Vintage original 10 x 14 in. U.S. double-weight matte photograph from what many considered the greatest American silent film ever made, SUNRISE, released in 1927 by the Fox Film Corporation and directed by F.W. Murnau.
The image is from one of the film's most emotional as well as pivotal scenes and depicts an interior long shot inside a church. The Man (George O'Brien) and The Wife (Janet Gaynor), having come into the church after The Man had tried to drown his Wife, stand side-by-side with their backs to the camera as they observe a young couple taking their vows. This touching ceremony makes The Man remember his own wedding and subsequent life with his Wife and he then breaks down sobbing on her lap inside the church as he begs her forgiveness for trying to kill her.
As indicated in the lower right corner of the image area, this photograph was taken by the famous photographer of female nudes, John Miehle, and he has signed his name in black ink in this corner as well as a second time beneath the photograph on the piece of presentation stock. It measures 10x13 in. and was printed without the customary outer white borders. It has been mounted onto a larger piece of presentation cardstock measuring 14.75 x 18 in. that features a wide outer border and was used to either document this production for the Fox Film Corporation or for commercial display. The photograph was not fully mounted to the larger cardstock, as a small portion of the bottom can be lifted slightly off the larger piece. While the outer piece of cardstock has a large chip on the top right and bottom left corners, a smaller chip on the top left and bottom right corners with some stains and surface dirt from time, the photograph itself is in near-perfect condition without any visible flaws. Please note that the actual tones of the photograph look exactly as they appear in the first two photographs of our listing, as they do not have more of a black-and-white look as they appear in the following photograph that depicts the entire piece of presentation cardstock).
George O’Brien and Janet Gaynor co-star in this allegorical tale about a man fighting the good and evil within him. Both sides are made flesh - one a sophisticated woman he is attracted to (Margaret Livingston) and the other his wife.
Miehle is not credited as a still photographer on this film and his biography on IMDb and other similar sites state that he did not start his career as a Hollywood stills photographer until 1931. However, our initial research has found an article in the September 25, 1928 issue of The Film Daily (see the last photograph is this listing. The article is the second one in the far right column entitled "Injuries Suffered by U.A. Unit") which states that "John Miehle, still photographer, sustained a broken nose in a rock slide" during the filming of the United Artists production of King of the Mountains (John Barrymore, the film's star, suffered two severe ankle sprains during production). The logical conclusion is that, for whatever reason, his start as a motion pictures still photographer has not been fully documented as to his formative years.
*"Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (also known as Sunrise) is a 1927 American silent romantic dramadirected by German director F. W. Murnau (in his American film debut) and starring George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, and Margaret Livingston. The story was adapted by Carl Mayer from the short story "The Excursion to Tilsit", from the 1917 collection with the same title by Hermann Sudermann.
Murnau chose to use the then new Fox Movietone sound-on-film system, making Sunrise one of the first feature films with a synchronized musical score and sound effects soundtrack. The film incorporated Charles Gounod's 1872 composition "Funeral March of a Marionette," which was later used as the theme for the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1965). Frédéric Chopin's A minor prelude also features prominently in orchestral arrangement.
Sunrise won the Academy Award for Unique and Artistic Picture at the 1st Academy Awards in 1929. Janet Gaynor won the first Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in the film (the award was also for her performances in 1927's 7th Heaven and 1928's Street Angel). The film's legacy has endured, and it is now widely considered a masterpiece and one of the greatest films ever made. Many have called it the greatest film of the silent era. In 1989, Sunrise was one of the 25 films selected by the U.S. Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The Academy Film Archive preserved Sunrise in 2004. The 2007 update of the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American films ranked it number 82, and the British Film Institute's 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll named it the fifth-best film in the history of motion pictures, while directors named it 22nd.
Although the original 35mm negative of the original American version of Sunrise was destroyed in the 1937 Fox vault fire, a new negative was created from a surviving print."
*(source: Wikipedia)
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