujold, Richard Roundtree, Marjoe Gortner, Barry Sullivan, Lloyd Nolan, Victoria Principal, Walter Matthau, Monica Lewis, Gabriel Dell, Pedro Armendáriz, Jr., Lloyd Gough, John Randolph, Kip Niven, Scott Hylands, Tiger Williams, Donald Moffat, Jesse Vint, Alan Vint.

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: George Fox

TYPE: Novelisation

PUBLISHER: Signet

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1974

COUNTRY: USA

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1974

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Disaster

WORDS: Every era seems to come up with disaster films though some thrive on them.

The 70s were awash (sic) with disaster films:

In the air – the Airport films (Airport (1970), Airport 1975 (1974), Airport ’77 (1977), The Concorde … Airport ’79 (1979)), Concorde Affaire ’79 (1979), Skyjacked (1972), SST: Death Flight (1977 Made for TV)

At sea – Gray Lady Down (1978), The Neptune Factor (1973), The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

From outer space – Meteor (1979)

And on land:

From disease – The Andromeda Strain (1971), The Cassandra Crossing (1976)

From man made vehicles – rollercoasters in Rollercoaster (1977), runaway trains in Runaway! (1973 Made for TV), The Cassandra Crossing (1976) (the film has a double disaster bonus – a lethal germ on board a runaway train), cars in Smash-Up on Interstate 5 (1976 Made for TV)

From bugs – The Swarm (1978), The Savage Bees (1976 Made for TV), The Bees (1978)

From fire – The Towering Inferno (1974), City on Fire (1979 film), Fire! (1977 Made for TV film)

From natural calamity – Avalanche (1978), Flood! (1976 Made for TV), Hurricane (1979), When Time Ran Out (1980 – a volcano), Condominium (1980 Made for TV – a storm)

I suspect the masses at the time were becoming more aware of the world we live in with pollution, environmental degradation, ecological destruction, urban sprawl, disease, famine, overpopulation all being televised with whatever natural or manmade calamities were going down that week.

And, earthquakes were in the news with severe ones with big losses of life in Peru (1970), Iran (1972), Nicaragua (1972), and China (1974) not to mention Californians knowing they were sitting on the San Andreas fault

Earthquake is a melodrama with a big epic disaster film dumped on it which is normal. Disaster films must ground themselves on the human otherwise they just become a series of scenes of buildings falling down, dams collapsing, fires burning, lava flowing, asteroids hurtling, tidal waves crashing, storms and tornadoes thumping, etc. All this is fine if the disaster films look for the “humanity” in the relationships between people trying to evade the disaster or escape from the after affects of the calamity or otherwise save people who have been affected. But some films also bring melodrama to the mix and look at the personal relationships between people who have been inconvenienced by the disaster. Inevitably that means setting up the relationships, or rather the tensions in the relationships, followed by a disaster, followed by a working through emotions as they struggle against the obstacles created by the disaster.

This melodrama and disaster mix goes back to the earliest of sound era disaster films, San Francisco (1936), The Hurricane (1937), In Old Chicago (1938), and The Rains Came (1939).

Of course you can’t set the characters up and be invested in them without backstory.

And, backstory combined with physical action means disaster films are usually long,

When it comes to ticking the boxes Earthquake (1974) has it all, melodrama, buildings falling down, dams collapsing, fires burning … and length (123 minutes cut down from 161 minutes which makes the melodrama a little choppy).

Earthquake has many strengths and many flaws. There are a half dozen stories going on, which all, more or less, converge after the earthquake. Central is college football star (Charlton Heston), in a dysfunctional marriage to Ava Gardner, his mistress (Genevieve Bujold), and his father in law (Lorne Greene) (note – Gardner was only eight years younger than Lorne Greene). The usual absurdities follow.

But, it’s fun (and cornball) because the actors play it straight (maybe too straight at times). The cast is, as was the case in the 70s disaster films, packed with stars, former stars and up and coming stars but no one is taxed acting wise. (Spoiler ahead) Heston was in his dying gloriously stage … it seemed as if he died in every second film in the 60s and 70s, and he is perfect in a role which he has played a variation on many times before and many times since. Director Mark Robson, not averse to “big” action films (Von Ryan’s Express (1965), Lost Command (1966), Avalanche Express (1979)) or small tight drama films (Champion (1949), Home of the Brave (1949), The Harder They Fall (1956)), keeps the film chugging along from one emotional drama or disaster set piece to the next. The special effects are as good, and sometimes better than you would expect (this was a big budget film) in pre CGI days (CGI being more of a curse than a blessing) though there are a lot of people pretending to hold on to things and falling in all sorts of directions during the quake.

The film was a big hit … it grossed $79.7 million domestically ($450.5 million, adjusted for inflation in 2023 dollars) being one of the highest-grossing films of the time.

Is it fun?  Yes, watch it but don’t think about it.

The book is a synopsis of the film with a series of “making of” articles. Nothing here that you would need outside of trivia titbits. Interestingly novelist Mario Puzo (The Godfather) wrote the early draft screenplay (in 1972) and then George Fox was brought in to finish it off / work on it.

Trivia:

• Walter Matthau was cast in a cameo role, for which he was credited as “Walter Matuschanskayasky”. Matthau was born Walter John Matthow though his family name is Milton Matuschansky. As part of a lifelong love of practical jokes, Matthau created the rumours that his middle name was Foghorn and his last name was originally Matuschanskayasky.
• The film was filmed (or rather screened in) in “Sensurround” – in select cinemas a series of large speakers would pump in sub-audible “infra bass” sound waves equivalent to a jet airplane at take-off, giving the viewer the sensation of an earthquake. Sensurround was used again for the films Midway (1976), Rollercoaster (1977), and Battlestar Galactica (1979)

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