An update on the Borzage/Murnau box set?

[precode]

[jessica]

It is the DOC. Someone needs to get Fox to fix this

[Harold Aherne]

Here is the full press release from Fox, as posted on the Home Theater Forum--and yes, The River is there, as are two coffee table books.

-Harold

TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT SHOWCASES THE INFLUENTIAL WORK OF
TWO CINEMA LEGENDS

MURNAU, BORZAGE AND FOX

The Iconic Careers of Directors F.W. Murnau And Frank Borzage At Fox Studios Are Captured In A 12 Film DVD Collection, Brilliantly Restored And Remastered With An All New In-Depth Documentary, Two Exclusive Coffee Table Books Focusing on Their Creative Legacy and Murnau’s Lost Film 4 Devils


Arriving December 9, 2008 With 12 New-To-DVD Releases

“In the late 20s, the most exciting experiments were taking place at the Fox studios.”
Martin Scorsese – A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies

CENTURY CITY, Calif. – At the very first Academy Awards® in May, 1929, two directors cemented their place in cinematic history as F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise took home the prize for Unique and Artistic Picture and Frank Borzage garnered Best Director for 7th Heaven. At the time, both men were under contract with William Fox, owner of Fox Film Corporation, who had invested heavily on making sure that movie directors were the stars of his films, gambling that audiences would gravitate to strong stories told by brilliant filmmakers. These awards validated Fox’s vision for movies as an art form and these two director’s craft.

Now, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment presents a collection saluting F. W. Murnau and Frank Borzage whose daring camera movements and visually extravagant styles were integral in the development of modern movies and the studio that allowed them to flourish with MURNAU, BORZAGE AND FOX, available December 9, 2008. Celebrating their collected works, their influence on director’s to follow and their collaborations with William Fox in the late 1920s and early 1930s, MURNAU, BORZAGE AND FOX features 12 films from the Hollywood legends including newly remastered versions of Murnau’s Sunrise and Borzage’s 7th Heaven, as well as an all-new feature length documentary from filmmaker John Cork looking at William Fox’s patronage and Murnau and Borzage’s effect on the film industry. Additionally, the set features two exclusive hard-cover books showcasing rare, unpublished photos from the careers of both filmmakers, one of which focuses solely on Murnau’s 4 Devils, the lost film considered by those that saw it to be the greatest movie ever made, pushing the boundaries of what Hollywood movies were at the time.

While his career was cut short due to a fatal auto accident in 1931 at the age of 42, the impact of F.W. Murnau on the film community can still be felt to this day. Heralded by his contemporaries such as John Ford, Allan Dwan, William Wellman, Howard Hawks and Raoul Walsh during his time at the studio, William Fox brought the expressionist director from Germany to Hollywood after he saw his 1924 film The Last Laugh. This premiere collection includes two surviving works that Murnau made with Fox from 1927-1930 including the beautifully filmed, three-time Oscar® winner Sunrise (1927) starring Janet Gaynor and George O’Brien and the country set, marital crisis City Girl (1930). Murnau’s lost, and perhaps most famous work 4 Devils (1928) is also paid tribute with a featurette and all-new book focused on the film as well as a look at the screenplay and more. Also included is the rarely seen European silent alternate version of Sunrise, restored by the Nardoni Filmovy Archiv.

Frank Borzage’s career at Fox lasted only seven years, but it would be the silent films he helmed at the studio that would come to define his career as he won the first Best Director Oscar® for 7th Heaven and again in 1931 for Bad Girl. Ten of Borzage’s surviving films are featured in the collection including the melodramatic love story 7th Heaven (1927), another triple-Oscar® winner at the inaugural ceremony also starring Janet Gaynor. Borzage would go on to collaborate with Gaynor two more times at Fox; as a spirited young woman who joins a traveling carnival in Street Angel (1928) and as a young farm girl who falls in love with a soldier during World War I in Lucky Star (1929). Other featured Borzage works include Lazybones (1925), They Had To See Paris (1929), two versions of Song O’ My Heart (1930), Liliom (1930), Bad Girl (1931), After Tomorrow (1932), Young America (1932) and a reconstruction of the lost film The River (1929).

Lastly, Murnau, Borzage & Fox (2008) is a feature length documentary by filmmaker John Cork examining the early history of Fox films and studio head William Fox and his patronage of German expressionist F.W. Murnau. In turn, Murnau’s cinematic styles would influence Fox’s stable of directors including Frank Borzage, John Ford and Raoul Walsh.

A rich collection of true historical significance, MURNAU, BORZAGE & FOX will be available for a suggested retail price of $239.98 U.S. / $269.98 Canada. Prebook is October 29.

