Street Angel (1928)

Director:

Frank Borzage

Writers:

H.H. Caldwell (titles)
Katherine Hilliker (titles)

Release Date:

9 April 1928 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Not Just Another "Motion Picture" -- "Street Angel Is the Masterpiece of All Time"

Plot:

In Naples, where prostitutes can pay their rent, Angela is sentenced to a year in the workhouse when...

Plot Keywords:

Circus | Melodrama | Naples Italy | Jail | Based On Novel

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Janet Gaynor	...	Angela
Charles Farrell	...	Gino
Alberto Rabagliati	...	Policeman
Cino Conti	...	Policeman
Guido Trento	...	Neri the Police Sergeant
Henry Armetta	...	Mascetto
Louis Liggett	...	Beppo
Milton Dickinson	...	Bimbo
Helena Herman	...	Andrea
Natalie Kingston	...	Lisetta
Dave Kashner	...	The Strong Man
Jennie Bruno	...	Landlady

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent | Mono (Movietone) (music and sound effects)

Company:

Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

This film is recognized as the first talkie to be shown in New Zealand, on 8 March 1929

Movie Connections:

Featured in 20th Century-Fox: The First 50 Years (1997) (TV)

Soundtrack:

My Angel

One-third of an Oscar

In the first year of the Academy Awards, the voting was based on the performer's entire body of work for that year. Thus, Emil Jannings won the first Best Actor Oscar (although they weren't cried 'Oscar' yet) for two films he made in 1928, whilst Janet Gaynor won the first Best Actress Oscar for three films she made that year. One of her three films was 'Street Angel', so her starring role in this film has to be reckoned as one-third of an Oscar-winning performance. But surely Gaynor's magnificent and multi-layered performance in 'Sunrise' deserves most of the credit for that award. 'Sunrise' is such a masterpiece, it's hard to see how 'Street Angel' could compare with it.

This film takes place in Naples, where 'street angel' is apparently the term for a prostitute. Janet Gaynor usually played virginal good girls. Here, she gets arrested for prostitution. Impressively, the script avoids the easy excuse of making Gaynor a victim of mistaken arrest. Instead, through clever but plausible script machinations, Gaynor's heroine has legitimate reasons for feeling some guilt and stigma for being a prostitute while making it clear to the audience that she hasn't actually done the deed. As an Italian peasant girl, Gaynor impressively uses Neapolitan hand gestures and head movements in a few scenes, but does not employ them consistently.

As to leading man Charles Farrell, the less said the better. Gaynor and Farrell were the most popular romantic team in silent films, but I've always found Farrell impossibly good-looking without the acting ability to match. His portrayal of an embittered paraplegic in 'Lucky Star' is his only performance that deeply impressed me.

Gaynor typically played good-girl roles (in an interview, she noted 'I was the essence of first love'), so I was pleasantly surprised by her appearance here in a circus costume that shows off her exquisite figure in black tights and leotard. While Gaynor balances upside-down, the camera lingers from her slipper-shod feet downwards along her extended legs to her torso. What a woman! Gaynor, who usually dressed much more modestly, is clearly delighted to have this chance to show her stuff.

The production design is exquisite, with dozens of highly individualised stucco buildings. They actually look like a street in Naples, not a movie set. Henry Armetta restrains his histrionics, for once. Natalie Kingston is enticing as a local slut named Lisetta. In his brief role as an Auguste-style circus clown, I was very impressed with an obscure actor named Louis Liggett, who died shortly after this film was released: he shows real talent here.

The plot of this film is soap-opera bathos; the most interesting thing about it is that Gaynor's character serves a year in the workhouse (conveniently getting sprung on the same day as her rival, Lisetta, even though the latter was arrested much later) and then she emerges wearing a surprisingly stylish pair of high-heeled pumps: are these prison-issue in Italy? I'll rate this movie 5 out of 10, mostly for Gaynor's nuanced performance and partly for the brief scenes of her performing in black tights.