Noah's Ark (1928)

[SSO Admins]

This early silent-sound hybrid, an early directorial effort by Michael Curtiz, owes more than a small debt to Griffith's Intolerance, down to its comparison between a modern day story and a biblical one that have the most tenuous relationship to each other.

More importantly, the film plainly illustrates everything that was being lost with the death of the silent film

Travis (George O'Brien) and Al (Guinn Williams) are traveling around Europe living on Travis's family money, and find themselves on a train with an assortment of other passengers, including the Russian intelligence officer Nickoloff (Noah Beery) and a troop of dancers that includes German chorus girl Maria (Dolores Costello). After some philosphical debate on the coming war and the nature of God amongst the passengers, the train plunges into a ravine.

Finding Maria trapped beneath a beam of the fallen bridge, Travis and Al rescue her, and together they all take refuge in a nearby inn. Nickoloff attempts to rape her, and Travis knocks him downstairs.

Once in Paris, Travis and Maria fall in love, while Al decides that duty calls him to join the war effort. Feeling cowardly over his refusal to do so, Travis marries Maria and joins up as well.

Separated from Travis by war, Maria again becomes a chorus girl, only to find herself sentenced to death as a spy after encountering Nickoloff and again spurning him.

Sadly, the section ends with everyone on earth learning their lesson about war, which seems hopelessly naive in retrospect. It was a popular attitude at the time though, since it was difficult to imagine anyone who had seen WWI, still the most brutal of modern wars, willingly taking up arms again.

All of the talkie sequences in the movie are in this section. Costello seems uncomfortable talking (reportedly she had a lisp) and this discomfort may have contributed to her semi-retirement just a few years later. O'Brien is more natural, while Beery alone seems to do well with dialogue, probably owing to his extensive stage experience. Look for Myrna Loy in a small role as one of the chorus girls.

While some of the special effects are decent, particularly in the train wreck and war scenes, much of the action is limited by the requirements of early sound. Much of this section of the movie is stilted and flat.

Unfortunately, we can directly compare this to the second section, which is entirely silent. Most of the cast come back in second roles, with O'Brien playing Noah's son Japheth, Costello playing his fiance Miriam, and Beery playing King Nephelim of Ur.

Nephelim wishes to sacrifice the fairest virgin of the land to his false God, who (surprise!) happens to be Miriam. Nephelim's soldiers take her to the city to be sacrificed, and Japeth follows and tries to intervene, at which point he is blinded with a hot poker and chained to a millstone.

Fortunately, God has promised his dad that he and his sons will be saved on the ark, along with their wives. Thanks to divine intervention, everything works out in the end, although how the tale of Noah's Ark and WWI are linked is never really explained.

This section of the movie is terrific, with hundreds of extras in costume and lavish sets for the city. The flood sequence, in which two extras died, is still exciting. The whole thing is very DeMillish, although it doesn't balance its moralizing with anything near the level of CBD's debauchery. O'Brien and Costello fare much better in this section, while Beery retains his spot as the top actor in the movie.

While there were other silent-sound hybrids released in 1928 and 29, this film shows more clearly than any other I have seen what film was losing compared to what was being gained. It would be at least 25 years before the talkies could begin to rival the silent for beauty and spectacle.

[Gagman 66]

Jondaris,

Delores Costello certainly stands tall in this picture among the great beauties of any era of movie making. Boy, what a Knockout! I agree that as a Silent film this movie is truly spectacular! The flood sequence staggers the imagination, even today! Unfortunately, as a partial talkie it is a complete disaster!

Most of if not all of the Hybrid Silent's that I have seen, were pretty much ruined by senseless ill advised, and poorly staged dialogue sequences. I have yet to see one of these where I felt the dialogue added anything to the story, rather it seriously detracted from it! While at the same time disrupting the pace of film as well! yes the modern story seems terribly redundant by today's standards, and the film would have been much better if it were set strictly in Biblical times. This picture should have been a Masterpiece Instead it turned out to be somewhat a muffed opportunity!

A couple of other prime examples would be THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, and THE LOVE TRAP. In the first of these, the opening sequence is all dialogue, and it takes a long time to get the point across. In a Silent film, the same message could have been related to an audience in just a few title cards! As for THE LOVE TRAP directed by William Wyler, the first half of the film is all silent and quite good. Then for some reason the second half morphs into a very bad talkie?

I guess in 1929, studios were reluctant to release pure Silent films anymore? The acting is stilted, and reserved, and the whole picture falls apart! Laura La Plante, probably didn't sound a thing like She does in this film? Ditto for Delores Costello is NOAH'S ARK, their cadence is probably the product of some high brow Broadway acting coach that was hired to teach these poor movie stars how it is done! If you have seen Thames HOLLYWOOD, remember what Colleen Moore had to say regarding the banality of these expensive acting coach's? It was priceless!