#1072: BORZAGE, Frank: History Is Made At Night (1937)

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BORZAGE, Frank (United States)
History Is Made At Night [1937]
Spine #1072
Blu-ray


Suffused with intoxicating romanticism, History Is Made at Night is a sublime paean to love from Frank Borzage, classic Hollywood's supreme poet of carnal and spiritual desire. On the run through Europe from her wealthy, cruelly possessive husband, an American (Jean Arthur) is thrown together by fate with a suave stranger (Charles Boyer) -- and soon the two are bound in a consuming, seemingly impossible affair that stretches across continents and brings them to the very edge of catastrophe. Lent a palpable erotic charge by the chemistry between its leads, this delirious vision of lovers beset by the world passes through a dizzying array of tonal shifts -- from melodrama to romantic comedy to noir to disaster thriller -- smoothly guided by Borzage's unwavering allegiance to the power of love.

97 minutes
Black and White
Monaural
1:37:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2021
Director/Writers


Screenplay by Graham Baker and Gene Towne.
Additional dialogue by David Hertz and Vincent Lawrence.
Frank Borzage was 43 when he directed History Is Made at Night.

Other Borzage films in the Collection:

#921: Moonrise (1948)

The Film

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Ten-page wraparound featuring an essay by critic Dan Callahan.

Commentary

None.

Conversation

Between author Hervé Dumont (Frank Borzage: The Life and Films of a Hollywood Romantic) and film historian Peter Cowie.

Interview

From 2019 with critic Farran Smith Nehme about director Borzage’s obsession with romantic love.

Audio excerpts

Of a 1958 interview with Borzage from the collection of the George Eastman Museum.

Radio adaptation

Of the film from 1940, broadcast by The Screen Guild Theater and starring Charles Boyer.

Restoration demonstration

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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