Deluge (1933)

This is like the granddaddy of all disaster films. I’m super happy that an English version was finally re-found. Luckily it starts with a Biblical quote so you can be certain that what comes next is all fiction. They don’t even bother at all giving a real explanation for the disaster just a vague ‘barometer falling’ and an unexplained solar eclipse. The viewer just needs to know that the world is falling apart. And indeed those lovely models of NYC fall apart in hundreds of different ways. Luckily there’s enough to salvage for the survivors to be clothed and fed beautifully, but the story then becomes rather drawn-out and boring. Poor Peggy Shannon has to spend too much time running, and swimming, away from awful men. In all seriousness when rebuilding a new society, you really shouldn’t hold yourself to the stodgy conventions of the old. Build back better!