For his last studio film, although it was not known to be so at the time, F.W. Murnau chose a simple, rural love story focusing on a disenchanted waitress who leaves behind her empty urban life on the spur-of-the-moment for what she dreams will be an uncomplicated rural lifestyle with her new farmer husband. What she, Kate (Mary Duncan), and her husband, Lem (Charles Farrell), does not forsee is the conflict with his dominating and emasculating father (David Torrence), and with simpleton farmhands who envy and disrespect Lem and leer after Kate.

Originally completed by Murnau as Our Daily Bread (1929), the film was recut and rereleased with a synchronized Movietone soundtrack by Fox Film Corporation as City Girl in 1930. It is the silent version of that 1930 rerelease that has survived and from which all of today’s prints originate. — Carl Bennett

This edition may have been mastered from a 16mm reduction print. The packaging touts color-tints and restored intertitles.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc is available from Vintage Film Buff.

This edition has been mastered from a 16mm reduction print, yielding only good but acceptable viewing results. However, we have not viewed a better-looking print — which may mean that the film has not survived in better than good-quality materials.

The full-frame video transfer is augmented with windowboxed insert shots to minimize the amount of visual information lost to overscan.

The film is accompanied by a soundtrack of preexisting music recordings. This disc is not the best viewing experience, but this neglected film is better seen at good quality than not at all.

This Region 0 NTSC DVD-R disc is available from Grapevine Video.