I remember reading about this one years ago in the 'Silent But Deadly' chapter in one of those Worst Movies that were around in the early eighties. Boy, were they right!
NOAH'S ARK (Michael Curtiz, 1928)
Young American playboy Travis (George O'Brien) meets German actress Marie (Delores Costello) during a wreck on the Orient Express in pre-WWI France. After pulling her from the train wreckage he then rescues her from a leering Russian officer (Noah Berry). They are married but he soon joins the war effort. The Russian has Marie arrested as a spy. Luckily, Travis is a member of the firing squad and as he's rescuing her again the Germans shell the execution site with Big Bertha, trapping everyone in the catacombs beneath the battlefield. Here a minister, also a survivor of the earlier wreck, takes the opportunity to relate a truly demented version of Noah and the Ark.
The biblical portion of this partial talkie takes place in the last 30 minutes or so with the majority of the running time devoted to the pretty standard "modern tale". But once we fnally get back to Biblical times things really get cookin'!
Warner's found the relatively simple tale of Noah too mild (no olive branch toting dove or reassuring rainbow
here) so big chunks of Moses, Sampson, and random bits of Old Testament-style carnage are thrown in for good measure. God finds time during the destruction of the world to fire off a few well placed lightening bolts to kill off some of Noah's critics, blow up a huge statue of a rival god, and restore Noah's son's eyesight.
The famous spectacular flood effects are incredible, but my favorite (if sadistic) bit depicts the beasts of land and air scrambling madly to secure a berth on the Ark. Instead of lining up peacefully in twos - there are whole herds of zebras, lions, elephants, tigers, emus, chimpies, etc. fighting and clawing at each other as they swarm the Ark.
Curtiz's legendary disregard for the safety of the cast is very evident as thousands of gallons of water are dump-tanked onto huge crumbling sets crammed with hundreds genuinely terrified extras. Several horrific injuries and even one death were reported. Among the survivors of Curtiz's deluge were Andy Devine and John Wayne.
Some random dump-tank action: