Review #46: 'City Girl' (1930)

F.W. Murnau’s penultimate film, City Girl was made just a year before his tragic death. It tells the rather simple story of a waitress named Kate (Mary Duncan) who, tired of her hectic schedule and overbearing boss, dreams of a simpler life. In steps farmer’s son Lem (Charles Farrell) who is in the city in order to sell his father’s product. The two fall in love, and Kate agrees to move to the country with Lem to live the farmer’s life. Only after arriving, she realises that a farmer’s life isn’t as peaceful as she imagined, and she has to face Lem’s irate father.

Made as the silent era was sadly coming to an end, it was originally made as a hybrid, with long silent moments with the odd audible piece of dialogue. Apparently audiences could not take to its style and it bombed financially, but it has been recently re-discovered and restored in its complete silent form. And thank God it was, as although it comes nowhere near to the dizzying heights of Sunrise: A Song Of Two Humans (1927), the influential brilliance of Nosferatu (1922), and the biting social commentary of The Last Laugh (1924), it’s a fine example of Murnau’s ability as a filmmaker.

It cleverly juxtaposes the naivety of the two leads who both sample a very different life, only to discover that it is every bit as stressful and brutal as their former lives. It’s hardly groundbreaking, but Murnau handles the film with such a poetic elegance and intimacy rarely captured by other filmmakers. It makes it all the more tragic that most of his earlier films are now lost, including a version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1920), and also that Murnau lost his life a year later after making his final film Tabu: A Story Of The South Seas (1931), to which he didn’t make the premiere.


Directed by: F.W. Murnau
Starring: Charles Farrell, Mary Duncan, David Torrence
Country: USA 

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie