The Johnstown Flood Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

The Johnstown Flood Blu-ray Movie Review

Dam Yankees.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III October 8, 2023

A prototypical disaster film with groundbreaking special effects, Irving Cummings' The Johnstown Flood can be called the Titanic of its day: wide-eyed romance and fabricated drama framed neatly around a historic tragedy. In this case, it's the devastating 1889 dam burst that swallowed an entire community with 22,000,000 tons of water, killing 2,209 people and causing massive damage that took decades to rebuild. This 68-minute silent marvel builds to a harrowing climax, with character drama performed by a solid cast that included several future silver-screen legends.

Despite the scope of this ambitious production, its slim running time and relatively small number of "speaking" parts all but ensure a streamlined plot. The bulk of its story concerns a romance between engineer Tom O'Day (George O'Brien) and Gloria Hamilton (Florence Gilbert), whose wealthy father John (Anders Randolf) operates a lumber camp outside of town and holds complete control of the dam upriver. A lucrative contract for new lumber pushes the dam's water levels to dangerous heights and, despite Tom's numerous warnings, John stubbornly places company profits above the town's safety. It doesn't take much guessing to figure out what happens next, with steady build-up to this inevitable disaster lengthened by the revolt of Tom's crew. But with a storm on the horizon, it simply won't be enough.

There are further detours during the film, and at worst only a few prove to be mild distractions. The main and most interesting one is a friendship between Tom and young Anna Burger (Janet Gaynor, in her first credited on-screen role), the only daughter of a widowed dam laborer (Paul Panzer) who desperately admires him. Her unrequited love for Tom inserts Anna into the A-story, which culminates in her "Paul Revere" ride through town after the dam's violent collapse. Other smaller detours, including the exploits of lumber camp cook Dinty McGinty (George Reed) and related goings-on at a local clothing store, aren't nearly as impactful but provide a bit of local flavor and comedy relief.

The main attraction of The Johnstown Flood is obviously the disaster itself, a gripping 15-minute sequence (which is surprisingly similar to the real-life disaster's duration) that features skillful miniature work by special effects pioneer E. Roy Davidson and also includes early optical effects, convincing matte paintings, and other tricks to effectively sell the horror and its aftermath. Davidson's later work included contributions to Frank Capra's Lost Horizon, White Heat, and Only Angels Have Wings, for which he won the Academy Award. Here, it amplifies the atmosphere and, though effects seamlessness would grow by leaps and bounds during the next several decades, Davidson's touch leaves a strong exclamation point on what might otherwise be a slightly above-average melodrama with a solid cast.

O'Brien and Gaynor are the standouts here; she's front and center on original key art as well as this new Blu-ray, a newly-restored edition that beautifully resurrects this early career highlight for its current and future stars. Gaynor would achieve the quickest road to success, including her first Oscar for Best Actress only three years later, and she'd be immediately re-teamed with O'Brien on F.W. Murnau's 1927 classic Sunrise. Somewhat amusingly, a trio of future Hollywood legends also appear briefly as uncredited extras: Gary Cooper (as "Flood Survivor"), Carole Lombard ("One of Gloria's Four Friends"), and her future husband Clark Gable ("Townsman Standing at Bar in Saloon").

For more historical context about the film and its cast/crew, check out this piece by Kevin Brownlow.

The Johnstown Flood Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

To say that this Blu-ray's new 1080p transfer was a labor of love would be an understatement -- it's clear that lots of time and thoughtful consideration were put into almost every facet of its construction, bringing The Johnstown Flood back to life for another century. This is quite a stunning home video debut indeed: it's sourced from a new 4K scan of source materials preserved by the George Eastman Museum, which includes five 1,000-ft. reels of the original 35mm nitrate negative; the sixth was preserved but not in suitable condition, so the remaining footage was sourced from a preservation negative. (A full page of text detailing elements of the restoration process plays before the film starts, which will be of great interest to fans.) Speaking of which, lead preservationists Robert A. Harris and James Mockoski shared duties for this process which included the raw scanning at GEM, extensive digital cleanup, and a few additional odds and ends, such as tracking down the original color tinting continuity to ensure historical accuracy.

