'Quake' will shake many viewers

There IS something new in movie business. It's called Sensurround. It is demonstrated for the first time in the film titled "Earthquake."

And wait until you see the film and feel it - that's right, feel it. It will shake you up, jolt you out of your seat. It is one of the most notable technical advances in the motion picture industry since sound or Cinerama.

We saw and felt the movie the other day at the Utah Theater, where it will open next week. We weren't prepared for what we saw and felt. We have been in a couple of quakes in California and here, and this picture has the authentic feeling. You are there. You feel the quake.

Generally when some new technique has been introduced in motion pictures, the story is weak. That is not the case here. The story is well told, well acted and as suspenseful as anything to come out of Hollywood.

It is a complex of little stories, all brought together neatly by the earthquake in the Los Angeles area, and all melodramatic, adventurous or funny.

The story revolves around a construction company executive (Charlton Heston) who is married to Ava Gardner, who portrays the daughter of his boss, played by Lorne Greene. Heston and Miss Gardner have reached the end of the road romantically speaking, because he resents her pressuring her father to promote Heston in the business. Also, Heston has become involved with the young widow of another executive of the construction company, for whose death he (Heston) feels partially responsible. The widow is played by lovely Genevieve Bujold.

Side characters include a grocery store clerk who turns into a trigger-happy guardsman during the regional emergency created by the quake. This is a despicable person, a man you love to hate, created excellently by Marjoe Gortner. Another side character is a stunt motorcycle stunt rider, played by Richard Roundtree, who has a moment of comedy that is a relief from the general seriousness of the theme.

Still other main characters are seismologists who are working on a project to predict quakes. Most prominent is a young graduate student who predicts an initial quake and then says a disastrous one will occur within 48 hours. His prediction presents a problem to his superiors and to state and city officials - shall they warn the citizenry of the possibility of an earthquake and risk panic or remain silent in fear of becoming laughing stocks if the quake doesn't occur?

In this way, the story reaches beyond that of a suspense-adventure movie. It provokes thought and it does so with reference to actual scientific research on quakes of the type that is going on along the Wasatch Front in Utah and in other areas at present.

Another element of the story is the reservoir above the Wilshire district of Hollywood, which is weakened by the quake and gives way at the most critical moment in the picture.

The story begins at the Heston-Gardner home, where they are quarreling. It moves to other principal characters for the first half hour, and then the first of the tremblors is felt.

This is when Sensurround comes into play. The name Sensurround is a combination of sense and surround, and it certainly describes the sensation.

When the first tremblor hit, we weren't prepared for the realism. We actually shook. We felt the seat in front of us and one to the side and they were shaking.

In later quakes, the feeling was even more noticeable. Sensurround creates the awareness of what is happening at the most unexpected times, just as is the case with an actual quake. The technique not only tests the feeling of an audience, but the sense of sound as well. When the dam bursts, an audience can hear the water roaring down the hillside, the streets and into the canals that have been built in the Los Angeles area for just such emergencies.

The film has many scenes movie audiences aren't likely to forget, like a rescue scene in a high building; another where George Kennedy, who plays a police officer is suspended for chasing a speeder from Los Angeles city into the county; still another in which Kennedy goes to a bar to drink off his frustration; a drunk in the bar who is unmoved during the quake, and keeps coming up with funny names in the different sequences; the high-handed behavior of the character played by Gortner; the action of the caretakers at the reservoir; the character of the lady about-town created by Victoria Principal.

Mainly, audiences will remember Sensurround, created by W. O. Watson and Dick Stumpf of Universal Pictures. This is certain to win a special Oscar, if not the special effects Oscar at Academy Award time.

However, since theaters in only 64 cities will be equipped with Sensurround for the initial showings beginning next week, and only one is in Utah, it was important that the story be good. Mark Robson has directed this picture with a sure hand, bringing out all the best elements in the best ways, so that those who don't see "Earthquake" in a theater equipped for the sound and sense system still have one of the most entertaining movie experiences of the year.