[Above] 12 Disk Box set with documentary by John Cork

Murnau, Borzage and Fox Box Set

12 movies and a documentary covering the silent and talkie careers of these two master film directors

DVD AVAILABILITY: amazon.com shows it at a sale price of $179.99 (Retail is $239.98 USD) amazon will also throw in the 5-film Budd Boetticher box set for $224 altogether.

This collection contains 2 F.W. Murnau films and 10 films directed by Frank Borzage from the late silent through the early talkie era. Many of these have long been unavailable.

SIX SILENT FILMS - Murnau and Borzage

F W MURNAU'S FILMS

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) -The story of a farmer tormented by his affair with a city woman that drives him to contemplate the murder of his wife. Also available on DVD in the Fox Best Picture Collection. The only Oscar ever awarded for "best artistic film" went to this movie.

City Girl (1930) - A young farmer is sent to the sity to sell the wheat crop, ends up coming home with a new wife who has to learn about the ways of farming.

Frank Borzage films:

Lazybones (1925) - A slightly similar plot to Chaney's Laugh. Clown, Laugh: a man raises a young orphan girl, and when she is an adult begins to fall in love with her. The difference here is that "Lazybones" is sent to France to fight in the first world war and when he returns the question is whether he will pursue the orphaned girl or another woman who had earlier rejected him because he had taken in the child, which caused a scandal in their town.

Seventh Heaven (1928) - Janet Gaynor is loved by a sewer worker who rescues her from a savage beating. War intrudes upon the romance. Janet Gaynor won a Best Actress Oscar for this film. Was remade with Simone Simon in the 1930s, but not as well.

Street Angel (1928) - An Italian girl (Janet Gaynor) joins a traveling circus to hide from he police who are pursuing her for a suspected offense as a prostitute. Gaynor won another oscar for her performance in this film.

Lucky Star (1929) - Janet Gaynor is a poor farm girl who has a romance with a young man (Charlie Farrel) who is sent to war. When he returns as a wheelchair-bound war veteran, the difficulties in their relationship is magnified when the young man's bullying sergeant from his war years appears and pursues Gaynor's character.

6 TALKING FILMS - Borzage

They Had to See Paris (1929) - Will Roger'ss first film: he becomes rich from an oil well and his wife decides they must go to Europe to get "cultured."

Liliom (1930) - A carnival barker falls in love with a young woman, and in an effort to support them he is killed in a robbery. Years later he is supernaturally sent to earth to make amends for his deeds. From the 1921 play by Ferenc Moinar. Filmed a number of times, with a 1934 version by Fritz Lang with Charles Boyer.

Song O' My Heart (1930) - Popular singer of that era John McCormack is presented an an unfortunate young man in a Irish village who must forgo a singing career in order to help the abandoned children of a woman he loved but who was forced to marry another man.

Bad Girl (1931) - Borzage won an oscar for this film about a often feuding young couple who must come to terms with economic realities when many of their plans go wrong. He is a fighter who is reduced to $10 bouts and she is a struggling mother who doesn't know to what extent her husband is working to earn their bread.

After Tomorrow (1932) - Pre-code drama in which Peter Piper (played by Charlie Farrel) is saving his money in order to get married to Sidney, but complications with their parents and friends frustrate their efforts, and soon Sidney feels forced to tell Peter to search elsewhere for a wife.

Young America (1932) - A young Spencer Tracy in an early role as a druggist who has to contend with a delinquent kid who the druggist's wife wants to help.

The set documentary covers the life of Murnau (who died unexpectedly in 1931) and Borzage who had a long career in Hollywood.

Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English, French, Spanish.

Original Page Dec 2008 | Updated July 2012

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