Best movie of this year hands down!

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Copyright 10 January 1930 by Fox Film Corporation. U.S. release: 16 February 1930. 8,217 feet. 91 minutes. SYNOPSIS: A farm boy arrives in Chicago to sell his father's wheat crop, falls for a waitress, marries her and takes her home to Minnesota. His father does not approve and tries to come between the boy and his bride.NOTES: Filmed as a silent-fortunately Murnau's original cut of the movie survives-City Girl was then considerably tinkered with by studio management in order to turn it into a part-talkie, with disastrous results. The stage play opened on Broadway at the Bijou on 20 August 1925 and ran a modestly successful 52 performances. Helen MacKellar and Buford Armitage starred; Willard Mack directed.COMMENT: Beautifully filmed, superbly acted (particularly by Charles Farrell and Mary Duncan) romance of the wheatfields, the silent version is available on an excellent DVD from Grapevine Video. The city scenes are so startling in their impressionistic (but nonetheless hectic) pace, which all comes to a charming coda when the lovers meet, we wonder what Murnau is holding in reserve to beguile us back on the farm. We're not kept long in suspense. After a lyrical introduction as the lovers run through the wheat fields, we are brought down to earth when miserly in words, deeds and manner David Torrence comes back on the scene. How these three clashing personalities resolve their differences is worked out forcefully, if a little melodramatically, but nonetheless in a satisfyingly picturesque manner, thanks equally to the consummate skill of F.W. Murnau in staging, the engrossing acting of the principals, and the superbly lit camerawork of Ernest Palmer.

I liked the acting, the cinematography, you could tell the director knew what he was doing. I just didn't like the story, too many clichés, no twist was unpredictable, If someone gave you just the premise (boy marries girl in the city and move to the country to help his father on the farm) you could probably guess every major plot point of the entire film. Maybe the things in this movie weren't as well-known tropes like they are now, but it kind of made me dislike the movie just seeing how overdone everything in the movie was. Would have given it a higher score otherwise, the story just brought it down.

FW Murnau returns to his urban evil versus rural good theme in this visually striking but lean story involving a Minnesota farmer, a Chicago waitress and the external conflict created by their union. Hayseed Lem Tustine (Charles Farrell) is sent by his dad (David Torrence) to Chicago to sell his wheat crop at a set price. Fending off flirtation on the train he meets kate a waitress in a chaotic restaurant while the wheat price dips. After a whirlwind courtship they marry and he returns home with the a wife and bad news about the wheat. Seeing his son as a rube who lost money and now being exploited by a city girl he explodes chides and emasculates the son. When the help shows up to harvest the wheat they get an eyeful of Lem's wife and like what they see. Things really take a turn for the worse when the crop is threatened and the bunk house boys rebel.Given their similar theme and settings City Girl cannot avoid comparison to Murnau's classic Sunrise and while it does not rise to its stature, it retains his outstanding use of film language. Once again we have one of cinema's great visual storytellers unfold in image after image scenes of magnificent panorama and intense emotional close-up conveyed without utterance of a word. Scenes such as the camera riding on the wagon with the reapers and in a moment that teems with ironic beauty the arrival of the newlyweds in the wheat field at the farm glow with vitality and movement under the masterly hand of Murnau..Mary Duncan as Kate is a restrained Swanson who has her best scenes with the stern, violent father played by David Torrence in a restrained version of his bro Ernest. Edith Yorke cowers and frets as ma while Richard Alexander as Mac excels as a harboring menace. Charles Farrell is mealy and spineless in a reprise of his Sunrise character in the throes of moral dilemma but without that dark side his performance annoys.Flaws exist with some slow moments midway, the improbable actions of the hired hands and the father's stifling character limits the stories growth but Murnau for the most part provides us with more than a few gripping moments while deepening the cynicism and lasciviousness of his cast with expressive and informative closeups with little reliance on title cards. It is a thin story lushly told by a master.

City Girl is another gem from the German master film maker F.W.Murnau, who directed the masterpiece, Sunrise.City Girl is similar to Sunrise in it's comparison of urban versus rural life and a conflicted relationship between a man and a woman. The couple, Kate and Lem meet in the crowded, gritty city of Chicago where Kate is living an uninspired existence as a waitress and an immediate attraction takes place. Lem is lonely too we gather and under the autocratic thumb of his father. He seems to be independent for the first time in his life, ( he's there to sell the wheat crop.) and makes the decision to marry Kate without asking his fathers approval. After they return to the farm, the conflicts between Lem and Kate and his father and the lead farmhand take place.This movie doesn't have the dream states, camera moves or super-impositions of the earlier film, but there are several good scenes, notably when the camera follows Lem and Kate as they run through the wheat fields, and the scenes of the wheat harvest which have such a real to life feel to them you almost feel that you're there as the work is going on! As human drama, a study of complicated interpersonal relationships, and the conflict between man and nature, I highly recommend this film! Murnau's masterful use of lighting is also present in this film, with the last scenes occurring at night with shadows so dark only lanterns can penetrate them, casting moody shadows and intensifying the action.