Frank Borzage

This work brings to readers of English a comprehensive and engaging treatment of one of America’s greatest, if largely forgotten, film directors. Dumont’s celebrated 1993 study, translated from the French by Jonathan Kaplansky, offers complete coverage of Borzage’s entire career—the more than 100 films he made and the effect of those films on movie audiences, especially between 1920 and 1940.
Lavishly illustrated with 120 photographs, the book also contains a complete filmography, a chronological bibliography, and an index.

Hervé Dumont, now retired, was the director of the Swiss National Film Archive (Cinémathèque Suisse) in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the author of several works on film history. His History of Swiss Cinema (Lausanne 1987) earned the Jean Mitry Award, and Frank Borzage, Sarastro à Hollywood (Paris-Milan 1993) received the Prix Simone Genevois, awarded to the best European film book of the year.
Jonathan Kaplansky works as a literary translator of French in Montreal. His translations include novels by Hélène Dorion, Pauline Michel and Hélène Rioux, poetry by Serge Patrice Thibodeau, a journal by Annie Ernaux, and several biographies of historical and political figures. His articles have appeared in Palimpsestes and Circuit.

Hervé Dumont
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 428
Bibliographic Info: 116 photos, notes, filmography, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2009 [2006]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4098-6
eISBN: 978-1-4766-1331-4
Imprint: McFarland

Foreword by Martin Scorsese      1

Preface      3

Introduction: Keys to an Alchemy of Film      9

1. From Salt Lake City to Inceville      31

2. Debut at the Megaphone      43

3. In Search of a Style      58

4. Working for William Randolph Hearst      68

5. A New Status: Producer-Director      86

6. Fox Films Spurred On by Ambition      100

7. Fame Through Jacob’s Ladder      111

8. Two Forgotten Masterpieces      134

9. Between Glory and Disgrace      155

10. Freedom at the Top      175

11. The Romance of the Deprived      197

12. The Warner Brothers Purgatory      227

13. At MGM: Stars and Real Life      250

14. The Mystical Dimension      269

15. The Mortal Storm      284

16. Wandering Downwards with Highlights      302

17. Republic Studios in Sublime Mode      323

18. In Semi-Retirement      342

Filmography      359

Notes      391

Bibliography      409

Index      415

Finalist, Theatre Library Association Award
“authoritative, insightful…indispensable”—Booklist; “exemplary critical”—DGA Quarterly: Craft Journal of the Directors Guild of America; “one of the most exceptional works on a Golden Age director that I have ever read. The authors excels in covering all of Borzage’s films…thorough biography…should stand as a model for future film historians”—The National Board of Review.