Working with parallell narratives, one telling the title story and the other of a WW I-era train wreck, this epic spectacular is a film with a tragic history that illustrates that back in its early years, movie-making was truly risky business. The same cast appears in both stories. The first half of the film is totally silent and the second contains some sound. The film is unusually violent and realistic. The flood scenes are particularly disturbing especially when it is realized that many of the floundering extras were actually drowning. The film's original cameraman, Hal Mohr could see that production designer Anton Grot's sets were quite dangerous and had the potential of doing damage when the flood scenes were filmed. He pleaded with Grot to change them, but Grot refused. Mohr left the film and was replaced by Barney McGill who captured the tragedy on film. When looking for this film, avoid the 1957 reissue as it has been chopped down from 135 to 75 minutes. The 1989 restored version is preferable.