Blu-ray Review The Johnstown Flood Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Timothy E]

Today, The Johnstown Flood. Movie audiences in 1926 might have recalled the Johnstown Flood of 1889 as a major calamity of the post Civil War years.  A year before Janet Gaynor and George O’Brian costarred together in F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise(1927), they appeared together in this epic of the Jazz Age directed by Irving Cummings(In Old Arizona, The Cisco Kid).



The Johnstown Flood (1926)



Released: 28 Feb 1926
Rated: Passed
Runtime: 60 min




Director: Irving Cummings
Genre: Drama



Cast: George O'Brien, Florence Gilbert, Janet Gaynor
Writer(s): Edfrid A. Bingham, Robert Lord



Plot: Tom O'Day is loved by two women, Anna Burger and Gloria Hamilton. Tom has no idea of Anna's love for him, and he becomes engaged to Gloria. Gloria's father, John Hamilton, is a wealthy lumber man who controls a dam upstream of the...

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[Mark McSherry]

Great review! My copy arrived today. Will watch tonight. And then I'll have to rewatch that other 1926 "Flood" movie- The Winning of Barbara Worth.

 

[battlebeast]

I’d like to get this! Is it available on Amazon?

So, this is a FOX film, is it public domain?

 

[battlebeast]

Continue reading...

Another great review!

 

[Robert Harris]

I’d like to get this! Is it available on Amazon?

So, this is a FOX film, is it public domain?

The base Material is, yes.

 

[battlebeast]

The base Material is, yes.

Thanks!

 

[Timothy E]

As I was preparing my review of this release, it led me to contemplation about the nature of storytelling on film, from silent film through talkies. I cut this out of my review, as it did not really seem to fit in the body of the review, but I share my thoughts here now, as I believe they are relevant to The Johnstown Flood, and why we should continue to enjoy and appreciate early films in the 21st Century.

Silent films might be anathema to some audiences. Why does one watch a silent film in the 21st Century? If you have to ask that question, you probably do not love film, and you may not have a genuine appreciation of the artistry of cinema. One might as well ask why a black and white film is worth watching, when so many films are produced in color. If you are one of those Philistines who refuses to watch a black and white film, then you do not really appreciate cinema because you are excluding yourself from enjoying some of the greatest masterpieces of motion pictures. If this describes you, then asking you to watch a silent black and white film may be more than your sensibilities can bear.

Anyone who loves film knows that celluloid and film storytelling are miracles of creation. If you do not believe this, consider for one moment the magic that is required to create a single photographic image with analog technology. Most of us do not really understand it, except that you have images from a moment in time captured in true fidelity by projection of an image by light and shadow. A photograph was a miracle of creation in 1826, no less so now, even for those who could not fathom Aristotle’s idea of the camera obscura.

You have to take 24 of those images, in sequence, to create one second of the illusion of movement on film. Multiply that by 60 for the number of images necessary to created 60 seconds of the illusion of movement. Multiply by 60 again to create just 1 hour of motion picture footage. In order to create a motion picture story, you must assemble these pieces into a cohesive whole, and this is all before you introduce things like sound, or color, or script, or acting, or camera angles, much less film editing.

In silent films, technological limitations drove artistic innovations. Before sound could be added, and synchronized, to film, celluloid stories were told in pantomime, or with title cards inserted to convey dialogue, by an actor writing out their thoughts to convey to the audience, and by other subtler means. Even after The Jazz Singer, some of the greatest films tell stories most compellingly without requiring dialogue. If you do not believe that, you have probably never seen Rififi, or The Wages of Fear, or some of the other masterpieces of motion picture storytelling. If this is you, then you have probably missed out on Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin, and the other greats.

If you truly love cinema, then The Johnstown Flood on Blu-ray should be right up your alley.