From the inserts it looks like it was filmed in 1928. Must have been one of Fox's last silent film releases.
This obviously can't compare to Sunrise. but is nevertheless a fine film and another meditation on city vs. country life. Loved the sequence of him chasing her through the wheat.
Sent to Chicago to sell the corn crop, Charles Farrell bumps into waitress Mary Duncan and falls for her immediately. They marry but when he gets home the brutish father David Torrence is outraged that the son's made a loss and immediately accuses the girl of bring a gold-digger and hits her. The son sees red but his beloved mummy stops him from retaliating - giving the girl a major problem from the get-go.
The harvest begins and all the workers lust after her, especially Richard Alexander, who we fear is going to rape her at one point.
Murnau has borrowed Borzage's DP and art director Ernest Palmer and Harry Oliver, thus the farm has a distinctive design and the night scenes are memorably well lit.
The horses - at one point a single horse is pulling a cart with about six people on it. Later about twenty of the noble beasts are dragging a combine harvester along.
Palmer was Oscar nominated for Street Angels and 4 Devils, both 1930, and Broken Arrow, 1951, and won for Blood and Sand in 1942. First credit 1918, shot many lesser films. This and his work for Borzage represent his best work.
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