The Ice Flood (Silent)

Thomas De Quincey, the head of a large lumber company, considers his son Jack to be a good-for-nothing wastrel. To make a man out of him, he sends Jack to investigate reports of strange goings-on at his lumber camp up north. There Jack discovers that the loggers are running an elaborate bootlegging operation. Before he can report it to the police, the spring thaw causes an ice flood that engulfs the camp. Now Jack and the crooks must work side-by-side if they are to survive...

Shot at a lumber mill along the Klamath River in Oregon, The Ice Flood is based on a novelette by Johnston McCulley. As "The Brute Breaker", it first appeared in the August 10, 1918 edition of All-Star Weekly. Universal had previously filmed it using that name in 1919, with Frank Mayo and Harry Northrup as stars. Johnston McCulley is today best remembered as the creator of Zorro. Kenneth Harlan got his start with D.W. Griffith in 1916 and throughout the silent era was a top-billed leading man, playing opposite Lillian Gish, Anna Mae Wong and many other famous starlets. Big-budget films like The Ice Flood were called "Universal Jewel Productions" in hopes of justifying higher ticket prices. This ploy actually proved to discourage audiences, and Carl Laemmle did away with the practice in 1929.