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Murnau quit Fox in disgust

posted 12 years ago by Farrell_Borzage
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"Murnau was absolutely dead set against adding any sort of spoken prologue, epilogue or dialogue to his films. After all, he had made The Last Laugh, which was done completely in pantomime, and insisted that the ideal silent film needed no intertitles. He had been enticed to Fox with the promise of complete control over his films, only to find this control eroding when talking pictures invaded. Murnau furiously terminated his contract with Fox, and our Daily Bread ws completed by assistant directors Frank powolny and William Tummel. By the time Our Daily Bread, now retitled City Girl, limped into theaters in 1930, it was a severely compromised version of Murnau’s original film." (This according to Lucky Stars, by Sarah Baker).

[–] blue-7 12 years ago

Murnau lost control as William Fox lost control of his studio. After being in an accident and almost making MGM apart of the Fox Studio Fox found himself being destroyed by his own people. Those in control were not interested in another "artistic" film from the creator of SUNRISE and FOUR DEVILS (which had sound sequences added to it shortly after the silent version opened). This is why Murnau left the studio with an unfinished film. He wrote out detailed instructions to what he wanted done to the film. The version that we now have must the way Murnau had edited it without the scenes that still needed shooting. The hacks at the studio edited their own version and added new sound scenes. The film was so bad that it didn't even have a premiere! It opened at a second rate theatre in NY and quickly died. Fortunately the Murnau version somehow survived while the sound one vanished in a fire that destroyed most of the early Fox original negatives.