Live accompaniment by Music Box organist Dennis Scott

Initially conceived as poetic paean to the production chain of bread, F.W. Murnau reconfigured his decidedly experimental concept into a endearingly simple love story between Minnesota country boy Lem (Charles Farrell), come to the big city to sell his family's wheat crop, and Chicago waitress Kate (Mary Duncan), yearning for an end to the loneliness of urban life. Lem weds Kate and brings her home to the farm, where Lem's family doesn't look kindly upon Kate's city girl ways. Filming his city scenes on extravagant studio sets and his farm scenes on location in the wilds of Oregon, Murnau imbues both with a rapturous sense of discovery, collapsing simple urban-rural dichotomies and inventing the career of Terrence Malick in the process.