Deluge

press release:

USA | 1933 | DCP | 70 min.

Director: Felix Feist

Cast: Peggy Shannon, Lois Wilson, Sidney Blackmer

This prototypical disaster movie from RKO Studios shows what happens when an unforeseen series of earthquakes sets off a series of tidal waves that, in a staggering special effects sequence, wipe out New York City. Blackmer (Roman Castevet of Rosemary’s Baby) stars as a man who, separated from his family, must begin to rebuild civilization in the wake of the catastrophe. Unseen for decades, and only for the last 20 years in a dubbed Italian version, a complete English-language print of Deluge was discovered in 2016 and has been prepared for reissue by Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films. Says Bromberg, “Deluge is a magnificent film, and what was at the time certainly nightmarish seems today full of thrills and almost poetry. King Kong was not the only fantastic film at RKO in 1933!”

Special Presentations: Spring 2017 is filled with numerous special repertory screenings. Our lineup includes several new restorations, including new DCPs of Julie Dash’s landmark movie Daughters of the Dust, Juzo Itami’s uproarious food comedy Tampopo, and Julien Duvivier’s terrific thriller Panique. We will also present a new DCP of the long-thought-lost RKO proto-disaster movie Deluge which will screen as part of a “flood and fire” double feature with a 35mm print of another RKO super production, The Last Days of Pompeii. Other 35mm showings include the ultra-rare "Moment in Time" cut of animator Richard Williams' magnum opus, The Thief and the Cobbler; Ingmar Bergman’s film of Mozart’s The Magic Flute and two fine IB Technicolor prints of Francis Ford Coppola’s two 1974 releases (and Best Picture Oscar nominees) The Godfather Part II and The Conversation. Plus an evening of musical Vitaphone shorts and live musical performance; Al Pacino in William Friedkin’s controversial Cruising; and two very different Cannon Films adaptations of an Elmore Leonard crime novel classic (52 Pick-Up), made only two years apart!

All Cinematheque screenings are free and open to the public.