Toronto Silent Film Festival: THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD (1926) – New Restoration!

Runtime: 67 mins | Release Year: 1926 | Rating: NR | Genre(s): Drama
Production Country: USA | Original Language: No Language

Showtimes
‣ Sunday April 13th @ 01:30 PM

New Restoration!

With Live Accompaniment by Marilyn Lerner

 

THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD 1926 re-creates one of the greatest disasters of the late 19th Century in the USA. In May of 1889 over 2,000 people in Johnstown, Pennsylvania died as a result of the dam failure that let loose a massive torrent of water. In her first major role, future Academy Award winner Janet Gaynor plays a young woman smitten with dashing engineer George O’Brien, whose pleadings about the imminent collapse of the local dam are dismissed by the greed and corruption of company managers. Who will warn the townspeople of the imminent disaster? At close to a century after making, the disastrous flood is still an edge-of-your-seat riveting-pre-CGI marvel of effects and a wonder to behold.

 

Their chemistry was so strong that Gaynor and O’Brien would team up again the next year for F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise.

 

The film has been newly restored in 4K by The Film Preserve, Ltd. and The Maltese Film Works, from 35mm elements preserved at George Eastman Museum (Rochester NY). Noted preservationists Robert Harris and James Mockoski (archivist for Francis Ford Coppola) worked on the restoration. “The importance of ‘The Johnstown Flood’ to film history is difficult to overstate. The special effects of the film combine miniatures and sets to depict the actual historic event of flood and its aftermath, pioneering complex techniques,” Harris explains. “It was the ‘Star Wars’ of its day.” 

 

Only one known nitrate print of the film survived, preserved by George Eastman Museum and this restoration by Robert Harris (The Godfather, My Fair Lady, Lawrence of Arabia restorations) and James Mockoski is the result of that.

 

TSFF is grateful to Rialto Pictures for the use of the film. All photos courtesy of Rialto Pictures/ The Film Preserve/The Maltese Film Works except the historical photo from 1889.

Please note: there are depictions of anti-Semitic stereotyping within this film 

 

PURCHASE TICKETS HERE! 

Part of the Toronto Silent Film Festival series!

Cast/Crew Info
Director:
Irving Cummings | Cast: George O’Brien, Florence Gilbert, Janet Gaynor, Anders Randolf, Max Davidson