| Lucky Star | |
|---|---|
 Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell | |
| Directed by | Frank Borzage |
| Written by | John Hunter Booth Harry H. Caldwell Katherine Hilliker Sonya Levien Tristram Tupper |
| Produced by | William Fox |
| Starring | Janet Gaynor Charles Farrell |
| Cinematography | Chester A. Lyons William Cooper Smith |
| Edited by | Harry H. Caldwell Katherine Hilliker |
| Distributed by | Fox Film Corporation |
Release date |
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Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Languages | Sound (Part-Talkie) English Intertitles |
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Lucky Star is a 1929 soundpart-talkie American romantic drama film starringJanet Gaynor andCharles Farrell, and directed byFrank Borzage. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using theMovietone sound-on-film system. The plot involves the impact ofWorld War I upon a farm girl (Gaynor) and a returning soldier (Farrell).
The movie was produced byWilliam Fox with cinematography by Chester A. Lyons and William Cooper Smith, and the supporting cast includesPaul Fix andGuinn "Big Boy" Williams. In the previous two years, Borzage had also directed Gaynor in7th Heaven andStreet Angel, two of the three films (along withF.W. Murnau'sSunrise: A Song of Two Humans) for which Gaynor won the firstAcademy Award for Best Actress.[1]
The film was produced in two versions- a silent version for the foreign market, and a partly talking version with sound effects and some dialogue for American release. Both versions were thought lost until the silent film was rediscovered in the archives of theDutch Filmmuseum in the late 1980s and subsequently restored. The talking version of the film remains lost.
Timothy Osborn (Farrell) and Martin Wrenn (Williams) work aslinemen for a utility in a rural area. Both flirt with Mary Tucker (Gaynor) who is the daughter of a widowed dairy farmer, As the film begins it is 1917, and America becomes involved inWorld War I. Both men join the U.S. Army.
While on the battlefield, Wrenn and Osborn serve in the same unit, and Wrenn is a sergeant. Ordered to deliver food to men at the front, Wrenn instead purloins the truck that was to be used for the delivery for personal use, and Osborn uses a horse-drawn wagon to deliver the food. While going to the front he is injured by shellfire.
Both men return home, and Osborn now uses a wheelchair. He and Wrenn vie for Mary's affection. She becomes attached to Osborn and visits him every day. Wrenn, who had been kicked out of the Army, uses money and guile to win over Mary's mother, who pressures her to marry Wrenn. She stops seeing Osborn and agrees to marry Wrenn.
In the end, Osborn regains some use of his legs, walks through snow to confront Wrenn just before he is about to wed Mary. Townspeople intervene in their fight and put Wrenn on a train out of town. Osborn reunites with Mary.
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