Showing Sunrise after The Crowd suggests many things: first that, as silence ended, there was a lifting in the quality of films that is palpable, and which shows Hollywood being prompted to imitate Europe, or welcome European talent. But whereas King Vidor could not look at melancholy without energy and his unique positivism, Murnau's “happy ending” romance comes so close to tragedy, it is as if, inadvertently, he had discovered film noir in a new country. Of course, it's an open question where Sunrise is occurring, with its epic struggle between the hinterland and the city. So many American movies were thrilled by the new urbanism, and still are, but the cause of the hinterland, plus “values,” is back again. However we read that, Murnau introduced something best known as “atmosphere” to American films and proposed that it might be as profound as the native energy.