MURNAU, BORZAGE AND FORD AT FOX

[charliechaplinfan]

The last silent Borzage made, it was made as a silent version for the European market and as a part talkie for the American market, thankfully it is the silent version that has been rediscovered today, the sound version reducing the impact of the unspoken.

The film opens with Mary (Janet Gaynor) the eldest daughter of 5 children who helps her mother tend the farm. We see the children getting up and Ma getting them dressed. We see a gang of men go past on their way to work at a broken telegraph pole, the gaffer calls to Mary to bring them some milk, this she duly does (watered down of course). The boss, Martin (Guinn Williams) a braggart if ever there was one tosses her a coin onto the floor, she buries it in the dirt and tells him he hasn't paid her. Tim (Charles Farrell ) is working up the pole tells his boss to stop being mean and pay her. The boss climbs up and they fight on top of the telegraph pole, the phone rings telling them that war has been declared. All the men leave apart from Tim who is still mending the wire, he sees Mary uncover the coin and pocket it, it comes down and gives her a leathering.

Next we switch to the trenches, Mary is writing to both Martin and Tim, with spelling mistakes, hoping they haven't been shot and that she will 'nit' socks for them. Martin is a shirker interested in seeing the girls than doing his duty, he sends Tim and another man out to deliver the food, the job he should have been doing. We hear an explosion and see Tim trying to clamber out from under the upturned wagon, the other man is dead.

Tim is invalided home, he is paralysed from the waist down, Mary still not over the licking she got from Tim breaks a window in annoyance but Tim isn't annoyed, he beckons to her to come in, gradually she comes into his house. He gets around his house so quickly in his wheelchair and has fixed up many things so he can use them now he's disabled. He fixes things for a living now, he is lonely but not bitter. He befriends Mary, he makes her a handkerchief to pin onto her dress so she doesn't have to use her sleeve, she tries to sell him berries at a mark up, he knows what she's up to but gives her the extra money for confessing the truth. It's worth saying at this point that Mary is dirty and grubby and has been throughout the picture. Tim gains her confidence and gives her a phonograph he has fixed to keep, she's never been given anything before.

The next day Mary or Ba ba as he calls her is back, he wonders what colour her hair is and buys some eggs off her and washes her hair in a barrell, quite a few rinses later he discovers she's a blonde and a curly one too. Her hair might be clean but the rest of her body isn't, he begins to unfasten her dress to give her a good wash but asks how old she is, 18, he stops, gives her the soap and sends her off to a nearby waterfall to clean herself.

Next Mary goes to town, Martin has returned, blustering about his war record, a dance is to be held, mary buys a dress with money she has been hording from her mother. She takes the dress to Tim's house, he asks her where she got it, she tells him and he tells her she is dirty on the inside for getting it in that way. She changes at Tim's house for the dance and goes to hug Tim, it's a perfect Borzage moment, Tim realises in that moment what she is to him and how he can never declare his love because he's a cripple, Mary doesn't know and doesn't want to pull away. She wishes he was going with her. Agonisingly Tim tries to get his legs working but can't, I think this is a great peice of acting by Farrell. When she gets to the dance Martin deserts his gilr and spends the evening with Mary, spinning her tall tales, the townsfolk say how it is a disgrace that he is uniform since he left the army in disgrace. Mary leaves with Martin and stops at Tim's to change, the old buddies exchange heated words and Martin leaves with Mary to escort her home. Once their he sweet talks her mother with his tall tales and promises.

The next time Mary goes to Tim's her mother has told her that she can't go in, so Tim moves the table to the doorway so Mary can sit outside, they share a meal, something unspoken is between them and Tim agrees to speak to her mother. Martin at that time is telling mother how he will marry Mary in front of the general, mother is pleased, it's more than she'd ever expect for Mary.

Mary waits in vain for Tim to call on her mother, listening to the gramaphone Tim gave her, the weather is bad, he sets off but can't make it in his wheelchair. He tries again to walk, love makes the difference, gives him the power and determination to start taking steps, he takes all night. It's now early morning andit is a race against time as Martin goes to pick up Mary and whisk her off to another life. Tim struggles through the snowstorm and reaches Mary's house just as she is being driven off by Martin. Mary is dejected and has given up fighting, she has no life in her anymore. Tim struggles on to town, Martin is buying the tickets, in the lifting dark Mary glimpses Tim, echoing Diane in Seventh Heaven, she can't believe what she is seeing. She runs to him but Martin gets there, Tim and Martin fight, the townsfolk join in and pack Martin off on the train. Mary drops and grips Tim's legs, he told her he'd been waiting for a special occasion to use his legs again, this was it. He thought he'd been making her over (which he had) but she ended up making him over.

The role of mary is a departure for Janet Gaynor, although a waif, she isn't a helpless one, bullied and overworked but capable of holding her own. Charles Farrell again is an innocent, seeing the good and mending the broken (his job, himself and Mary) the power of love wins out in the end.

This is the last silent in the collection, for the most part they are a romantic bunch of films, each one of them worthy of more than one look. Thank you Fox for releasing them.