Murnau, Borzage And Fox DVD Collection Special Features & Disc Specifics

Lazybones (1925) – Frank Borzage
§ Feature film (1.20:1 aspect ratio)
§ Newly created score composed by Tim Curran
§ Still gallery

Street Angel (1928) – Frank Borzage
· Feature film (1.20:1 aspect ratio)
· Still gallery

7th Heaven (1927) – Frank Borzage
· Feature film (1.20:1 aspect ratio)
· Commentary by film historians Robert Birchard and Anthony Slide
· Still gallery
· The River reconstruction featurette
· The River Still gallery

Sunrise (1927) – F.W. Murnau
· Movietone version of feature film (1.20:1 aspect ratio)
· European silent version of feature film (1.33:1 aspect ratio)
· Original Movietone score
· Olympia Chamber Orchestra score composed and conducted by Timothy Brock
· Commentary by ASC Cinematographer John Bailey
· Outtakes with commentary by John Bailey
· Outtakes with text cards
· Original scenario by Carl Meyer with annotations by F. W. Murnau
· Theatrical trailer
· Still gallery
· Sunrise screenplay
· Restoration notes

Lucky Star (1929) – Frank Borzage
§ Feature film (1.20:1 aspect ratio)
§ Newly created score composed and conducted by Christopher Caliendo
§ Still gallery

The Had To See Paris (1929) – Frank Borzage
§ Feature film (1.20:1 aspect ratio)
§ Still gallery

City Girl (1930) – F.W. Murnau
§ Feature film (1.19:1 aspect ratio)
§ Newly created score composed and conducted by Christopher Caliendo
§ Still gallery
§ Murnau’s 4 Devils: Traces of a Lost Film – a film by Janet Bergstrom
§ 4 Devils screenplay
§ 4 Devils treatment
§ 4 Devils Still gallery

Liliom (1930) – Frank Borzage
§ Feature film (1.20:1 aspect ratio)
§ Still gallery

After Tomorrow (1932) – Frank Borzage
§ Feature film (1.33:1 aspect ratio)
§ Still gallery

Young America (1932) – Frank Borzage
§ Feature film (1.33:1 aspect ratio)
§ Still gallery

Song O’ My Heart (1930) – Frank Borzage
§ Full sound version of film (1.20:1 aspect ratio)
§ Music and Effects version of film (1.20:1 aspect ratio)
§ Still gallery

Bad Girl (1931) – Frank Borzage
§ Feature film (1.20:1 aspect ratio)
Murnau, Borzage And Fox (2008)
§ Feature length documentary (1.66:1 aspect ratio)

Synopses:

Lazybones (1925) – Frank Borzage
Steve Tuttle (Charles Jones), the titular lazybones, takes on the responsibility of raising a fatherless girl, causing a scandal in his small town. Many years later, having returned from World War I, he discovers that he loves the grown-up girl.

Street Angel (1928) – Frank Borzage
First-ever ACADEMY AWARD-Winning actress Janet Gaynor plays Angela, in “a simple, but pathetically beautiful love tale” (Film Daily) that unfolds in the picturesque landscape of Naples, Italy.

7th Heaven (1927) – Frank Borzage
Frank Borzage’s inspiring romantic tale of love and courage is a true cinematic masterpiece. Starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. Winner of three Academy Awards®, including Best Director.

Sunrise (1927) – F.W. Murnau
In this fable-morality silent film masterpiece (which is subtitled “A Song of Two Humans”), an evil temptress (Margaret Livingston) bewitches a farmer (George O'Brien) and convinces him to murder his neglected wife (Janet Gaynor). After he comes to his senses - before he is about to kill his wife - the married couple renew their love in the city.

Lucky Star (1929) – Frank Borzage
Mary (Janet Gaynor), a poor farm girl, meets Tim (Charles Farrell) just as word comes that war has been declared. Tim enlists in the army and goes to the battlefields of Europe, where he is wounded and loses the use of his legs. Home again, Tim is visited by Mary and they are powerfully attracted to each other; but his physical handicap prevents him from declaring his love for her. Deeper complications set in when Martin (Guinn Williams), Tim’s former sergeant and a bully, takes a shine to Mary.

They Had To See Paris (1929) – Frank Borzage
Oklahoma mechanic Pike Peters finds himself part owner of an oil field. His wife Idy, hitherto content, decides the family must go to Paris to get culture and meet the right kind of people. Pike and his grown son and daughter soon have flirtatious French admirers; Idy rents a chateau from an impoverished aristocrat while Pike responds to each new development with homespun wit. In the inevitable clash, will pretentiousness and sophistication or common sense triumph?

City Girl (1930) – F.W. Murnau
Lem goes to Chicago to sell the wheat his family has grown on their farm in Minnesota. There he meets the waitress Kate. They fall in love and get married before going back to the farm. Kate is accepted by Lem’s mother and kid sister but is rejected by his father, who believes she married for the money. The reapers arrive and quickly make things even more complicated by making their move on Kate. Lem misunderstands the situation and believes Kate is actually interested. In despair Kate leaves the farm and Lem goes looking for her.

