The American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood will be rocking and rolling Saturday evening when the 1974 disaster flick "Earthquake" rumbles in its original Sensurround sound system that mimics a real cataclysmic event.
The campy flick featuring lantern-jawed Charlton Heston trying to save citizens of Los Angeles from a quake of ultra-seismic proportions is part of the Cinematheque's disaster films of the 1970s festival, which begins Friday. Also featured are other real gems of the genre: 1972's "The Poseidon Adventure," 1974's "The Towering Inferno," 1975's "The Hindenburg," 1977's "Black Sunday" and 1979's "The China Syndrome." (Prints were unavailable for several others, including 1970's "Airport" and 1974's "Airport 1975").
The series is presented at the Cinematheque in association with the Producers Guild of America: New Media Council -- and the titles were selected by two of the latter's members, special-effects producer James Fino and DVD documentary producer-director Laurent Bouzereau, both of whom became enthralled with disaster films when they were youngsters.
Fino saw "Earthquake," which won Oscars for sound and visual effects, in his hometown of El Paso when he was in fourth grade.
"I went with my dad and uncle," he says. "When the Sensurround began, I said, 'Oh, my God. I want to do movies like this one that totally transforms the audience.' I went to see it over and over again, and it inspired me to do research about earthquakes. It was just one of those movies we couldn't have enough of watching -- the visual effects are just stunning."
Brian Long of Meyer Sound Laboratories and Ron Surbuts at Dolby Laboratories are involved in bringing Sensurround back to life for Saturday's screening.
Surbuts has a Sensurround box that "has been rehabbed to interface with the modern-day surround-sound system," Long said. "I will be supplying [the same type of] high-powered sub-woofers that are currently on tour with Metallica -- so there is going to be firepower in the room."
Bouzereau was a young teenager in a small town outside Paris when he saw "Earthquake" and "Towering Inferno." And yes, he admits, he even screamed at particularly tense moments in those movies.
"The Towering Inferno" -- which was nominated for the best film Oscar and whose superstar cast includes Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway, William Holden and Fred Astaire -- revolves around a fire that breaks out in a high-rise in San Francisco as a party is being held in the penthouse.
