Déluge

Back at the start of the "talkies", in 1933, RKO Studios produced this compelling vision of the Earth destroyed by natural disasters. Until recently, this was a lost film, all prints of it presumed gone. I managed to obtain a VHS copy of this, essentially, low budget production directed by Felix Feist. For cinema historians, this is highly recommended viewing; just don't expect CGI perfection, for we're talking decades before our glorious computers were invented.

The first twenty minutes are the most terrifying I can recall. For apparently no rhyme or reason, scientists discover that the Earth's weather has drastically changed: The barometers are dropping rapidly, the wind velocity is increasing, and a mysterious, unscheduled solar eclipse has occurred. Unlike most science-films, no pseudo-scientific explanations are offered. the world's officials and citizens are thoroughly baffled and horrified. To worsen the disturbing mystery, Earthquakes and tidal waves then break out, destroying and sinking most of the land on our planet, leaving the world a vast ocean with millions dead.

The spectacular sequence of the destruction of New York is spellbinding and memorable. Though the effects are naturally dated, they are nevertheless convincing and frightening. Buildings crumble, people perish and a tremendous flood buries the world's largest city (though some may not consider that to be any great tragedy). The sense of doom and dread convey an overpowering deluge. The film's title conveys a double meaning; a gigantic flood and a state of being overwhelmed. As the tag line reads, EARTH IS DOOMED! And that's no phoney promo, DELUGE lives up to its hype. A one of a kind effort and an early experiment in special-effects.

The story's opening is directed in an eerir Twilight Zone manner. Believable dialogue and an astute lack of sopomoric jargon enhance its credibility and effectiveness. A totally impossible nightmare plagues the human race, and no one knows how or why. Obviously, no solution to the bizzare occurance prevails. Reality and illusion converge with catastrophic results. Its grim, somber tone is undeniable and unrelenting. They don't make paranoia like they used to.

However, the film's main drawback is that once the devastation is over, the excruciating tension diminishes and we're left with a standard tale of a group of survivors marooned on a strip of land that still remains above water, a few miles away from where New York once was. Though not bad (remember it was still the first of its kind), it still pales considerably compared to the powerful and unforgettable opening.

If DELUGE had concentrated solely on the catastrophie, and the suspenseful events leading up to it, it could have been a great classic. As it is, it's still quite a unique effort (considering its low budget) and an interesting curio. Perhaps Irwin Allen saw this back in his childhood.

Check this out, but don't expect an Industrial Light and Magic enterprise and Harrison Ford. We're talking nearly seventy years ago. It was 'Famous Monster's' Forrest J. Ackerman who uncovered the only known existing print (way back in the eighties) dubbed in Italian and sub-titled, giving it a foreign film cinema verite appearence. Very honorable deed, Forrey, but why did you wait so long to tell us?

I saw this film in England in 1934 at the age of 16 and was highly impressed with the special effects. Oddly enough Sydney Blackmer played the hero in this although in many other films he was cast in villainous roles. Remember him as the "kindly" neighbour in Rosemary's Baby?

I had read the book only a year or so before seeing the film and was absolutely flabbergasted with the disaster scenes. In view of our knowledge of global warming, a remake might well be highly topical and thought provoking.

Big-budgeted disaster films, showing cataclysmic destruction of the earth by natural forces, have long been popular with the movie public. Many of these films include post-apocalyptic plots of the world's few survivors. Cinema's first "disaster" movie was August 1933 "Deluge."

RKO Radio Pictures' distributed the Admiral Production film. Admiral was a second-tier studio, but was able to fund a relatively large budget for the 'Grade-B' movie. Film critics praised the special effects occurring in the first third of "Deluge." "These effects are undoubtedly quite an achievement for the early 1930s," writes Mark Welsh, "even if the crumbling buildings are still obviously models, but the drowning of cities by mighty waves is fairly credible." So impressive were those early effects that RKO rented "Deluge's" footage to other studios to use in such films as 1935 'S. O. S Tidal Wave' and 1949 'King of the Rocket Man' among others. The 2004 disaster movie 'The Day After Tomorrow,' uses almost the exact gigantic wave action scenes in the same city, New York City, as the 1933 Admiral picture. The extensive use of its footage in other movies explains why "Deluge" was withdrawn from the market and was considered lost until an Italian print was discovered in 1981. A full English version emerged in 2016 and was fully restored.

