Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

A farmer is secretly cheating on his wife with a woman from the city, except everyone knows. The woman convinces the man to drown his wife, sell the farm, and move to the city with her. And everyone lives happily ever after.

F.W. Murnau is better known for Nosferatu and Faust, and was brought to America to recreate his magic touch. He was given complete creative control and a giant budget, and the result was arguably his best work, winning three Academy Awards. But it lost money, so budget and control disappeared for his next film. Welcome to Hollywood. He would die in a car accident before he could make his mark on sound cinema.

Twenty one year old Janet Gaynor played ‘The Wife’, looking more than a little bit like Tweety bird’s Granny, and won an Oscar for her performance. Remember her from ‘A Star is Born’. Her Oscar from here made a cameo there. Margaret Livingston played the woman so wicked as to tempt a married man. The Vamp! George O’Brien played ‘The Man’ victimized by her womanly wiles. He went on to appear in many westerns, apparently.

The visual storytelling in Sunrise is amazing. There are great overlay scenes done in-camera that are remarkable. Few title cards were needed to tell the story. Margaret’s ‘The Woman’ takes much of the moral blame for ‘The Man’s transgressions, and that storyline does not age well, but let’s consider the period. This was the Jazz age and women had the right to vote for only seven years at this point. And it’s a great film. We can let this slide.

I didn’t want to pay Amazon another four dollars so I found it on YouTube. The quality was excellent. I suggest you do the same. AMRU 4.