Disaster movies were all the rage during the 1970's and one of the biggest hits of the genre was 1974's Earthquake, whose self-explanatory title lets you know what you're in for, but unlike similar fare like The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, only about a third of the film really works.
As with most films of the genre, the film opens with silly exposition scenes introducing a group of disparate characters that have no connection to each other and provide no reason for us to care about them. The primary players include an architect named Stewart Graff (Charlton Heston) trapped in a marriage to a grasping and desperate woman named Remy (Ava Gardner), who is the daughter of Stewart's boss (Lorne Greene). We also learn that Graff is having an affair with a struggling actress named Denise (Genvieve Bujold) who has a young son. We also meet a motorcycle daredevil (Richard Roundtree), his assistant (Victoria Principal) and an ex-marine turned sex deviate who works in a grocery store (Marjoe Gortner), not to mention a recently fired police officer played by George Kennedy, who I think, by law, appeared in all disaster films made in the 70's.
The scenes when the earthquake actually hits and destroys Los Angeles are pretty effective, but the final third of the film involving the actual rescue efforts is dull and extremely hard to get through. The performances range from shrill to annoying and some of the casting is really hard to swallow (Ava Gardner as Lorne Greene's daughter? Seriously?), but I guess if you're really, really, bored, there are worse ways to spend a couple of hours. BTW, Walter Matthau makes a cameo appearance as a drunk in a bar and is billed under his real name, Walter Matuschanskayasky.
As with most films of the genre, the film opens with silly exposition scenes introducing a group of disparate characters that have no connection to each other and provide no reason for us to care about them. The primary players include an architect named Stewart Graff (Charlton Heston) trapped in a marriage to a grasping and desperate woman named Remy (Ava Gardner), who is the daughter of Stewart's boss (Lorne Greene). We also learn that Graff is having an affair with a struggling actress named Denise (Genvieve Bujold) who has a young son. We also meet a motorcycle daredevil (Richard Roundtree), his assistant (Victoria Principal) and an ex-marine turned sex deviate who works in a grocery store (Marjoe Gortner), not to mention a recently fired police officer played by George Kennedy, who I think, by law, appeared in all disaster films made in the 70's.
The scenes when the earthquake actually hits and destroys Los Angeles are pretty effective, but the final third of the film involving the actual rescue efforts is dull and extremely hard to get through. The performances range from shrill to annoying and some of the casting is really hard to swallow (Ava Gardner as Lorne Greene's daughter? Seriously?), but I guess if you're really, really, bored, there are worse ways to spend a couple of hours. BTW, Walter Matthau makes a cameo appearance as a drunk in a bar and is billed under his real name, Walter Matuschanskayasky.