Sally Eilers in Bad Girl, Frank Borzage, 1930, from the “Murnau, Borzage and Fox” box set
Fox’s staggering John Ford box last year was a euphoric shock for cinephiles who were used to the major studios treating the canon with, at best, disinterest, and at worst, contempt. Lovingly and intelligently assembled, and featuring a staggeringly wide array of films, it’s an inexhaustible fount. The subsequent announcement of a similarly conceived box set showcasing the Fox work of the great German director F.W. Murnau and his American-born Fox colleague Frank Borzage set quite a few of us on our ears. Ford is one thing—a director known by a large group of self-styled movie-buffs, a figure who is, for better or worse, something of an icon of Americana. Murnau and Borzage are a whole other proposition—artists who worked in modes that seem increasingly foreign to a lot of contemporary viewers, for one thing. “Frank Borzage was that rarity of rarities, an uncompromising romanticist,” raved Andrew Sarris in The American Cinema. Does the phrase “uncompromising romanticist” apply in any way to to any aspect of the current cinema?
The upcoming set, to be released on December 9, is of a somewhat smaller scale than the Ford box, but it’s still a treasure chest. On the Murnau end, it features two versions of the immortal Sunrise (in two different aspect ratios—take that, Universal), the too-little seen City Girl, kind of a companion piece to Sunrise (see below), and substantial supplements on the tragically lost 4 Devils. The Borzage stuff ranges from 1925 to 1932 and features, among many others, three films that, along with Sunrise, consolidated Janet Gaynor’s stardom: 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Lucky Star. There’s also, among others, the above-pictured 1931 Bad Girl, with Sally Eilers in the title role. In this adaptation of a Vina Delmar novel, she’s not actually bad—she merely gets knocked up. Quite a bit less elaborate than the above-cited Borzage films, it’s nonetheless a frank and moving character study set in an world of near-poverty and deferred dreams. And it also features a really sweet montage of Coney Island’s Luna Park back in the day:
The nice folks at Fox were kind enough to send me a sampling of the material in the box, and it’s already blissed me out. I’ll be writing about it more, at length, both here and at The Auteurs’. In the meantime, here are some rapture-inducing images from Murnau’s City Girl:
Kate (Mary Duncan) is a tough Chicago waitress dreaming of a more bucolic life; Lem (Charles Farrell) a naïve son of a wheat farmer come to the big city to make a sale. They start falling for each other, but Kate’s not prepared for him to make any kind of romantic proposal. The shot of her dropping an ice cube back into the serving bowl when he does is a lovely bit of characterization.
Honeymoon in wheat. Lem and Kate arrive at the family farm. Murnau is often cited for his groundbreaking views of teeming metropolises; the imagery he gleans from this starker setting is equally memorable.
Kittie!
The honeymoon over, the marriage at a crossroads. As with Sunrise, in this film Murnau limns the delicacy of human relationships, shows how they can be damaged and sundered by thoughtless words and deeds.
More later.
TCM just ran “The Mortal Storm”, and I recorded it. I’ll be watching it this weekend, and it’ll be my first Borzage. It would have been nice if I’d watched it last weekend, so I’d have something more substantial to say here, but there it is.
I wanted Seventh Heaven for so long, but this boxset seems extraordinary, more than I could ask. Wonderful! Other studios should take notes (Warner, how about a Vidor/Sjöström boxset?)
Just when I think I’m so jaded that no longer am I capable of exulting, hopelessly, in a state of full blissed-out cinephilic wonderment and rapture, I read something like this. I knew the Murnau/Borzage set was coming; I even had a general idea of what’s on it. But this extended preview’s got me practically giddy. I swear it might as well be Spring here in the heart of me. Thankye, Glenn.
As for a Vidor/Sjostrom set … hell, I’d settle for a 2 disc Rowland Brown thingmajig.
Very impressive, isn’t it? I wonder what new source they found for “City Girl,” which has only been around in the 16-millimeter version rescued by Bill Everson. It’s always been an underrated film, bookended as it is by the blatant mastery of “Sunrise” and “Taboo.” I hope this set helps restore its reputation.
I hope so, too. The film is just staggering.
Any word on whether any of the individual titles will be made available as stand-alones (particularly the Murnau titles) the way Fox did with several of the titles from last year’s “Ford at Fox” set? I like Borzage, but Murnau’s the attraction for me in this set. I can’t see spending over 200 bucks just to get “City Girl” and the upgraded “Sunrise”.
Any word on whether any of the individual titles will be made available as stand-alones (particularly the Murnau titles) the way Fox did with several of the titles from last year’s “Ford at Fox” set? I like Borzage, but Murnau’s the attraction for me in this set. I can’t see spending over 200 bucks just to get “City Girl” and the upgraded “Sunrise”.
Just watched the old Grapevine video release of City Girl last week and I can’t wait to see it again in a good transfer. I’m also quite curious about the new John Cork documentary Murnau, Borzage and Fox – have you watched that one yet?
Haven’t yet. Will probably do so this weekend.
This is tremendous news, as those films have been sore omissions from the DVD world for years.
Incidentally I produced a video essay on Borzage’s SEVENTH HEAVEN with silent film historian Paolo Cherchi Usai offering a brilliant commentary. Unfortunately Paolo no longer wants the video on YouTube, but I’ll leave it on for a few days in the event that anyone who sees this will get a chance to watch it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSVtD1geLWA
i believe the correct spelling, even for the FW Murnau still,
is “Kitteh”