Deluge

This original end-of-the-world disaster movie is a curious and often fascinating artifact. Produced in 1933 (pre-Production Code) on a relatively modest budget, the film parses out the special effects spectacle carefully, opening with scientists in a panic as they predict dire storms—alarming news that is communicated over radio reports. Intercut with these voices of authority is the story of Martin (Sidney Blackmer) and Helen (Lois Wilson), a married couple with two kids whose rural manor is destroyed in the storms, and professional swimmer Claire (Peggy Shannon), who escapes a brutish thug and is rescued by Martin, separated by the havoc from his family and surviving in a remote cabin. The spectacle is all presented during the first act, with primitive, almost surreal miniature effects showing New York City being leveled in an earthquake and swamped in tidal waves, while the remainder of the film is a tale of survival after the end of civilization as we know it. A marauding gang preys upon survivors, raping and murdering women (not shown onscreen but the implications are clear), while a community of survivors tries to rebuild from the rubble of a ruined town. Based on the titular 1928 novel by Sydney Fowler Wright, Deluge can lay claim to the title of first disaster movie. For decades the film was only available in an Italian-dubbed print, but is presented here in a fine restoration of the original English language version, with extras including audio commentary by film historian Richard Harland Smith, and the 1934 B-movie Back Page (a newspaper drama starring Shannon). Recommended. (S. Axmaker)