Earthquake (1974)

In theory the movie Earthquake should have everything going for it. Produced during the heart of the disaster movie boom of the 1970's, the film has a screenplay coauthored by Godfather scribe Mario Puzo, and a modestly all star cast anchored by Chuck Heston. However imitation Irwin Allen is just that, imitation Irwin Allen. The film lacks that hard to define spark that made even Allen's lesser efforts strangely endearing. The disaster effects have dated pretty badly, even the earthquake sequence in 1936's San Francisco holds up better. At the end of the film several of the plot lines are left ambiguously unresolved and I'm not sure if this was intentional or if the film just rang long for the studios taste so they cut the thing and that's in the missing material. Walter Matthau's oddly uncredited cameo might be the best thing about this movie. **