Among the native-born American directors Frank Borzage, born 1894 in Salt Lake City, Utah was primarily remembered for his signature 1930's tales of triumph and tragedy with an emphasis on a certain obstacle known as the Great Depression; as may be seen in the pre-code melodrama Man's Castle (1932) a story of lovers in survival mode which featured an early appearance of Spencer Tracy's. Borzage would certainly take notice of the rise of fascism in Europe as was illustrated in Three Comrades and The Mortal Storm (both1940). He would share the first Academy award for Best Director for 1927's Seventh Heaven in which a French couple (Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor) are transcendentally reunited after the hero had apparently been killed in the Great War.
To find idiosyncrasies from anything in Borzage's body of work that charted the years 1915 to 1959 would be quite unusual; the Borzage stamp all but guaranteed your eyes be privy to the true glories of American cinema. From Triangle Pictures to MGM to Republic, the director brought something undeniably singular. Borzage, a staunch liberal had a tremendously difficult time keeping his animosity toward a certain dictator in the name of Adolf Hitler under wraps, and his vehemence spoke volumes in Mortal Storm - the film which incidentally was the sole reason Goebells banned all American films from being screened in Germany.
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| The immortalized The Mortal Storm, Jimmy Stewart grabs hold of Margaret Sullivan in this 1940 film. |
Borzage was as artistic as any auteur could get, his devotion to detail and mastery of the mise en scene would be difficult to refute. Even the director's so-called minor works were clad in perfection and though his cinematic compatriots in the names of John Ford and King Vidor garnered more attention and appreciation, Frank Borzage was one of the most essential American directors of the twentieth century.
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| Frank Borzage and friend. |