Synopsis
CONTINENTS WERE SWEPT AWAY... AND WITH THEIR LAWS AND MORALS!
A massive earthquake strikes the United States, which destroys the West Coast and unleashes a massive flood that threatens to destroy the East Coast as well.
1933 Directed by Felix E. Feist
A massive earthquake strikes the United States, which destroys the West Coast and unleashes a massive flood that threatens to destroy the East Coast as well.
La distruzione del mondo, El diluvio, Déluge, 大洪水, 대홍수
Diving into the uniqueness that is the "Pre-Code" era of film, "Deluge" is an interesting disaster epic that is advantageous in design for its time, making it clearly aged with charm. Somewhat based upon a novel written in 1928 centered upon a fictional disaster event in Britian. For the film, the events are moved to New York City, where a disaster of biblical proportions literally levels most of known civilization into rubble. The production design makes for clever, nuanced style, translating into a wonderful time capsule today for viewing audiences today. Expansive miniatures are featured before destroyed, and although aged camera tricks are used, the audience really shouldn't care as they are retrospectively looking at an ingenious effort for its…
Hell of a WATERWORLD prequel. Spectacular FX (miniatures, rear-projection, the works) kick off some vintage post-apocalypse weirdness that gives way to a bunch of surviving dudes fighting over who gets to "keep" the last hot lady in what's left of the Catskills. Equal parts awesome and gross. Good stuff.
Big spoiler at the end, but it's so dumb you really shouldn't care.
Man this movie is a trip. It starts out with incredible miniature work depicting essentially the destruction of the entire world, though earthquakes, floods, and massive storms. We see many shots of New York City collapsing, as well as footage of scientists standing around, staring at seismograph machines and marveling at what they see. At first, this is hilarious, like "LOL THE WORLD IS ENDING AND THEY'RE STARING AT A MACHINE THAT DRAWS LINES!" But then you realize that our fancy scientists would be doing exactly the same thing today, and it's suddenly more depressing than funny.
Anyway.
Once the world ends, most of what's left is…
1933:
Ein gigantisches Erdbeben - mit freundlicher Unterstützung eines Mega-Tsunamis - zerstört New York und die ganze Welt gleich mit, weil: Sonnenfinsternis.
Extrem notgeile und unattraktive Vergewaltiger-Gangs ziehen danach durch's Land, logisch.
Profi-Schwimmerin Peggy Shannon (hui) zeigt sich trotzdem im Bikini und haut einem Bösewicht einen Nagel-Baseballschläger in den Rücken.
Moment mal - 1933? W-T-F?
Mir war nicht bewusst, dass es eine "pre-Code" Zeit gab, in der so etwas filmisch erlaubt war. Oder gewagt wurde! Und dass es damals schon einen post-apokalyptische Film gab, der all jene Elemente des Genres mitbringt, die wir eigentlich aus den 70/80/90ern kennen. Im Jahre 1933, erwähnte ich das bereits?
Wow. Offenkundige Bildungslücke geschlossen, danke DODRE4@Twitter.
In this way later than usual review from me, messageboard chatter and a 4K video on YouTube inspired me to see this early disaster movie. Yes, they made those way back when; the discussion happened months ago-the movie was always on my mind to see eventually. It was released on Blu by Kino several years ago-more on that at the end-so not paying for that or paying for the streaming rental on Kino Now does sound rotten on my part. That said, some account on YouTube which doesn’t have that many views (moonflix, but you didn’t hear that from me) uploaded the movie in 4K so I was charitable & checked out the stream.
There are reasons why disaster movies spend…
In 2016, an original English language copy of Deluge was discovered and restored (an Italian dub had been found in Rome in 1981). A disaster film from 1933, the likes of which would not be recreated for decades, it sets the precedent of destroying New York for the delight of audiences with its early and impressive special effects.
Dude, I only heard of it last week when it popped up on Kanopy.
Blessedly, it’s also a pre-code film, so the post-deluged survivors display nasty traits that would be suppressed under the Hollywood code. They are a horny bunch of rape-hungry men and a smattering of rape-resistant women.
If only all “lost” films could be found.
'Deluge' is a mind-blowing pre-code disaster and more importantly post-apocalypse movie that basically predates everything you've ever seen in any film of that genre (and after the past two years, very likely is also entirely accurate at it).
The fact that this was lost for decades probably is why it isn't a lot more well known, because it deserves so much more credit than it gets.
This moves at such a fast pace that the destruction of New York (which looks fantastic and actually better than many movies did it even much later including most Toho films) is not even the main selling point. What comes afterwards is the really interesting part and includes a gang of rapists (!) and…
I watched this version - youtu.be/Z86AQ7f7CoI
The special effects were off but in a consistent way that ended up working because it gave the film a look.
Just when I was getting tired of the special effects the characters and plot came on and oh boy were those boring and stupid and simplistic and moralistic and just empty with the depth of a bubble gum wrapper cartoon.
A huge earthquake leads to a global tsunami and the destruction of New York in biblically Emmerich proportions. The early disaster scenes amaze, but the film later ebbs in the post-apocalyptic hills, a tragic romantic folly more typical of it's era. Still, a model for celluloid doomsdays to come.
One reel of diaster-porn sci-fi spectacle, three reels of rebuilding and a romance plot. The 'end of the world' scenario seems to channel people's anxieties about the Depression, with thought being given about how to create a more equitable society 'afterwards'. Gender politics are wonky as hell, at least in terms of what they choose to focus on and what not to. In my version, they would have gone polyamorist in the fourth reel. Intuitively, I think Philip Wylie's writings might have had something to do with the content of this, but I can't justify that take...
71/100
Audio commentary by historian Richard Harland Smith. He had some good insights into the Pre-Code disaster film. Thanks to the 70-minute runtime, this has a breathless pace that keeps the viewer completely engaged. It is easy for films of the period to create a distance as a product of their own mechanisms (tempo/stage/scene). "Deluge" is a fun blockbuster and those were not as common in 1933.
Watched on Kino Lorber DVD (4K TV; SD).
Up Next: Peter Rabbit: The Runaway
Un drôle de mélange : un film catastrophe de l'ère pre-code qui devient un récit postapocalyptique. Le déluge est-il dû à une catastrophe naturelle ou est-il l'oeuvre de Dieu?... ce n'est pas clair. Chose certaine, ça fait un parfait prequel à Waterworld! Réalisée à partir de maquettes, la scène du déluge est super cool. Ah! et il y a une histoire d'amour extraconjugal! Tout ça en 70 minutes.