City Girl (1930)

Director:

F.W. Murnau

Writers:

H.H. Caldwell (titles)
Katherine Hilliker (titles)
(more)

Release Date:

1930 (Germany)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Lem goes to Chicago to sell the wheat his family has grown on their farm in Minnesota. There he meets the waitress Kate...

Plot Keywords:

Farm | Wheat | Waitress | Marital Crisis | Countryside

Cast

Charles Farrell	...	Lem Tustine
Mary Duncan	...	Kate
David Torrence	...	Lem's father
Edith Yorke	...	Lem's mother
Anne Shirley	...	Marie Tustine (as Dawn O'Day)
Tom McGuire	...	Matey
Richard Alexander	...	Mac
Patrick Rooney	...	Butch (as Pat Rooney)
Ed Brady	...	Reaper
Roscoe Ates	...	Reaper
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Eddie Boland
Mark Hamilton	...	Hungry reaper
Ivan Linow	...	Taxi driver
Arnold Lucy	...	Cafe patron
Helen Lynch	...	Girl on train
Jack Pennick	...	Reaper
Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams	...	Reaper
Marjorie Beebe	...	Waitress (silent version) (uncredited)
Joe Brown	...	Cafe patron (silent version) (uncredited)
Harry Gripp	...	(silent version) (uncredited)
Werner Klingler	...	(silent version) (uncredited)
Harry Leonard	...	(silent version) (uncredited)
David Rollins	...	(silent version) (uncredited)
William Sundholm	...	(silent version) (uncredited)

Directed by
F.W. Murnau

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
H.H. Caldwell		titles
Katherine Hilliker		titles
Elliott Lester		dialogue (play "The Mud Turtle")
Marion Orth
Berthold Viertel

Original Music by
Christopher Caliendo		(2010)
Arthur Kay

Cinematography by
Ernest Palmer

Film Editing by
H.H. Caldwell
Katherine Hilliker

Production Design by
Edgar G. Ulmer

Art Direction by
Harry Oliver

Costume Design by
Sophie Wachner

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Frank Powolny	....	assistant director
William Tummel	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Harold Hobson	....	sound

Other crew
William Fox	....	presenter

Production Companies

• Fox Film Corporation

Distributors

• Defaleih (1930) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Fox Film Corporation (1930) (USA) (theatrical)
• Fox Film (1930) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• Netherlands Fox Film Corporation (1930) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Grapevine Video (2003) (USA) (DVD) (DVD-R)
• Grapevine Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Eureka Entertainment (2010) (UK) (DVD)
• Eureka Entertainment (2010) (UK) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Eureka Entertainment (2011) (UK) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Forgotten Hollywood (????) (USA) (DVD)
• Televista (2009) (USA) (DVD)
• Vintage Film Buff (2006) (USA) (DVD) (DVD-R)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

77 min | Canada:120 min | USA:90 min (silent version) | West Germany:85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.19 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System) | Silent

Certification:

Sweden:15 | Netherlands:14 (original rating) (1930) | USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

Athena, Oregon, USA

Company:

Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

The film is based on the play "The Mud Turtle" by Elliott Lester that opened at the Bijou Theatre on August 20, 1925 and ran for 52 performances.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Each time when Lem's father, Kate, and Mac storm out of the farmhouse after Kate bandages Mac's hand, the shadow of the screen door moves across the "sky" backdrop in the background.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Days of Heaven (1978)

Magical Murnau!

Was Murnau the greatest director ever? His life was cut short by a car accident in 1931, when he was 42 years old. What magical films he would have made had he lived.

"City Girl" is a fairly conventional story of a young man from the country who falls in love with a waitress on his first trip to the city. He marries her and brings her home to a hostile father. But Murnau takes this material and turns it into an expressionist exploration of sexuality, powering it with a theme of "it's not where we live but how we live". Within a world of hostile shadows and menacing crowds real people live and breathe in brilliant naturalistic performances. Farrell and Duncan are amazingly good. And even the smallest part is played with vivid life.

But the real star is Murnau's startling direction. Tracking shots years ahead of their time - watch the scene where the couple run through a field of wheat - extraordinary point of view shots, and remarkable shots of and in fast moving wagons. The frightening city seen in "Sunrise" is here again - with trains and crowds obscuring vision and soot on the pot plants. And then there is the beauty of the countryside and the harvesting of wheat.

Murnau made what I believe to be the best silent film ever with "Sunrise" in 1927. With "City Girl" he comes close to matching it. A must. I saw the original silent version which runs at 90 minutes. Apparently a shorter talkie version also exists.