Moonrise
Moonrise, probably Frank Borzage's best known and most admired sound film, deals with the psychological effects on a young man of his father's hanging for murder.
“In many ways, it is unlike any of (Borzage's) earlier works. Its plot, dealing with murder and guilt, departs dramatically from the simple love stories the director usually tells, and its heavily psychological approach to action and characterisation seems unusual for a director who concerns himself more with the soul and heart than with the mind..... Yet even though Moonrise looks different from Borzage's other work, it reveals as deep a commitment as ever to the concerns that occupy his other films...(e.g.) the mystical control of the past over the present...coming to terms with the past...” and the integration of lovers “in a timeless and weightless romantic union.” --John Belton, “The Hollywood Professionals: Hawks, Borzage, Ulmer”