
Directing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Frank Borzage (April 23, 1894 – June 19, 1962) was an Academy Award-winning American film director and actor, known for directing 7th Heaven (1927), Street Angel (1928), Bad Girl (1931), A Farewell to Arms (1932), Man's Castle (1933), History Is Made at Night (1937), The Mortal Storm (1940) and Moonrise (1948). In 1912 Borzage found employment as an actor in Hollywood; he continued to work as an actor until 1917. His directorial debut came in 1915 with the film The Pitch o' Chance. He was a successful director throughout the 1920s, but reached his peak in the late silent and early sound era. Absorbing visual influences from the German director F.W. Murnau, who was also resident at Fox at this time, Borzage developed his own style of lushly visual romanticism in a hugely successful series of films starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, including 7th Heaven (1927), for which he won the first Academy Award for Best Director, Street Angel (1928) and Lucky Star (1929). He won a second Oscar for 1931's Bad Girl. He directed 14 films between 1917 and 1919 alone. His greatest success in the silent era was with Humoresque, a box office winner starring Vera Gordon. Borzage's trademark was intense identification with the feelings of young lovers in the face of adversity, with love in his films triumphing over such trials as World War I (7th Heaven and A Farewell to Arms), disability (Lucky Star), the Depression (Man's Castle), a thinly disguised version of the Titanic disaster in History Is Made at Night, and the rise of Nazism, a theme which Borzage had virtually to himself among Hollywood filmmakers from Little Man, What Now? (1933) to Three Comrades (1938) and The Mortal Storm (1940). His work took a spiritual turn in such films as Green Light (1937), Strange Cargo (1940) and The Big Fisherman (1959). Of his later work only the film noir Moonrise (1948) has enjoyed much critical acclaim. After 1948, Borzage's output was sporadic. In 1955 and 1957, he was awarded The George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film. Frank Borzage died of cancer in 1962, aged 68.

This silent melodrama is set against the 1840s westward migration of the Mormons. Dora, a young woman, and her family are saved from an Indian attack by a Mormon community traveling to Utah. They join the wagon train. Dora is pursued by two men, one a recent convert, the other a scheming elder with a stable of wives. The Mormon elder wants her in his harem. When the mother kills herself from revulsion toward polygamy, the daughter must consider her own future and the man she loves. One of Mae Murray's few surviving films, this was intended by Robert Leonard to be a thoughtful drama about the goods and evils of Mormonism, but today it is generally considered pure anti-Mormon propaganda.

In what scenarist C. Gardner Sullivan misleadingly called “The Romantic Adventures of a Woman of the ’50s,” this story has Hart play Jim Brandon, who has just robbed the Wolf Creek stage of a payroll meant for Frank Wilding’s Lost Hope Mine. Fearing another holdup, Wilding reluctantly entrusts his daughter Edith with the next payroll. Confident of his concealed identity, Brandon comes to town, orders drinks at the local saloon, and hears that this is “payday” for the mine. Outside, he realizes Edith will be carrying the payroll and follows her onto the stage. When it stops at the Mountain House Restaurant, Brandon protects Edith from a man forcing his attention on her, which forges an unacknowledged bond between them. strangely leaves her to barricade the door.
Loaded Dice is a 1913 short film.
Andrew McLeod, the Factor, is called "The Panther" by the Indians, owing to his cruelty. He wishes to marry Julie, the daughter of Francois Ledru, a French trapper. Julie is afraid of McLeod and rather than become his wife she runs away. Ledru is terrified when he discovers her absence as he knows McLeod will make him suffer for it, in which fear he is fully justified, as he is beaten and then shot by McLeod. Meantime, Julie, in her wanderings, runs into Father Lezare, who is journeying toward the trading station, and also David Brandt, a hunter. She appeals to them for help and upon David's assertion that he will do anything to help her, she begs him to marry her. After some hesitation on the part of both David and the priest, this is done.

