---
name: "Frank Borzage"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/frank-borzage"
roles: ["Director","Producer"]
born: "23 April 1894"
died: "19 June 1962"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 4
average_fi1m_score: 72
average_as: "director"
average_over: 4
updated: "2026-09-19T22:26:11.246135+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Frank Borzage

Director and producer. Born 23 April 1894 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Died 19 June 1962.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Producer
- **Born:** 23 April 1894, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
- **Died:** 19 June 1962
- **Active:** 1927–1934
- **Also known as:** Mr. Borzage, Фрэнк Борзеги
- **Frequently works with:** [Benjamin Glazer](https://film.one/person/benjamin-glazer.md)
- **Academy Awards:** 2 Oscars (2 won · 1 nominated)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 72, as director, over 4 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1920s 86 (1), 1930s 67 (3)
- **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 1 at 60–79, 1 under 60
- **Genres:** Romance 4, Drama 3, Music 1, War 1
- **Screen time:** 7 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $4m across 2 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Borzage, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q369190, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0097648/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/14855

## Streaming the US now

- **Tubi:** [*7th Heaven*](https://film.one/film/7th-heaven.md) (86)
- **Apple TV:** [*A Farewell to Arms*](https://film.one/film/a-farewell-to-arms.md) (80)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Frank Borzage

> Frank Borzage made films in which two poor young people fall in love and the world tries to stop them, and he meant every frame of it. The sentiment is real, the craft is exact, and the best of them still work.

A sewer worker in Paris complains to God that he deserves a better job, in the tone of a man writing to his landlord. He takes in a girl her sister has been beating, lies to a policeman to keep her out of trouble, and installs her in an attic with a bed, a table and a skylight. That is *7th Heaven* (1927), and it is the whole of Frank Borzage in one room. Two poor people, a small space, and a director who believes without embarrassment that they can be happy in it.

He came to directing by an unhurried route: travelling theatre companies, then acting in Hollywood from 1912, then a first film of his own in 1915. Through the 1920s he directed steadily, and at Fox, where F. W. Murnau was also working, his pictures took on a softer, more pictorial look. The late silent and early sound years are the peak. *7th Heaven* and *Street Angel* (1928) paired Janet Gaynor with Charles Farrell, and he worked with Farrell four times and Gaynor three. *Bad Girl* (1931) carried him into sound; *A Farewell to Arms* (1932) put his lovers in a war; *The Mortal Storm* (1940) put them under the Nazis, at a time when few Hollywood films would name the threat. The subject never changes. The thing standing in the lovers' way does.

What keeps this from being a formula is that he does the work. In *7th Heaven* the happiness is built out of objects: the plate a neighbour lends, the skylight over the bed. When the second half goes to war, his editors cut between the front and the attic so that both seem to be happening at the same hour, which is the point. We sat down expecting to be talked into the feeling and found instead that we had simply arrived at it, somewhere around the moment the neighbour lends the plate, because by then the room was real to us and so were the people in it.

The faults are the faults of the method. He asks his actors to play emotion large, and Farrell in *7th Heaven*, chest out and arms going, took us a good half hour to accept; he is better when Borzage lets him be quiet, and Borzage gives him more quiet as the film goes on. The villain there is a stock colonel with a moustache, and the middle sags while he circles, because the film has no interest in him. After *Moonrise* (1948), which still has admirers for how closely it stays inside its young lovers' heads, the work thinned out, and he made films only occasionally until *The Big Fisherman* (1959). He died in 1962.

Start with *7th Heaven*. If the attic works on you, the rest will. If it does not, he made more of them, all pointed the same way, and none of them will change your mind.

## Biography

Frank Borzage (23 April 1894 – 19 June 1962) was an American film director and actor. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Italian and Swiss immigrant parents, he began working as an actor in Hollywood in 1912 and made his directorial debut in 1915 with the short film *The Pitch o' Chance*.

Borzage directed *7th Heaven* (1927), for which he received the first Academy Award for Best Director. He won a second Oscar for *Bad Girl* (1931). His other credits include *Street Angel* (1928), *A Farewell to Arms* (1932), *History Is Made at Night* (1937), *The Mortal Storm* (1940) and *Moonrise* (1948). His final feature was *The Big Fisherman* (1959).

