Noah's Ark
About Noah's Ark
In 1914 Travis and Al are on the Orient Express when a bridge washes out and the train crashes. They pull Marie, a German actress, out of the wreck. A Russian officer, Nickoloff, tries to enter her room, and the fight stops when war is declared. Travis and Marie reach Paris. Al enlists, Travis follows, and Travis's grenade kills Al in a captured machine-gun nest. Nickoloff has Marie condemned as a spy. Travis is on the firing squad and recognizes her. Buried in a ruin, a minister tells the flood story: King Nephilim wants Miriam sacrificed, Japheth is blinded trying to save her, the flood comes, and his sight returns. The armistice frees the modern group.
Cast & crew
More about Noah's Ark
Michael Curtiz directed. Darryl F. Zanuck wrote the story and produced it. Hal Mohr photographed it. Harold McCord edited. Louis Silvers wrote the score, recorded on Vitaphone discs. Warner Bros. opened it at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on November 1, 1928. A United States re-release followed on June 15, 1929. The original cut is 135 minutes. Wikipedia's box-office figure is $2,305,000 in worldwide rentals. During the flood, three extras drowned, one man's leg was amputated, and others suffered broken limbs.
Themes
Look
Hal Mohr shot the train wreck, the war scenes, and the flood. Three extras drowned in the flood sequence.
Music
Louis Silvers's score and the talking scenes were recorded on Vitaphone sound-on-disc. English intertitles remain in the silent stretches.
Preservation
The 135-minute release is believed lost. UCLA Film & Television Archive, with the project American Moviemakers: The Dawn of Sound, restored a 108-minute version that includes overture and exit music. The Library of Congress holds a 1950s television copy.
Notes
- George O'Brien plays Travis and, in the biblical story, Japheth. Dolores Costello plays Marie and Miriam. Noah Beery plays Nickoloff and King Nephilim. Guinn "Big Boy" Williams is Al. Paul McAllister is Noah. Louise Fazenda is in the cast. Myrna Loy is also billed.
- Most of the picture, especially the biblical scenes, is silent with music and effects. Some scenes have spoken dialogue.
- A 1950s television version is at the Library of Congress.
Scenes
- The Orient Express goes down when a bridge is out, and Travis and Al pull Marie free.
- Travis throws a grenade into a nest Al has already taken.
- The flood hits the temple set. Three extras drowned during the shooting.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Noah's Ark (1928).webm)
