I saw this film Monday night at New York's Film Forum in a new restoration by the George Eastman Museum. I won't try to summarize the plot, which others here have done, but I will say that the new restoration is magnificent. The film looks as though it was made a few weeks ago (with a single scene left unrestored so we can see the horrible nitrate damage it had originally).
The new restoration also completes the last scene which apparently was unavailable before. This is often billed as a film starring George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor, but that's really not the case. The lovers, happily married by the end of the film, are O'Brien and Florence Gilbert. Gaynor is a teenage girl in Johnstown who's in love with O'Brien, and works to help him save Johnstown from the dam. He cares about her, but he never loves anyone romantically but Gilbert.
So Janet Gaynor, in her first major role, does NOT get the guy. Also, she dies in the flood, after a heroic Paul-Revere-type ride warning everyone in town when the dam bursts (including the people at O'Brien's and Gilbert's wedding). Her career took off from there and she went on to star with O'Brien in Sunrise, but in the Johnstown Flood she was just a supporting actor (though an extraordinary one).
The new restoration also completes the last scene which apparently was unavailable before. This is often billed as a film starring George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor, but that's really not the case. The lovers, happily married by the end of the film, are O'Brien and Florence Gilbert. Gaynor is a teenage girl in Johnstown who's in love with O'Brien, and works to help him save Johnstown from the dam. He cares about her, but he never loves anyone romantically but Gilbert.
So Janet Gaynor, in her first major role, does NOT get the guy. Also, she dies in the flood, after a heroic Paul-Revere-type ride warning everyone in town when the dam bursts (including the people at O'Brien's and Gilbert's wedding). Her career took off from there and she went on to star with O'Brien in Sunrise, but in the Johnstown Flood she was just a supporting actor (though an extraordinary one).