Liliom (1930) – Frank Borzage
This gorgeously mounted story — later remade as the musical Carousel — follows Liliom, a poor, but cocky man who turns to thieving to support his new family. But when a holdup turns disastrous and Liliom loses his life, he is allowed to return to Earth years later in an attempt to set things right.

After Tomorrow (1932) – Frank Borzage
No matter how responsible they are, a young couple’s pending marriage plans are destroyed by their self-serving families.

Young America (1932) – Frank Borzage
Already in trouble with the law, Arthur and his friend Nutty break into a drugstore to get medicine for Nutty’s grandmother. The druggist’s wife, Mrs. Doray, asks for custody. When he hears them arguing over him, Arthur runs away. When he returns Mr. Doray is being robbed by bandits at the drugstore.

Song O’ My Heart (1930) – Frank Borzage
(Full sound version, and music and effects version) In this “flawlessly” (The New York Times) recorded feature loosely based on his own life, “John McCormack’s famous tenor voice is reproduced so naturally and so pleasingly” (Film Daily).

Bad Girl (1931) – Frank Borzage
In this Winner of two OSCARS® (Best Director for Borzage and Best Writing/Adaptation) — a touching drama set during the depression — a poor young couple must marry when she becomes pregnant.

Murnau, Borzage And Fox
Street Date: December 9, 2008
Pre-Book Date: November 12, 2008
Price: $239.98 U.S. / $269.98 Canada
Catalog Number: 2256220
Closed Captioned: Yes

[Mike Gebert]

Good to finally have definitive information, though I'd say the description of The River is misleading-- it's not a lost film, it's an incomplete one (probably 5 out of 7 or 8 reels survive, or something like that).
_________________
"Why, everybody at NitrateVille is pixillated— except us."

[Danny Burk]

I was surprised to see how much is still missing from THE RIVER; before I got the German DVD, the description led me to believe that it was missing the first and last reels, along with a sequence or two in between. Instead, there are large chunks absent from the midsection too; I didn't time it, but my guess is that there isn't more than 30-35 minutes of actual footage present (without counting explanatory titles and stills added for the restoration). Still, it's great to have it back from the dead, and it must have been quite a film in its complete form.

[Mike Gebert]

Hmm, I didn't remember it missing material from the middle. But I guess it is.
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"Why, everybody at NitrateVille is pixillated— except us."

[N_Phay]

I'm curious about the european cut of "Sunrise". Most of the films in this set I've never seen. A couple of them I've never even heard of TBH. I'm so thrilled about this. Considering the cost of putting these films together, 167 bucks for the set actually sounds like pretty great value to me.

Like other people, I think it would be great if this brought Borzage's profile with old movie fans up, and how could it fail to, really. If as a result of this, we got DVD releases of "Man's Castle", the 2 Powell/Keeler romances, and the 2 Talmadge films, I would be happy indeed.

[Jim Roots]

[Harold Aherne]

[Mike Gebert]

Surprisingly, I just checked Deepdiscount.com and they have it for $247! I find it hard to believe a price OVER list is not an error, but the $179 may not be a bad deal at all.

Or you can wait till Costco has it-- they had the Ford set for a good price, as I recall.
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"Why, everybody at NitrateVille is pixillated— except us."

[N_Phay]

Heh, I was going on the old Amazon price of $167. They put it up! But, 179 still sounds like a deal to me for this.

[Danny Burk]

I preordered mine from B&N a few days ago for $138. I don't normally join paid "member" plans, but it was $25 well spent last year to do so...I got the big Fox box for 50% off. At the moment, B&N is listing the Borzage box for $192, or $172.79 for members. BUT...if you have the coupon code L4C7C9Y, you can also apply it for an end cost of $138.xx.

Here's the trick: B&N has cheaper preorder prices on most things when they are initially posted on their site. Buy at that time, and find one of the coupon codes (these are posted regularly on DVD Talk's "Bargains" forum); if you get a $25 membership, it's good for a year and they will let you use the coupon code on top of the already discounted member price. I never used to buy from B&N, but now that I've discovered this, I buy from them frequently.

[Mike Gebert]

Movies Unlimited: $203.99

Overstock.com: $174.97

CD Universe: $177.59
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"Why, everybody at NitrateVille is pixillated— except us."

[greta de groat]

[Harlett O'Dowd]

[greta de groat]

[Harlett O'Dowd]

[silentfilm]

DVD Times has a story on this, with much of the same information that has already been posted...

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=68876
_________________
Bruce Calvert
http://www.silentfilmstillarchive.com

[Harold Aherne]

I should note that the artwork for the set is now posted at the above link. Looks to be the same general layout as the Ford set. I certainly hope that the discs are secured tightly enough to prevent shifting around during transit; some people last year (on other boards) were complaining about scratched DVDs in the Ford box. Anyone have this problem?

