Noah's Ark | |
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Theatircal release poster
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Directed by | Michael Curtiz |
Written by |
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Starring | |
Music by | |
Cinematography | |
Edited by | Harold McCord |
Production
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Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release date
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Running time
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135 minutes 108 minutes (restored) |
Country | United States |
Language | English (intertitles with talking sequences) |
Budget | $1,005,000 |
Box office | $1,367,000 (US) $938,000 (world, except US) |
Noah's Ark is a 1928 American romantic melodramatic disaster film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Dolores Costello and George O'Brien. The story is by Darryl F. Zanuck. The film was released by the Warner Bros. studio. It is representative of the transition from silent movies to "talkies", although it is essentially a hybrid film known as a part-talkie, which used the new Vitaphone sound-on-disc system. Most scenes are silent with a synchronized music score and sound effects, in particular the biblical ones, while some scenes have dialogue.
The film opens after the great flood, with Noah and his family outside of the Ark praising the Lord. Then comes depictions of the building of the Tower of Babel and the worshipping of the golden calf. Then it switches to the eve of World War I. The theme of the gold calf is carried forward by a scene in which a bankrupted trader (Otto Hoffman) shoots his uncaring .
In 1914, American playboy Travis (George O'Brien) and his New York taxi driver buddy Al (Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams) are traveling aboard the "Oriental Express" train. Travis helps a pious minister (Paul McAllister) reclaim his seat from a rude fellow passenger. A washed-out bridge causes a deadly derailment. Travis and Al rescue Marie (Dolores Costello), a German member of a small theatrical troupe, from underneath the wreckage with the help of a prisoner (Malcolm Waite) who had just unhandcuffed himself from a now-dead escort.