The Johnstown Flood
About The Johnstown Flood
Engineer Tom O'Day warns lumber boss John Hamilton that holding the dam above Johnstown at full head, so logs can be floated, is weakening it. Hamilton will not listen. Tom plans to marry Hamilton's daughter Gloria while her father is in Pittsburgh. Anna Burger, who loves Tom, is unrequited. A cloudburst breaks the dam during the wedding. Anna rides through town to warn people, reaches the church, and is later found dead in the wreckage. Tom and Gloria get out.
Cast & crew
More about The Johnstown Flood
Irving Cummings directed for William Fox. Copyrighted February 28, 1926, at 6,357 feet, six reels. The January 1926 American Cinematographer reported that filming had just finished. George Schneiderman photographed the log drive.
Themes
Background
Fox released the picture in 1926, thirty-seven years after the Johnstown flood, and built a logging-camp plot around the dam rather than a straight account of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club.
Making
The flood was built as a studio torrent rather than shot at Johnstown. A San Francisco Silent Film Festival note says the cameraman who made the synthetic waterspout later published a short how-to and called the method simple.
Reviews
Variety called Gaynor a newcomer and a corker, and another notice that year singled her out as one of the season's finds beside the flood sequence.
Look
George Schneiderman photographed the logs on the river. The flood itself is a staged waterspout cut against the town and the church.
Preservation
A print survives and has been shown by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.
Notes
- George O'Brien plays Tom O'Day, Florence Gilbert plays Gloria Hamilton, and Janet Gaynor plays Anna Burger.
- Anders Randolf plays John Hamilton. Paul Panzer plays Anna's father, Joe Burger.
- Cast lists include uncredited bits for Gary Cooper as a flood survivor, Clark Gable as a townsman in a saloon, and Carole Lombard as one of Gloria's friends.
- The real South Fork Dam failed on May 31, 1889. The flood killed more than 2,200 people.
- The next year F. W. Murnau cast Gaynor opposite O'Brien in Sunrise.
Scenes
- Hamilton's men hold the dam and shoot at townspeople who try to take it back.
- Anna Burger rides ahead of the water and reaches the church before the flood hits it.
- Tom finds Anna's body in the wreckage after he and Gloria escape.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons
