The Johnstown Flood

This movie is amazing for its depiction of one of America's worst natural disasters, but too little attention is given to the aftermath of the devastating 1889 flood. The film squanders precious time on the love dilemma of square-jawed Tom O'Day (George O'Brien) -- does he cast his lot with wealthy beauty Gloria (Florence Gilbert) or plucky homegirl Anna (Janet Gaynor)? Yawn. Disaster movies never cease to personalize their stories this way, but this production particularly errs in this regard. We're shown that the movie makers can conjure the flood's aftermath -- see those people coursing through floodwaters toward debris that's on fire -- but it's mere minutes till the film goes happy-ending with an (albeit moving) portrait of Tom, Gloria, and their boy. Worse, the flood's reputed cause is murkified, with blame shifted from weathy Pittsburgh industrialists who wanted a dammed lake to greedy fictional timber barons. Although the narrative here has its strengths, the plot has holes. Why does Anna go into the night to the home of a corrupt timber executive? And principled Tom -- why the rush to the altar, with storm clouds gathering and dam about to burst? Makes no sense at all. Homely Johnstown is indeed hallowed ground. In many pass-throughs via Amtrak, I've been humbled to observe a town trapped by mountains and girded by implacable, black stone walls. TCM aired this film's world TV premier. Amidst a myriad of opportunities for movie viewing, the channel remains my go-to, private movie festival.

Trailer—The Johnstown Flood

The Johnstown Flood_720p(480P)

source: The Johnstown Flood

I saw this film Monday night at New York's Film Forum in a new restoration by the George Eastman Museum. I won't try to summarize the plot, which others here have done, but I will say that the new restoration is magnificent. The film looks as though it was made a few weeks ago (with a single scene left unrestored so we can see the horrible nitrate damage it had originally). The new restoration also completes the last scene which apparently was unavailable before. This is often billed as a film starring George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor, but that's really not the case. The lovers, happily married by the end of the film, are O'Brien and Florence Gilbert. Gaynor is a teenage girl in Johnstown who's in love with O'Brien, and works to help him save Johnstown from the dam. He cares about her, but he never loves anyone romantically but Gilbert. So Janet Gaynor, in her first major role, does NOT get the guy. Also, she dies in the flood, after a heroic Paul-Revere-type ride warning everyone in town when the dam bursts (including the people at O'Brien's and Gilbert's wedding). Her career took off from there and she went on to star with O'Brien in Sunrise, but in the Johnstown Flood she was just a supporting actor (though an extraordinary one).

This is the last of Gable silent films. He split up with his wife and mentor, Josephine Dillon, because the extra work had dried up. It appeared as though Hollywood had no room for him. He went back to the theatre for five years and returned to Los Angeles to try out for his next film in 1931.

The Johnstown Flood recently became available on YouTube in a rather poor 16 mm print, with the last few minutes missing. The plot is standard for the period, raised above the usual fare by the A picture quality. I watched it to see Janet Gaynor in what was claimed to be her star making role. Certainly, she looks cute, and emoted appealingly, but third billed, she has much less screen time than Florence Gilbert. Almost all the characters lack depth except she and George O'Brien.. The logging scenes were genuine and interesting. Of course, the special effects of the flood were the reason for watch the film. They were of the same high quality as The Trail of 98 (1928), with persons being mowed under by water and logs. The matted scene of the water flowing through the town was as good as when water roars down Times Square in When Worlds Collide (1951). I was disappointed in the extent of Gaynor's appearance, but I assume that the missing footage showed she was the real love of O'Brien, and sparks flew. If so, this was the reason for their re-teaming in Sunrise (1927)

THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD is a good silent film with some spectacular flood scenes. The plot has George O'Brien as a young engineer working for a lumber company owned by snarky Anders Randolf. He has a big new lumber contract to fulfill and is going full steam to do so. Although he's warned that the dam (which he owns) is structurally unsound, his lead engineer (Paul Nicholson) tells him it has been repaired. That's a lie, but Randolf is willing to believe it because the dam regulates the river which ensures the logs go downstream. Into this fray come Florence Gilbert, O'Brien's fiancee Gloria (and Randolf's niece). There's also Janet Gaynor as the young Anna, daughter of a logging foreman (Paul Panzer). She loves O'Brien, but he only has eyes for Gloria. Others in the cast include Max Davidson as the local department store owner. His role is meant to be comic relief, but the Jewish stereotype gets to be a bit much. There's also Kay Deslys in a dance number during a local show. Among the bit players are Carole Lombard, Clark Gable, and Gary Cooper! Rumor has it that Florence Lawrence is also recognizable. Special effects aside, the real star here is Miss Gaynor. I had thought she had a small role early in her career, but she's actually the female co-lead and she's excellent. While Gilbert plays it straight as the lovely niece who eventually lands O'Brien, Gaynor's role allows her to do some comedy as the teenager and she gets the big scene when she saves the day (sort of) by galloping through the town on a horse, warning people the dam is about to blow. Directed by Irving Cummings and photographed by George Schneiderman, this was one of the big hits of 1926 and helped make Gaynor a major star at the Fox Studio.

This remarkable silent film currently exists in a truncated print of poor quality available for download and viewing on YouTube. It is hardly known today, and probably its principal fame rests with the fact that it stars George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor--who went on to considerable movie celebrity from the latter 1920s through the mid-1930s. O'Brien and Gaynor appeared together one more time in the F. W. Murnau classic Sunrise in 1927. The Johnstown Flood movie also contains very brief extra appearances by future stars Clark Gable, Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard. Its secondary importance rests on the film's impressive special effects work--outstanding for the time--in depicting the famous 1889 dam collapse that occurred near Pittsburgh, PA. The flood scenes compare quite favorably with those in the famous early disaster film Deluge (1933)--made some seven years later. The actual Johnstown Flood was a monumental catastrophe---horribly and unnecessarily killing over 2200 people. The real story of this incident---with all its twists and irony definitely deserves a proper screen treatment today. Many liberties were taken with the pertinent facts in making the 1926 film version. A historically accurate retelling of the actual Johnstown Flood would be far more interesting and compelling to contemporary audiences than the rather dated melodrama that appears here. Nevertheless, this film is important for what it does show--two (then) young up and coming stars making strong appearances in a significant early Hollywood effort--and exciting special effects that foreshadowed the even greater accomplishments in this area that were soon to amaze us in just a few years.

It's Johnstown, a lumbering town where the mighty dam holds back the water and makes it available for transporting the felled trees for Paul Nicholson's mighty enterprise. But engineer George O'Brien warns him that the dam is going to fall with the next heavy rainfall. Nicholson scoffs, so O'Brien quits and with a group of like-minded citizens, takes over the dam. That might be enough in a B movie, but director Irving Cummings and writers Edfrod Bingham and Robert Lord put a bunch of subplots in. O'Brien is mighty fond of Janet Gaynor -- in her first major role -- and she is desperately in love with him. Meanwhile, Nicholson's niece, Florence Gilbert, and O'Brien are falling in love. Add in Paul Panzer as Miss Gaynor's father, Max Davidson as a shopkeeper, and Gary Cooper, Kay Deslys, Clark Gable, Florence Lawrence, and Carole Lombard as uncredited extras, as well as great set design and an amazingly photographed flood to stop every plotline, and you've got among the goldurnestest spectacles of the silent era. Once again, Irving Cummings demonstrates that he can handle any sort of picture with the best of them.