F. W. Murnau is known as one of the titans of German cinema but one little known fact about Murnau is that he was also a titan in stature. Murnau stood nearly seven feet tall at 6' 11".

Janet Gaynor said that Sunrise was the best film she ever made.

Murnau had done The Last Laugh (1924) using only one title card. He wanted to do the same for Sunrise but Fox Film Studios over-rode him. It was felt inter-titles were needed for American audiences. Murnau and Charles Rosher thus made the titles work for each use as if they belonged visually to the scene. For instance, when the vamp suggests drowning the wife, the title card "melts" into the black, as if liquefying and sinking into water.

Sunrise, though silent, had a fully composed score recorded onto the film itself using the Fox Movietone Sound-On-Film system. Sunrise was the first film to use this system.

Although the credits list the characters as merely "The Man" and "The Wife", the names Ansass and Indre were used on the set, and in the scenes where George O'Brien calls out to her, at the end, the astute lip-reader can make this out.

William Fox was so happy to have acquired F. W. Murnau, he introduced him to everyone as "the German genius."

Georges Sadoul in Dictionary of Films wrote that, "Sunrise was a financial flop from which Murnau never recovered; his remaining two films for Fox were entirely controlled by the studio. His independently made Tabu (1931) was his last film before his death."

The Oxford Companion to Film noted that "The film's visual distinction is greatly enhanced by using Panchromatic stock: it was the first commercially made film to do so. The remarkable city set gave Murnau the opportunity for unusual action shots; these, together with back projection and other special effects, demonstrate a masterly combination of the technical resources of Germany and Hollywood."

Memorable Quotes from SUNRISE

Opening Title Cards: This song of the Man and his Wife is of no place and every place; you might hear it anywhere, at any time. For wherever the sun rises and sets, in the city's turmoil or under the open sky on the farm, life is much the same; sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet.

Title Card: Among the vacationists was a Woman of the City. Several weeks had passed since her coming and still she lingered.

Village woman: They used to be like children, carefree... always happy and laughing... Now he ruins himself for that woman from the city - Money-lenders strip the farm - and his wife sits alone.

The Woman from the City: Sell your farm... come with me to the City.
Man: And my wife?
The Woman from the City: Couldn't she get drowned?

Wife: We're going for a trip across the water. I may not be back for quite a while.

Man: [to wife] Don't be afraid of me!

Arcade Barker: Hit the hole... make the little piggy roll!

Compiled by Greg Ferrara