Earthquake
Short description
Earthquake centres on a group of Angelenos whose lives are already tangled when disaster strikes. Stewart Graff is a construction engineer whose marriage to the possessive Remy has soured, and who is seeing Denise Marshall, the widow of a former colleague. Remy turns to her father, Sam Royce, who happens to be Stewart's employer, in an attempt to end the affair. Elsewhere in the city, police sergeant Lew Slade is suspended after striking a fellow officer, while a grocery proprietor pursues Rosa, the sister of a stunt motorcyclist's assistant. Minor tremors give way to a massive quake, and the characters' personal conflicts are overtaken by the struggle to survive.
Mark Robson directed and produced, working from a screenplay by Mario Puzo and George Fox. It is the thirteenth of the thirteen features Robson directed, following Valley of the Dolls. Charlton Heston leads as Stewart, with Ava Gardner as Remy, George Kennedy as Slade, Lorne Greene as Sam, Geneviève Bujold as Denise and Richard Roundtree as Miles Quade. The credited cast runs to 104 names and the crew to 129.
Made for about 7 million dollars, the film took roughly 80 million worldwide, a strong return. On IMDb it holds 5.9/10 from around 19,000 votes and on TMDB 6.2/10 from 383 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 4.9/10 from 32 reviews, below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- In the 1970s, movie theaters were asked to install the new Sensurround audio system as a marketing ploy for disaster films. This system sent low-frequency sound waves into the theater seats, making the audience feel as if they were right in the middle of the events depicted in the film. During screenings of this particular film, the system shook the audience so much that they felt like a real earthquake had begun. Unfortunately, installing the system required removing several rows of seats, and it was also a very expensive system. It was used for several other films in the 1970s, but then structural damage to the movie theaters began to occur, the audience felt sick when the system was activated, and complaints about the unbearable rumble from the theaters arose, bringing an end to the use of Sensurround.
- The swaying effect of the “Black Tower” (a high-rise office building on the set) was achieved by filming a reflection in a mirror moving back and forth. This scene was filmed before the start of principal photography and was decided to be left in the film as a joke at the expense of the “Universal” film company (whose executives’ offices were located in the building at the time).
- Riding the wave of success of the film "Airport" (1970) by directors George Seaton (1911-1979) and Henry Hathaway (1898-1985), based on the eponymous bestseller (1968) by Arthur Hailey (1920-2004), the management of Universal Pictures very much wanted to try their luck with another disaster film, and Jennings Lang was tasked with creating it. The idea for the film was inspired by the 6.6 magnitude earthquake on February 9, 1971, in the San Fernando Valley.
- The film employed 141 stunt performers, which was a record at the time of filming.
- The film's producers specifically went to Europe hoping to interest Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993) in the role of Remy Royce-Graff. At that time, Hepburn had not acted in nearly 10 years and declined the offer because she disliked the heroine's lines and the demands placed on the character. When filming had already begun, Ava Gardner was cast in the role.
- There was no scene in the script of Richard Roundtree falling off a motorcycle. Stuntman Bud Ekins (1930-2007) fell accidentally, but the fall was left in the film.
- Producer Jennings Lang (1915-1996) offered a cameo role to his friend Walter Matthau (1920-2000). Matthau agreed to play it even without a fee, but on the condition that he would be credited as “Walter Matushchansky.” He subsequently used this invented name repeatedly. Initially, it was supposed to be the role of a “drunkard at the very end of the bar,” but the screenwriter George Fox significantly expanded the role and wrote lines for the character. After filming, the performer of this role was credited as “Walter Matushchansky,” after which rumors began to circulate that “Matushchansky” was Matthau’s real surname.
- The first draft of the screenplay was written by Mario Puzo (1920-1999), but it did not suit the management of Universal Pictures because it had too many characters and the action took place over too large an area of Los Angeles. The film's projected budget soared, so the script needed to be rewritten. Puzo was unable to do this, as Paramount Pictures had just given the green light to "The Godfather Part II" (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) at that time, but many of the characters and plotlines devised by Puzo were included in the film, and the area of action was "reduced" to the size of Hollywood.
- Ava Gardner (1922-1990) surprised director Mark Robson (1913-1978) by insisting on performing all the stunt scenes herself – including the scene where her character has to dodge falling concrete blocks and steel pipes.
- The full theatrical version had a runtime of 140 minutes, while the television version ran for 160 minutes.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
