Based on a very popular play by Hungarian Ferenc Molnar, this story was also adapted by Fritz Lang a few years later in France and even more famously by Rodgers and Hammerstein in their 1945 play Carousel (made into a film in 1956). The musical Carousel has not aged well because of its central character's abuse of women, which is treated as if it weren't that big a deal. The musical softens the original play, or at least I would assume so judging from this version (which wasn't even the first version of the story on film). Liliom, a carnival barker and philanderer, is one of the biggest a-holes ever written. The guy is just no good, and we have to watch an innocent, ignorant woman submit to him like an animal. Not even a little is Liliom sympathetic, and when he dies, he should be on the train straight to Hell. Needless to say, the story is infuriating and has thankfully dropped entirely out of favor in the past 50 years (the movie Carousel still gets watched, but I think its treatment of domestic violence comes off as so silly that it's laughable). This film version, I say somewhat regretfully, is actually a pretty good film. Borzage was a great silent filmmaker, and, while his (and his actors') handling of dialogue isn't great, the filmmaking itself looks great. The production design in particular is wonderful, especially in the last section of the film with Liliom taking the train to Heaven (if the story weren't so detestable, I could imagine this being a somewhat beloved fantasy film). Charles Farrell (the star of Borzage's 7th Heaven as well as Murnau's City Girl) stars as Liliom and Rose Hobart (of Mamoulian's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) plays his girl.