[charliechaplinfan]

Borzage's first talkie, he was given the job of directing Will Rogers in his first talkie, it is a little static and slightly echoing but more fluid than some early talkies, this is probably partly down to Will Rogers who refused to stay still whilst saying his lines so microphones had to be rigged everywhere for him. If you're expecting Borzage's romantic touch, there isn't much call for it here, Will Rogers wrote much of the story and the dialogue and would alter it at will. It is a pleasant story starring Will Rogers as Pike Peters a man who strikes oil in Oklahoma and becomes a very rich man. Mum (Irene Rich) wants to move up in society and to this end she takes than all to Paris. Pike won't fit it, he retains his small town man's exterior much to her shame. She tries to advance her daughter in marriage to a Marquis or Mar-kee as Pike pronounces it, this shamelessly makes fun of Gloria's marquis although I can't believe he behaved that way. It shows the social climbers of Paris in an amusing light, when Mum wants to hold a party to present her daughter to society, she has to pay all the toffs to appear and when the Marquis wants to marry Opal, their daughter played by Marguerite Churchill he sends his lawyers to negotiate her dowry, which of course Pike won't pay. Everything ends up fine in the end with the help of Fifi D'Orsay who appears as a French chanteuse.

The scenes set in the town of Claremore where Pike is from is also Will Rogers birthplace and Borzage sent a second unit to Claremore to film the opening scenes there.

[silentscreen]

Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell- He pursued her for six months with marriage proposals. She turned him down, but they remained friends forever.

[charliechaplinfan]

Brenda, that's lovely, I was a bit confused at first because it was footage of other couples and then the clips started. Janet Gaynor looked so fragile, especially when next to Charles Farrell.

Have you managed to see The River and Lucky Star yet? I'd love to know what you think of them.

[silentscreen]

Alison,

I really liked both of them. I think Farrell does his best acting in Lucky Star. It was a deeper, more well rounded role for him, and he stepped up to the plate. He's fine in The River too, but I think it's a bit too much of his typical part, and honestly Mary Duncan outshone him all around. I would like to see Farrell in a bit edgier part, but I've yet to see it.

One thing that I have read is that Janet said she and Charles "loved each other more than they were "in love." That made perfect sense to me as to why she refused to marry him but that they remained friends for most of their lives.

Brenda

[charliechaplinfan]

I think Charles Farrell did his best acting in Lucky Star, there were more dimensions to his character and he played a convincing cripple. The sound version of the film was not meant to have been very good. Some situations don't lend themselves to words and I think the romance in Lucky Star is one of them.

I really like Mary Duncan, I've only seen her in The River and City Girl, the parts are quite different but she is dominant partner in both films. She appears as far more a woman of the world than Janet Gaynor.

[silentscreen]

Alison,
I actually think the Gaynor-Farrell team reached the peak of their chemistry together in Lucky Star. Of course, I haven't seen any of their sound films together. Maybe someone here has and would like to comment?

The photography was magical in this one. Every scene has a luminous quality to it and the print is much better than Seventh Heaven. I think the fact that Farrell got to portray a typical G.I. Joe was one that he had more of an affinity with than street cleaner Chico in Seventh Heaven. His character's disability gave him the chance to stretch his acting chops, and he was a believable cripple. I actually noticed him more than Gaynor in this one, and that says a lot. Many reviews on the IMDb agree.

Brenda

[charliechaplinfan]

Yes, I noticed him more than Janet Gaynor too. Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell spent lots of time with a speech coach knowing that the talkies were coming, of course Lucky Star was their first talkie. I haven't watched any of Farrell's sound movies yet, but he was natural at silents, in part he reminds me of Gary Cooper, he doesn't seen to do that much but he's awfully good at it. I have seen Janet Gaynor in A Star is Born, she was very good, the talkies were no trouble for her.

[silentscreen]

The talkies were a problem for Charles though. Apparently he really did have a high pitched voice that he had to work on. I've heard his voice somewhere, it may have been in a clip on another site. I'll see if I can find one on youtube.

Um, on the other hand, Lilliom from the set is a talkie. I'll have to watch it. I've heard though that his voice wasn't what you'd expect to hear from a tall, big man such as he was.

[charliechaplinfan]

I'm looking forward to seeing Liliom. I don't know about his voice, I see him as a sweet boy but in Liliom he's not very likeable. I've only seen the Lang version with Charles Boyer in the Farrell role.

[knitwit45]

Brenda, Charles Farrell was the dad in the tv series, "My Little Margie", and his voice was a little on the high side, and rather nasal as I remember. It's hard to reconcile the fussed character he played with the strong hero type he started.

[silentscreen]

Nancy,

Thanks so much for the information. I've heard of "My Little Margie", and it seems like I may have some vague memory of it. It was on when I was very young,(eons ago,LOL!) and I can't even remember if we had a television then. But I could have seen it later on in reruns. I think Charles may have had the same problem John Gilbert did, but I've read that he had to learn to modulate his voice. He certainly didn't have the career later on that Janet did. I think she fought for better parts and he just went along. He got out of acting for awhile and was mayor of Palm Springs if I'm not mistaken.

[charliechaplinfan]

The movie business wasn't the be all and end all for some stars, they made their money and invested it wisely and grew rich from the profits, perhaps he was like that. One thing for sure, I'll be ordering that book on Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor for my birthday to find out more.

[silentscreen]

Me too Alison! I sent the author Sarah Baker a couple of emails through the Olive Thomas web page a few years ago. She is very nice. She's from Texas and is the one who wrote and co produced the Olive Thomas documentary "Everybody's Sweetheart." Last night at movie night I got to meet David Menefee, the author of several books on classic film stars, including the ones on Richard Barthelmess and a new one on George O'Brien! He was very nice as well, and just lit up when you asked him about his books. You could tell that writing is the love of his life!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Menefee

Brenda

[charliechaplinfan]

He sounds really interesting Brenda, do you think he might do a guest spot here?