Ben Anderson, factor of the trading station, impatient with his daughter Anne's coquetries, calls all the trappers to him and promises to wed her to the one who brings back the most valuable catch of furs in the spring. Anne fancies herself in love with Henri Levesnue, a Frenchman. So when he is reported to have brought in the biggest prize she is delighted. But the following day, Joe Eagle, a quarter-breed, reaches the station with twice Henri's catch, Ben insists that Anne marry Joe, but she swears she never could become the wife of the French Indian, and because he really loves her, Joe, who has overheard her protestations, hides half his furs under his cabin floor. Anne is married to Henri, but in a few months is very unhappy. He is a heavy drinker; he neglects her, and at last, being penniless, he steals a bale of furs from the station. The factor sets Joe to catch the thief.
Sisters Helen and Ruth Fiske work in a department store and live in an East Side tenement. While Ruth is satisfied with her "regular fellow," a mechanic, Helen yearns for fine clothes, wealth, and attention. Ruth marries the mechanic and they struggle for a modest existence. Helen leaves her squalor to be the mistress of wealthy John Ward, despite Ruth's pleas. As the years pass, Helen goes from one man to the next, looking for more luxuries. When James Kellerman, who really loves her, proposes, she laughs at him.
Juan Capella, the son of a poor Spanish tavern keeper, and his wife, learning of the discovery of gold on the American River near Sacramento, runs away from his parents and sweetheart to make his fortune. The tavern keeper is in debt and places a mortgage on the tavern in order to prevent it being seized to pay another debt.
Pierre Vignol, an artist wintering in Arizona, is bitten by a snake. He is taken by his friend, Tom Hornby, to Padre Francisco, who prescribes for the bite. Pierre, at the request of Tom, returns to his cabin and Tom takes care of him. Later Tom discovers a tube in Lost River. This proves to be a painting and Pierre takes it to Padre Francisco. The Padre reads him an interesting history of Fr. Bartolomeo. founder of the Mission, and of how the painting came to be discovered in Lost River, for it had been thrown there by a monk when the Mission was attacked by the Indians, owing to the abduction of the Chief's daughter by a villainous Spaniard. Tom takes the painting to New York where he sells it and gives the money to the wife of Tom, who has been too poor to bring her and the baby to Arizona.
The husband and his wife live alone in the mountains, where he is working out a claim. A stranger from a distant mine is injured in the vicinity. The husband nurses him back to health. During his convalescence the stranger persuades the wife to elope with him.
Randall is a rich mine owner whose business affairs cause him to neglect his somewhat frivolous wife. There is a mutual friend whom Randall carelessly allows to entertain his wife. As a result, the friend pays more than natural attentions to the woman. The three visit one of Randall's mines. The wife and friend go down the mining shaft in a bucket. While they are yet underground, a quantity of dynamite explodes. The mine is filled with poisonous fumes.

The Roth family leads a quiet life in a small village in the German Alps during the early 1930s. After the Nazis come to power, the family is divided and Martin Breitner, a family friend, is caught up in the turmoil.

The Roth family leads a quiet life in a small village in the German Alps during the early 1930s. After the Nazis come to power, the family is divided and Martin Breitner, a family friend, is caught up in the turmoil.

On return from Europe Dr. Decker foils glamour girl Georgi from jumping overboard. At Decker's suggestion to keep busy, she assists at his clinic in the slums.

A tale of the World War I love affair, begun in Italy, between American ambulance driver Lt. Frederic Henry and British nurse Catherine Barkley. Eventually separated by Frederic's transfer, tremendous challenges and difficult decisions face each as the war rages on.

An American woman falls in love with a romantic Parisian head waiter who tries to save her from her possessive wealthy ex-husband who wants to keep her under his control.

Jessie, a young working class woman, seeks to improve her life by marrying her boyfriend, only to find out that he is no better than what she left behind.

A spirited young woman finds herself destitute and on the streets before joining a traveling carnival, where she meets a vagabond painter.

Stigmatized from infancy by the fate of his criminal father, a man is bruised and bullied until one night, in a fit of rage, he kills his most persistent tormentor. As the police close in around him, he makes a desperate bid for the love of the dead man’s fiancée, a schoolteacher who sees the wounded soul behind his aggression.

Steve Tuttle, 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.

Aspiring singer Ann Carter visits her stepbrother in New York, hoping to make it on Broadway.

