Judith Rosenberg on Piano

Fox poached Gaynor from Universal with the offer of a supporting role in this proto–disaster movie, a period melodrama inspired by the actual catastrophe that struck the titular Pennsylvania town in 1889. “At Universal, I was getting $50 a week,” Gaynor later recalled. “(Y)et I gave up that definite salary for the chance to play an emotional part.” George O'Brien stars as a prescient engineer who spots flaws in the local dam. Florence Gilbert is O'Brien's love interest, but Gaynor steals the show in the minor but crucial role of a workman's daughter who rides through the valley on horseback to warn the people of the impending deluge. Gaynor's memorably tragic performance earned her a five-year contract from Fox-at $100 a week.

• Written by Edfrid Bingham, Robert Lord. Photographed by George Schneiderman. With George O'Brien, Florence Gilbert, Janet Gaynor, Anders Randolf. (58 mins, Silent, B&W, 35mm, Restored by George Eastman House in collaboration with 20th Century Fox)

Followed by:
The Shamrock Handicap
John Ford (U.S., 1926)

Gaynor got top billing in only her second feature-length assignment at Fox. Directed by John Ford during his studio journeyman period, The Shamrock Handicap is a lighthearted horse-racing drama centered in Ireland. Gaynor plays the daughter of a kindly but destitute Irish aristocrat (Louis Payne) forced to sell the bulk of his stable to a wealthy American. Romance blooms with the young jockey (Leslie Fenton) who rides her father's prize filly in a steeplechase to restore the family fortune. The film is leavened with old-world blarney and witty sight gags, and Ford displays earnest affection for the land of his forefathers, not to mention an ethnographic attention to Irish folk customs that anticipates the masterful treatment of similar material in his immigration epic How Green Was My Valley (1941).

• Written by John Stone, from a story by Peter B. Kyne. Photographed by George Schneiderman. With Janet Gaynor, Leslie Fenton, J. Farrell McDonald, Louis Payne. (55 mins, Silent, B&W, 35mm, Preserved by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, permission 20th Century Fox)