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, catalog.afi.com.*

## On Fi1m (4)

- *Flirtation Walk* (1934), Fi1m 57, Director, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/flirtation-walk.md)
- *A Farewell to Arms* (1932), Fi1m 80, Producer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/a-farewell-to-arms.md)
- *Bad Girl* (1931), Fi1m 64, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/bad-girl.md)
- *7th Heaven* (1927), Fi1m 86, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/7th-heaven.md)

## Complete filmography (153)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Journey Beneath the Desert* (1961), Co-Director
- *The Big Fisherman* (1959), Director
- *China Doll* (1958), Director, Producer
- *The Day I Met Caruso* (1956), Director
- *A Ticket for Thaddeus* (1956), Director
- *The Oscars* (1953), series, Actor
- *Moonrise* (1948), Director
- *That's My Man* (1947), Director, Producer
- *Magnificent Doll* (1946), Director
- *I've Always Loved You* (1946), Director, Producer
- *The Spanish Main* (1945), Director, Producer
- *Till We Meet Again* (1944), Director
- *His Butler's Sister* (1943), Director
- *Stage Door Canteen* (1943), Director, Producer
- *Seven Sweethearts* (1942), Director, Producer
- *The Vanishing Virginian* (1942), Director
- *Smilin' Through* (1941), Director, Producer
- *Billy the Kid* (1941), Co-Director
- *Flight Command* (1940), Director
- *The Mortal Storm* (1940), Director, Producer
- *Strange Cargo* (1940), Director, Producer
- *I Take This Woman* (1940), Co-Director
- *Disputed Passage* (1939), Director
- *The Shining Hour* (1938), Director, Producer
- *Three Comrades* (1938), Director
- *Mannequin* (1938), Director, Producer, Screenplay
- *Big City* (1937), Director
- *History Is Made at Night* (1937), Director
- *Green Light* (1937), Director, Producer
- *Hearts Divided* (1936), Director, Producer
- *Desire* (1936), Director, Producer
- *Shipmates Forever* (1935), Director
- *Stranded* (1935), Director, Producer
- *Living on Velvet* (1935), Producer, Director
- *Flirtation Walk* (1934), Director, Producer — Fi1m 57, [page](https://film.one/film/flirtation-walk.md)
- *Little Man, What Now?* (1934), Director
- *No Greater Glory* (1934), Director, Producer
- *Man's Castle* (1933), Director, Producer
- *Secrets* (1933), Director
- *A Farewell to Arms* (1932), Director, Producer — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/a-farewell-to-arms.md)
- *Young America* (1932), Director
- *After Tomorrow* (1932), Director
- *Bad Girl* (1931), Director — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/bad-girl.md)
- *Young as You Feel* (1931), Director
- *Doctors' Wives* (1931), Director
- *Liliom* (1930), Director
- *Song o' My Heart* (1930), Director, Producer
- *The River* (1929), Director
- *They Had to See Paris* (1929), Director
- *Lucky Star* (1929), Director
- *Street Angel* (1928), Director
- *7th Heaven* (1927), Director — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/film/7th-heaven.md)
- *Marriage License?* (1926), Director
- *Early to Wed* (1926), Director
- *The Dixie Merchant* (1926), Director
- *The First Year* (1926), Director
- *Wages for Wives* (1925), Director
- *Lazybones* (1925), Director, Producer
- *The Circle* (1925), Director
- *Daddy's Gone A-Hunting* (1925), Director
- *The Lady* (1925), Director
- *Secrets* (1924), Director
- *The Age of Desire* (1923), Director, Producer
- *Children of Dust* (1923), Director
- *The Nth Commandment* (1923), Director, Producer
- *The Pride of Palomar* (1922), Director
- *The Valley of Silent Men* (1922), Director
- *The Good Provider* (1922), Director
- *Billy Jim* (1922), Director
- *Back Pay* (1922), Director
- *The Duke of Chimney Butte* (1921), Director
- *Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford* (1921), Director
- *Humoresque* (1920), Director
- *Prudence on Broadway* (1919), Director
- *Whom the Gods Would Destroy* (1919), Director
- *Toton* (1919), Director
- *The Atom* (1918), Director
- *The Ghost Flower* (1918), Director
- *Who Is to Blame?* (1918), Director
- *An Honest Man* (1918), Director
- *Society for Sale* (1918), Director
- *Innocent's Progress* (1918), Director
- *The Shoes That Danced* (1918), Director
- *The Curse of Iku* (1918), as Allan Carroll / Allan Carroll III · Director
- *The Gun Woman* (1918), Director
- *Until They Get Me* (1917), Director
- *Fear Not* (1917), as Franklin Shirley
- *Flying Colors* (1917), Director
- *Wee Lady Betty* (1917), as Roger O'Reilly
- *A Mormon Maid* (1917), as Tom Rigdon
- *A School for Husbands* (1917), as Hugh Aslam
- *Immediate Lee* (1916), as Immediate Lee · Director
- *Land O' Lizards* (1916), as The Stranger · Director
- *Matchin' Jim* (1916), as Matchin' Jim · Director, Writer
- *Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages* (1916), as Extra (uncredited)
- *The Forgotten Prayer* (1916), as Dan Page · Director
- *Nell Dale's Men Folks* (1916), as Zeb Dale · Director, Writer
- *Enchantment* (1916), Writer
- *The Courtin' of Calliope Clew* (1916), as Calliope Clew · Director
- *That Gal of Burke's* (1916), as Charles Percival · Director
- *Nugget Jim's Pardner* (1916), as Hal · Director, Writer
- *The Quicksands of Deceit* (1916), Director
- *The Demon of Fear* (1916), as Thomas Marsh · Director, Writer
- *The Pilgrim* (1916), as The Pilgrim · Director
- *Jack* (1916), as Jack · Director
- *Unlucky Luke* (1916), as Luke Drummond · Director, Writer
- *Realization* (1916), Actor
- *A Flickering Light* (1916), as Jim · Director
- *Two Bits* (1916), as James Hardeman · Director
- *The Code of Honor* (1916), as Lt. Bob Chase · Director
- *The Silken Spider* (1916), Director
- *Life's Harmony* (1916), Director
- *The Cactus Blossom* (1915), as Dave Foster
- *The Pitch o' Chance* (1915), as Rocky Scott · Director
- *The Clean-Up* (1915), as George Prescott
- *Aloha Oe* (1915), as Dr. John Hawley
- *Knight of the Trail* (1915), as Bill Carey
- *The Hammer* (1915), as Donald Barstow
- *The Secret of Lost River* (1915), as Tom Hornby - Prospector
- *The Tavern Keeper's Son* (1915), as Juan Capella
- *The Cup of Life* (1915), as Dick Ralston
- *Molly of the Mountains* (1915), as John Harlow
- *In the Switch Tower* (1915), as Joel Wharton
- *The Mill by the Zuyder Zee* (1915), as Dirk Brandt
- *The Girl Who Might Have Been* (1915), as George Fowler
- *In the Land of the Otter* (1915), as Joe Eagle
- *The Panther* (1914), as David Brandt
- *A Crook's Sweetheart* (1914), as The 'Dip'
- *The Desperado* (1914), Actor
- *The Typhoon* (1914), as Renard Bernisky
- *Parson Larkin's Wife* (1914), as Parson James Larkin
- *The Wrath of the Gods* (1914), as Tom Wilson
- *Love's Western Flight* (1914), Actor
- *Samson* (1914), as Bearded Philistine Extra (uncredited)
- *A Flash in the Dark* (1914), Actor
- *The Wheel of Life* (1914), Actor
- *In the Sage Brush Country* (1914), Actor
- *A Hopi Legend* (1913), Actor
- *A Cracksman Santa Claus* (1913), Actor
- *Retribution* (1913), Actor
- *The Days of '49* (1913), as Ben
- *Loaded Dice* (1913), Actor
- *Silent Heroes* (1913), Actor
- *In the Toils* (1913), Actor
- *The Gratitude of Wanda* (1913), Actor
- *The Mystery of Yellow Aster Mine* (1913), Actor
- *Granddad* (1913), as Mildred's Father
- *The Crimson Stain* (1913), Actor
- *The Drummer of the 8th* (1913), as Jack Durand
- *When Lee Surrenders* (1912), Actor
- *On Secret Service* (1912), Actor
- *The Pride and the Man*, Director, Writer
- *Dollars of Dross*, Director, Writer