The result is as authentic an image as I've seen for a film this age. This is an extremely stable presentation overall, one that yields a high level of fine detail and original textures while still preserving natural film grain. The aforementioned color tinting is tastefully done and holds steady from scene to scene, as do fades, cuts, and other such transitions. Of course, some trace damage remains: nicks and scratches here and there, more than a few faint vertical lines, and mild flickering. Two brief moments of heavy nitrate decomposition that were deemed unrepairable also remain, but they last a total of 4-5 seconds. The intertitles are clean and crisp as well, and it's even mentioned in the text intro that one was missing and had to be recreated from scratch. (It's helpfully indicated with a small "2023" in the bottom-right corner.) These hiccups and workarounds are all basically par for the course, and as a whole there are precious few complaints; perhaps a few traces of macro-blocking that are most noticeable in the darkest of scenes, but nothing major. All told, this is enormously impressive work and would be a true theatrical-quality presentation in its native 4K.

The Johnstown Flood Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The audio is a different matter entirely, but almost equally impressive in its scope and undertaking: accompanying this silent film is a robust DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio (stereo) track featuring a newly-commissioned musical performance by Colorado's acclaimed Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. It's entirely based on The Johnstown Flood's original 1926 score which even replicates a few stray simulated "sound effects" (knocking on a door, etc.) and fits the overall tone perfectly. Not surprisingly given its young age, there's no damage to report; from start to finish, it's a crisp and full-bodied presentation with excellent channel separation that bolsters the film's impact at key moments.

The Johnstown Flood Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with attractive cover artwork. Both pack-in bonuses -- a booklet with a brief essay by Shelley Stamp and a pair of 3-D glasses (more on those later) -- are limited to the first 1,100 copies of this MOD release. The on-disc extras are well-rounded and add a nice layer of historical context.

• Effects Featurette (29:08) - VFX artist Craig Barron and sound designer Ben Burtt discuss The Johnstown Flood's groundbreaking visual effects by pioneer E. Roy Davidson, revealing a few secrets and tricks without fully pulling the curtain back. It's a mostly audio-only piece (recorded in stereo, with each participant given their own channel) but also includes supportive stills/clips from the film and a few invaluable historical relics.

• Audio Interviews - Two brief conversations with star George O'Brien, both preserved from original audio cassette tapes on loan from the Niles Film Museum and recently restored by Theodore Goodman.

• Early Career (8:21) - Conducted by Robert S. Birchard on February 3, 1975 at O'Brien's home.
• The Johnstown Flood (9:08) - By Dave Martin on January 8/9, 1961 at O'Brien's brother's office.

• Janet Gaynor at the 50th Annual Academy Awards (3:44) - This brief clip from the 1978 show features Gaynor, flanked by fellow presenter Walter Matthau, handing out that year's Best Actress Oscar.

• Photo Gallery (57 stills) - Post-flood photos of the real Johnstown and surrounding areas, circa 1889.

• 3-D Photo Gallery (56 stills) - Images derived from original stereographs, presented in red-blue anaglyph format and viewable with an included pair of 3-D glasses (first run only). Heartbreaking, but neat.

The Johnstown Flood Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Irving Cummings' The Johnstown Flood is an underrated silent classic, a prototypical disaster film with groundbreaking special effects and decent melodrama to back it up. This Blu-ray edition resurrects it for a new generation of viewers, making it as strong a home video debut as I've seen in recent years. Its careful 4K-sourced restoration is the obvious highlight, but a handful of retrospective bonus features round out this thoughtful package. Seasoned silent film fans should consider it a no-brainer, but The Johnstown Flood is certainly strong enough to warrant a blind buy.