”Everywhere….in every town….in every street….we pass, unknowing, human souls made great through love and adversity.”
One of Allan’s greatest gifts was sharing his passion for films long forgotten or never fully appreciated. In keeping with that theme, my review highlights a film never before posted to this site. Certainly not made for cynical audiences, Borzage represents a style of filmmaking that has mostly fallen out of favor. Here we have a director who pulls together themes of love and hardship, complete with expressive use of atmosphere: streets, apartments, rooftops filmed with scintillating panache. Then, throw all this together with heavy doses of melodramatic plot twists that are simply too crazy to believe. Melodrama, in the hands of Sirk or Fassbinder, tends to be something that modern audiences have welcomed. Their use of color and symbolism adds a layer of subversive commentary that Borzage lacks. But, Borzage excels at a certain kind of irony-free, old-fashioned story-telling that to my mind is worth championing for its propellant emotional energy.
Although 7th Heaven gets most of the attention, and Lucky Star is a hidden gem, Street Angel is my favorite Borzage film and is a romantic masterpiece of the highest order, provided you’re willing to suspend disbelief. It is the story of Angela (Janet Gaynor), who in need of some money to purchase medicine for her mother, attempts to prostitute herself on the street. She winds up getting arrested for robbery and sentenced to a year in a work house. She runs off before being imprisoned, escaping to find her mother dead at home. She avoids the cops and runs off to join the circus, where she meets a painter named Gino. They strike up an awkward friendship but soon bond and fall in love. Their blossoming love and impending marriage is threatened when the police find her again. She is taken to prison while Gino is unaware. He thinks she is lost forever, and things get really interesting when she is released from prison a year later.
Janet Gaynor won the first Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayals in three films: Sunrise (1927), 7th Heaven (1927), and Street Angel (1928). AMPAS first designed these awards to be based upon an actor’s body of work for that entire year. Her performances in the Borzage films are tops, and Street Angel is the best of the three for me. She’s simply magic here. Sunrise doesn’t quite capitalize on her sincere and varied emotional qualities as well as the Borzage films, and in fact Borzage makes far greater use of her range than Murnau’s film. She also has great chemistry with her leading man, Charles Ferrell, whom she appeared with in a total of 12 films together! His performance here is solid, and much more understated than in 7th Heaven.
Borzage’s use of wildly ridiculous melodramatic elements is to my mind, highly entertaining and emotionally satisfying, and a significant draw to his appeal. In the Borzage universe, the obstacles thrown in love’s way forces one to sacrifice, make tough choices, and is a true test of how devoted one’s love is. Love is not proven true until it perseveres beyond adversity. This is most apparent in Street Angel. His emphasis on depth of field, layered set design, and shadowed lighting are also impeccable. Street Angel includes some fantastic tracking shots and pans, use of silhouette, and of particular note, there is an intensely crafted scene among thick fog along the docks at the end of the film. This is a memorable set-piece, filled with suspense and romantic desperation that then culminates in a perversely emotional climax that finishes in a church. Although I don’t know how Allan felt about this film (he doesn’t list it in his 5,000 important works so I suppose that says something), I hope viewers find ways to appreciate this one.
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Jon, I have of course seen this film, and am a passionate adherent of Borzage’s work. I too have long known he is one of your own abiding favorites, and have marveled at your superbly written pieces on him at your own site over the years. Your recommendation here would have had Allan beaming as he always adored Borzage. I will never forget his excited purchase of the Fox box set that contained the film back when he first visited us in 2007. Kim’s Video undercharged him with a price of $100 for a set that at the time went for almost $300. It was a story that gave us quite a bit of humor over the ensuing years. Anyway, your command of the director’s artistry is first-rate. A wonderful read here.
Oh that’s a cool story Sam. I think he mentioned that set on more than one occasion but that’s funny he got such a good price on that. Lol.
Jon – I love this review. I’m a big fan of melodrama and Borzage, and the two together are about as good as it gets. I haven’t seen this film, but it sounds right up my alley. It’s hard to beat Farrell and Gaynor in anything – maybe the best screen team ever – even when the film they’re in isn’t first-rate (aka, Delicious). Thanks for cluing me into this. It gets a viewing this week from me.
Yay! Thanks Marilyn hope you like it!
For my tastes, Borzage’s HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT is in the discussion for greatest cinematic melodrama ever made, so I’m happy to see another Borzage make the Festival here. This is a really good film too, with a sparkling female lead performance at its center.
Oddly enough, STREET ANGEL is in Allan’s book, it’s just that he’s talking about the 1937 Muzhi film of the same title. He spends the first part of the review discussing that it isn’t a remake of the Borzage like many film tomes mistakenly assert. In the review of LITTLE MAN, WHAT NOW? he makes mention of it, so we can assume he’d seen it and didn’t feel it worthy of inclusion. I might disagree with him there, but then he includes 4 Borzage works and HISTORY isn’t included either.
Thanks for the added footnotes Jamie. I know of the other Street Angel that Allan includes although I haven’t read his review of it. Interesting we are discussing his potential view of a film through other films. Oddly enough, I’ve posted 3 reviews of Borzage films here over the last few years, and Allan and I overlap on two of them….7th Heaven and Man’s Castle. As often as we had disagreements, we seemed to generally agree on Borzage.
Are those reviews of Little Man, What Now? and Street Angel (1937) on this site? When I search under those titles they don’t come up.