## Gallery

- ![Frank Borzage with his Best Dramatic Director Oscar during the 1st Academy Awards (1929)](https://film.one/media/person/1224094/gallery-f68f19327602.jpg) Frank Borzage with his Best Dramatic Director Oscar during the 1st Academy Awards (1929) — Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bd/Frank_Borzage_Best_Dramatic_Director_1929.jpg/1280px-Frank_Borzage_Best_Dramatic_Director_1929.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Frank Borzage](https://film.one/media/person/1224094/gallery-ffa20a1e948c.jpg) Frank Borzage — New York, Wid's Films and Film Folks, Inc., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/John_McCormack_ad_%28part_2%29_in_The_Film_Daily%2C_Jan-Jun_1929_%28page_1483_crop%29.jpg/1280px-John_McCormack_ad_%28part_2%29_in_The_Film_Daily%2C_Jan-Jun_1929_%28page_1483_crop%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Frank Borzage](https://film.one/media/person/1224094/gallery-5349fcebe97d.jpg) Frank Borzage — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 2 won, 1 nominated

- 1932: Best Director (won), for *Bad Girl*
- 1929: Best Director (Dramatic Picture) (won), for *Seventh Heaven*
- 1928: Best Director (Dramatic Picture) (nominated), for *Seventh Heaven*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/frank-borzage