When the Earth Trembled, Short Movie, 1913

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Also known as:

When the Earth Trembled or the Power of Love
When the Earth Trembled or the Strength of Love
Erdbeben (Germany)
Da Jorden skælvede (Denmark)
Quand la terre trembla (France)
De aardbeving (Netherlands)
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GodzillaFan54 ◊ 2024-03-27 13:36	A silent disaster movie from 1913 about the devastating earthquake that struck San Francisco on April 18th, 1906. Most of the city's populace was awoken from sleep at 5:12 am when a pre-shock occurred that caused minor damage. These people had barely anytime to react before, just 25 seconds later, the main quake struck. With enough shaking to register a jaw-dropping 7.9 on the Richter scale, walls folded over and fell inwards by the dozen, buildings made of wood folded and collapsed like cards. Certain buildings had their outer walls survive while the roof and everything beneath fell into the basement. Almost the entire city was destroyed and most buildings, if not destroyed outright, were so badly damaged that they had to be torn down and fully replaced, with a large number of brick buildings reduced to fragments of the outer walls. Not helping the issue were dozens of fires that blazed through the destroyed city, leaving at least thousands injured and homeless. Since most buildings were made of wood or had wood-heavy interiors, the many fires had plenty of fuel. Once it was all over, San Francisco had been almost completely destroyed, with rebuilding and even rehoming those displaced by the quake taking several years. The quake resulted in the mass reconfiguration of structural engineering in California for buildings to be able to withstand earthquakes, as most in recent memory prior to the 1906 earthquake were minor ones. This earthquake however, had the tectonic plates move 20 feet in only 45 seconds and registered a 7.9 on the Richter scale. With over 3'000 people dead, it remains the deadliest earthquake in American history. As for the film itself, the earthquake scenes are fairly decent for such an early disaster film. There is barely any shaking shown, presumably due to the fragility of 1913-era film cameras, and we mainly see buildings falling apart, mostly from inside. One particularly eerie scene shows a man barely surviving his store collapsing around and partially on top of him before the floor just drops out from underneath him and he falls off-screen to his doom. The film also uses newsreel footage that shows the absolute devastation that followed the earthquake and fires. Not only is this my first silent film, this is also the oldest movie I've ever contributed! I was unsure of what type of film this qualifies as... imdb lists it as a short film, but the minimum required runtime of a movie to qualify as "feature length" is 40 minutes and this movie, with the restoration credits removed, runs 41 minutes and 6 seconds. I'll leave it up to the admins on whether the "Short Film" designation stays.
GodzillaFan54 ◊ 2024-03-27 22:30	Why is this not in the Last completed list?

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GodzillaFan54

◊ 2024-03-27 13:36

A silent disaster movie from 1913 about the devastating earthquake that struck San Francisco on April 18th, 1906. Most of the city's populace was awoken from sleep at 5:12 am when a pre-shock occurred that caused minor damage. These people had barely anytime to react before, just 25 seconds later, the main quake struck. With enough shaking to register a jaw-dropping 7.9 on the Richter scale, walls folded over and fell inwards by the dozen, buildings made of wood folded and collapsed like cards. Certain buildings had their outer walls survive while the roof and everything beneath fell into the basement.
Almost the entire city was destroyed and most buildings, if not destroyed outright, were so badly damaged that they had to be torn down and fully replaced, with a large number of brick buildings reduced to fragments of the outer walls. Not helping the issue were dozens of fires that blazed through the destroyed city, leaving at least thousands injured and homeless. Since most buildings were made of wood or had wood-heavy interiors, the many fires had plenty of fuel. Once it was all over, San Francisco had been almost completely destroyed, with rebuilding and even rehoming those displaced by the quake taking several years.
The quake resulted in the mass reconfiguration of structural engineering in California for buildings to be able to withstand earthquakes, as most in recent memory prior to the 1906 earthquake were minor ones. This earthquake however, had the tectonic plates move 20 feet in only 45 seconds and registered a 7.9 on the Richter scale. With over 3'000 people dead, it remains the deadliest earthquake in American history.

As for the film itself, the earthquake scenes are fairly decent for such an early disaster film. There is barely any shaking shown, presumably due to the fragility of 1913-era film cameras, and we mainly see buildings falling apart, mostly from inside. One particularly eerie scene shows a man barely surviving his store collapsing around and partially on top of him before the floor just drops out from underneath him and he falls off-screen to his doom. The film also uses newsreel footage that shows the absolute devastation that followed the earthquake and fires.

Not only is this my first silent film, this is also the oldest movie I've ever contributed!

I was unsure of what type of film this qualifies as... imdb lists it as a short film, but the minimum required runtime of a movie to qualify as "feature length" is 40 minutes and this movie, with the restoration credits removed, runs 41 minutes and 6 seconds. I'll leave it up to the admins on whether the "Short Film" designation stays.

GodzillaFan54

◊ 2024-03-27 22:30

Why is this not in the Last completed list?

	The vehicle is part of the movie
	Vehicle used a lot by a main character or for a long time
	Vehicle used by a character or in a car chase
	Minor action vehicle or used in only a short scene
	Background vehicle
	Unknown vehicle role
	Seen only in preview/trailer
	Seen only in deleted scenes
	Seen only in an alternative ending
	Seen only in an extra DVD contents

When the Earth Trembled, Short Movie, 1913

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