Even a decade ago, I doubt anyone would have imagined that they could walk over to their shelf and have to deliberate on whether to watch "Old Wives for New" or "Counsellor at Law" or "Lady Windermere's Fan" and now "Bad Girl" and "Lucky Star". The people who make these releases happen--David Shepherd, Dennis Doros, the people at Kino, Criterion, All Day, those who work for the studios and anyone I've forgotten--deserve our warmest thanks and appreciation.

-Harold

[Murnau]

A beautiful box.

Actually, I am a little bit disappointed. I was hoping there would be more than one box, like “Ford at Fox” (e.g. Borzage silents, Murnau movies and Borzage talkies) because I am not interested in neither Sunrise nor Borzage talkies. And the price will be quite high to me, too.

Anyway, I think I have to buy this box, because I am quite sure that Borzage silents will never be released more in Europe (7th Heaven and The River are available).

[radiotelefonia]

All of those silent films have been available for a long while on the internet (through P2P software).

LAZYBONES seems that it comes from a Paul Killiam print, to which I put the live accompaniment by Alejandro Franov and Matías Mango for THE IRON HORSE (their scores are acceptable, by they tend to sound the same from film to film).

I prepared a sountrack of my own for LUCKY STAR, with Roberto Firpo's quartet recordings of tangos and waltzes (I will probably prefer my version to whatever Fox put for music track).

I will regret that SEVENTH HEAVEN will not feature the tints of the Karl Malkames restoration.

[LouieD]

_________________
www.louiedespres.com
www.elbrendel.com

[35MM]

[Mike Gebert]

Great looking set. Not that that's the most important thing, but I think it's much more attractively designed than the Ford one.

Who's the guy with the top hat and cane? Which one is that from? John McCormack seems logical, but it doesn't look like him at that size and angle, anyway.
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"Why, everybody at NitrateVille is pixillated— except us."

[LouieD]

Appears to me to be Will Rogers.
_________________
www.louiedespres.com
www.elbrendel.com

[Mike Gebert]

Ah, They Had to See Paris. I forgot about that one.
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"Why, everybody at NitrateVille is pixillated— except us."

[35MM]

From the DigitalBits:

Fox has now provided more details on its Murnau, Borzage and Fox set coming on December 9th. It has confirmed that it will be a 12-film collection including Murnau's Sunrise (1927) and City Girl (1930), and Borzage's 7th Heaven (1927), Bad Girl (1931), Street Angel (1928), Lucky Star (1929), Lazybones (1925), They Had To See Paris (1929), Song O' My Heart (1930), Liliom (1930), After Tomorrow (1932), and Young America (1932). 7th Heaven (newly remastered) will feature audio commentary by film historians Robert Birchard and Anthony Slide as well as a reconstruction of the lost Borzage film The River. Sunrise (also newly remastered) will offer both the Movietone version of the film and the European silent version as well as audio commentary by cinematographer John Bailey. The City Girl disc will include material on Murnau's lost 4 Devils - 4 Devils: Traces of a Lost Film, as well as the screenplay and a still gallery. Song O' My Heart will have both the full sound and the music and effects versions of the film. The set will also include a new feature-length documentary Murnau, Borzage and Fox as well as two exclusive hard-cover books one of which focuses solely on 4 Devils. The latter film is very high on Fox's classics priority list, but it remains lost, the negative and all prints seemingly having disappeared over the past 80 years. Meanwhile, Fox has confirmed that it continues to work on a restoration of 1933's Cavalcade and that Man Hunt, the 1941 drama about a hunter's efforts to kill Hitler, will have its release timed to appear with the theatrical release of the new Tom Cruise film Valkyries (also about a plot to kill Hitler and currently set for release in late December of this year). The often-requested title Viva Zapata is also high on Fox's priority list, but remains entangled in a legal dispute. Finally, the previously announced SE release of The Day the Earth Stood Still will also be made available in a Blu-ray version on the same date - December 2nd.

Kino presents Griffith Masterworks: Volume 2 on November 11th. This will be a five disc set containing Sally of the Sawdust (1925); Abraham Lincoln (1930)/The Struggle (1931); The Avenging Conscience (1914)/Edgar Allen Poe (1909, short); Way Down East (1920); and D.W. Griffith: Father of Film (three-part documentary by Kevin Brownlow and Peter Gill). Each disc will also be available separately. Sally of the Sawdust and Way Down East have previously been available on DVD from Image. Abraham Lincoln has only been available in lamentable PD versions. Kino's release of it and The Struggle both derive from HD remasters - Lincoln based on The Museum of Modern Art 35mm restoration, The Struggle from a Raymond Rohauer 35mm archive print.
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CURSES!

[Hofmeister]

[Arndt]

[Hofmeister]