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Frank Borzage – Lucky Star (1929)

Posted By: newland

Date: 13 Feb 2009 00:16:00

Mary, a poor farm girl, meets Tim 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, Tim's former sergeant and a bully, takes a shine to Mary.

LUCKY STAR'S remarkable emotional power clearly implies that Frank Borzage knew it to be his last chance at a silent - a testament, as it were, to the vast possibilities of the medium that he had fallen in love with. This is one of the most perfectly crafted of all silent masterpieces, and a further evidence that sound was unnecessary to produce such poignant and moving images.

I was amazed how extremely haunting and luminous this movie was. There is no greater degree of luminosity; each scene is a lush, radiant extension of a romantic painting. The brief war scenes alone surpass those in "7th Heaven" and the ethereal romantic moments between Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor match theirs in "Street Angel". I love that scene in which Farrel tells Gaynor why he's on the wheelchair. The photography and story may owe a lot to Murnau's epochal "Sunrise" but most of the material is Borzage's own. Don't miss it. — Kalaman from Ottawa (IMDb reviewer)

This film was the last silent film Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor made as a team, and their soulful chemistry is more evident in this film than any other they made together. Is this movie so poignant because it marked the end of their silent career together, or because they had really reached the peak of their artistry together? This was also their last film with director Borzage, who also reached the peak of his art with this film.
To me, LUCKY STAR also demonstrates what made Farrell great as an actor. Although he is often unfavorably compared to Gaynor, he is restrained, elegant, and utterly believable as the handicapped Timothy Osborne. The scene in which he bathes Janet, or later when they embrace before she heads off to the party, is masterful. His expression tears your heart out.
If you have a chance to see this film, please do–you won't be sorry. This is the kind of film that makes you realize how truly great the art of silent cinema was (and remains). 10 stars. — silent-12 (IMDb reviewer)

The first time I saw Frank Borzage’s “Lucky Star” was one of the two most transcendent moviegoing experiences I’ve ever had. (The other was the screening of Abel Gance’s “Napoleon” at Radio City Music Hall). (…) The plot is unimportant, what makes the film remarkable is the care with which Borzage directs the film. Along with Lubitsch’s “The Shop Around the Corner” it’s one of the few movies where we can actually see two people falling in love. The camera vanishes, and it’s just us and them - together. — Scott Eyman (Palm Beach Post)

During a purifying Borzage snowstorm, Tim heads out to save Mary from her bad marriage, pulling his way through fearsome snow banks on his crutches, and when he needs to protect his girl, his legs find the strength they've lost. It sounds, well, awfully corny. But it isn't. Why? Because the miracle of Farrell and Gaynor on screen together, visually, is matched by the miracle at the end of the story. Borzage can create the happiest endings so vividly that he makes them come alive with his camera. His imaginative power here is singular, fantastic, and inimitable, even God-like. — Dan Callahan (Slant)