As a 'post-apocalyptic' film, "Deluge's" catastrophe came about by a combination of an extreme low pressure system and a massive earthquake off the Eastern shore at the same time, creating floods throughout most of the world. Only higher elevations had remained dry, although they too have been damaged by the quakes. The movie focuses on the Webster family, Martin (Sidney Blackmer) and wife Helen (Lois Wilson), who are separated by the rising seas. Martin is separated from his family and is alone in a seaside (now high up) shack when he finds professional swimmer Claire (Peggy Shannon) passed out on the shore. She had just escaped the clutches of two ravenous men and has swum miles to arrive at the footsteps of Martin's abode, where the two fall in love. They end up in a former vacation resort town where the pair discover a surprise that'll change their relationship. Says film critic Danny March, echoing the consensus of "Deluge's" achilles heel: "the massive special effects sequence that starts the movie had a lot more thought put into it than all of the characters who wandered around after."

Actress Peggy Shannon's tragic life was all too common in early Hollywood. As a former Ziegfeld chorus girl on the Broadway stage in the 1920's, Shannon was spotted by Paramount Pictures and tabbed to be the next Clara Bow "It" girl. Hours after arriving in Hollywood, she replaced Bow after the star had a nervous breakdown a couple of days before filming 1931's 'The Secret Call.' With a whirlwind schedule of several movie appearances in such a short stretch, Shannon began to hit the bottle to decompress after 16-hour work days. By the time she appeared in "Deluge," her reputation as a difficult and temperamental actress was well known throughout Hollywood,. After a couple years on the stage back East, she returned to film, but with minor roles.

Her husband, Albert Roberts, returned to the couple's North Hollywood apartment from a fishing vacation in May 1941 to see Shannon slumped on the kitchen table, a cigarette in her mouth and an empty glass in her hand, dead. An autopsy revealed she expired 12 hours earlier brought on by a heart attack with a damaged liver. Husband Roberts was so distraught over her premature death at 34 that three weeks later he shot himself in the same chair Shannon had died. He left a suicide note exclaiming, "I am very much in love with my wife, Peggy Shannon. In this spot she died, so in reverence to her, you will find me in the same spot."

As a young man in the early 30's I attended a small theater in Brooklyn, NY showing the film Deluge. The memory of the devastation depicted in the film has remained with me through the years. I feel that a similar film made today, with all the special effects, would not have the impact felt at that time.

Of course there are many films from that era which are well remembered today while Deluge did not stand the test of time that I feel it deserved.

Years later I read an article concerning films that were lost due to deterioration and Deluge e was mentioned. We can all be indebted to IMDb for providing an opportunity to rediscover films such as Deluge.

I read about this movie years ago but thinking that no prints existed, only recently looked for a rental copy. It was much better than reviews lead me to believe. The destruction of New York City was quite convincing especially when the earth opened up and the ocean rushed in. The screenwriters were smart not to offer any explanation for the disaster. Perhaps this was due to time and budget constraints. The scientists' bewilderment added to the tension.

The survivors' story was credible even though the lead characters were somewhat stupid. Martin and Claire spent the night in a tunnel knowing full well that armed men were coming for them at first light. They could have easily escaped during the night.

The story had several gaps probably due to lost or deteriorated film. How did Martin become separated from his wife and children? Why did each think the other was dead? The Statue of Liberty was still standing at the end of the storm sequence. Did it survive?

The Italian dialog was distracting and the English subtitles did not convey everything that was spoken. There was something said about Louisiana sinking and New Orleans being flooded. When survivors in the settlement cannot raise anything on the radio, a boy says to an adult, "Now you can be the fire chief". I'm going out on a limb and say the boy is referring to comedian Ed Wynn who portrayed the Texaco Fire Chief on an early radio program. This must have been very confusing to foreign audiences.

The actress who played Claire, Peggy Shannon, was strikingly beautiful with a modern look not normally seen in movies of that period. How sad that she died of alcoholism just 8 years after the movie was released.