Rent Frank Borzage: Vol. 2: Lucky Star / Liliom (1930)
3.9 of 5 from 59 ratings
3h 5min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Frank Borzage, the sensitive actor-turned-director famed for his mystical romanticism, created some of Hollywood's most acclaimed and sensual films.
Lucky Star (1929)
Feature sees the great romantic screen pairing of Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell for a third time. The chemistry is palpable in this tale of a poverty-stricken girl (and budding crook) who is transformed through her friendship with a wheelchair-bound Great War veteran.
Liliom (1930)Based on Ferenc Molnar's celebrated play which was later remade as the much-loved Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel, charts the troubled relationship between Farrell's Liliom, a fairground barker, and Julie (Rose Hobart), the woman who loves him despite his flaws. - Actors:
- Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, Ben Bard, Albert Gran, David Butler, Marie Mosquini, Lewis Borzage Sr., Dolly Borzage, Mary Borzage, Sue Borzage, Gladys Brockwell, Emile Chautard, Frankie Genardi, Jessie Haslett, Brandon Hurst, George E. Stone, Lily Tietelbaum, Lillian West, Henry Armetta, Italia Frandi
- Directors:
- Frank Borzage
- Producers:
- William Fox
- Writers:
- Austin Strong, Benjamin Glazer
- Aka:
- Lucky Star / Liliom
- Studio:
- BFI Video
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Romance
- Collections:
- Romantic Film Pairings for Valentine's Day, The Instant Expert's Guide to: Fritz Lang
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Reviews (1) of Frank Borzage: Vol. 2: Lucky Star / Liliom
Lucky Star (with spoiler). - Frank Borzage: Vol. 2: Lucky Star / Liliom review by Steve
The final part of Borzage's trilogy of silent romantic melodramas starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell is probably the best. The leads are adorable and there is an endearing touch of comedy this time.
Gaynor plays an uneducated, primitive country girl who falls in love with Farrell who has just returned from the Great War. He instructs her in the rudiments of manners and hygiene and uncovers the lovely, maturing woman within... There's a quite charming scene where he washes her hair over and over until he discovers she's a blonde.
Though of course, with this being a Borzage production, fate isn't quite that benign. Farrell has an accident in France and comes back a paraplegic, and so is placed in the agonising position of improving Gaynor for the benefit of his mendacious and irresponsible Sergeant who partly brought about the injury. OK, Farrell's recovery just in time to save his sweetheart from a disastrous marriage is most improbable, but that's the transformative potential of true love in the world of silent cinema...
Borzage's work at its best has a spiritual quality; it is a beautiful visual expression of ethereal romance. Sure, it could be sentimental, but it communicates a strange, intangible sense of the supernatural, of the out-of body. Of the soul as it struggles to survive the physical world.
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