MIRTHQUAKE

EARTHQUAKE (1974)
dir: Mark Robson

Mad #180, January 1976
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Angelo Torres

Disaster movie had gimmick called "Sensurround". It made sounds with extra speakers sometimes at a pitch to simulate the earth shaking. Created especially for this but used for a few more movies before theaters all became multiplexes and got rid of gimmicks.

Before the quakes that people came to see, the cast is introduced. First was Stuart Graff (Charlton Heston), a former football player having marital problems with his wife Remy (Ava Gardner). He just came home from jogging to discover she has attempted suicide yet again.

There is a small quake but nobody thinks it's of any consequence. Stuart is having an affair with an actress, Denise Marshall (Genevieve Bujold) and drops off a football for her son Cory and goes over lines with her.

At the American Seismological Institute, they predict an even bigger earthquake will come along soon. They inform the Mayor and debate whether they should also break this to the public. Motorcycle daredevil Miles Quade (Richard Roundtree) has a track prepared for his next stunt. Lou Slade (George Kennedy) is established as a violent loose cannon cop who often goes outside his jurisdiction, but spends most time at a bar. Jody Joad (Marjoe Gortner) is manages a grocery store and is a National Guard volunteer called on standby for the upcoming earthquake [also not in the parody, he has a crush on Rosa (Victoria Principal), one of the customers, exposition for a later scene] Quade's people, one of which is Rosa, approach Slade at the bar and ask him to invest in the motorcycle act.

Remy asks her father (Lorne Greene) for help with her marriage. Stewart, also an architect, asks to make his building structurally sound. Then the quake hits and we see how it affects the characters we just met.

Lots of looting goes on now. [What's not used is Jody, who has been picked on throughout the movie now uses his power to get back at bullies. He arrests Rosa for looting (stealing a candy bar) and detains her for no other reason than to creepily possess the girl he's been ogling, he shoots the guys that were picking on him to impres her, she gets saved by cops] People are trapped in a skyscraper and are lowered down one at a time with a rope made from a combination of a fire hose and panty hose tied to a chair.

A dam though to have burst is intact (for now) [Not shown: Denise goes to the river to find her son unconscious. He had gone out right before the quake hit. They are rescued by Miles Quade's staff right before the dam bursts.] Walter Matthau under a pseudonym has an appearance as an oblivious barfly.

Stuart and Lou save people trapped in a building and let them out by breaking in underneath. Some of the people are swept away by an oncoming tide. Stuart now has to choose between his wife and his girlfriend. His wife is swept away and rather than go to the safety of his girlfriend he chooses to be swept away as well.

EARTHSHAKE
Cracked #125, July 1975
a: John Severin

The joke with Richard Roundtree at the end of the first page was that he was best known for playing Shaft.