In addition to "7th Heaven" (1927), Frank Borzage also directed Charles Farrell in the 1929 part-talkie, "The River".
Alas, none of the talking sequences survive. The opening and end reels are also missing, so what we have today is an erotic love story between Farrell and the super-sensuous Mary Duncan (star of "City Girl") in which the noirish elements always threaten to take center stage.
The characters – naïve, weird, self-indulgent, traitorous – are all assembled, the background in all its super-extensive man-made squalor and stark, natural beauty is expertly drawn; but the original idyllic introduction and the power of the climax can now only be assumed.
(The surviving footage is available on a 6/10 Fox DVD as a bonus with "7th Heaven". It's a nice bonus, but it also makes us sad that the rest of the movie is gone forever).
Alas, none of the talking sequences survive. The opening and end reels are also missing, so what we have today is an erotic love story between Farrell and the super-sensuous Mary Duncan (star of "City Girl") in which the noirish elements always threaten to take center stage.
The characters – naïve, weird, self-indulgent, traitorous – are all assembled, the background in all its super-extensive man-made squalor and stark, natural beauty is expertly drawn; but the original idyllic introduction and the power of the climax can now only be assumed.
(The surviving footage is available on a 6/10 Fox DVD as a bonus with "7th Heaven". It's a nice bonus, but it also makes us sad that the rest of the movie is gone forever).