Sunday | October 1, 2006 9:00 pm

Street Angel

Screening on Film

Directed by Frank Borzage.
US, 1928, 35mm, black & white, silent, 99 min.
With music track.

Fox swiftly reunited Borzage with Gaynor and Farrell in a bid to repeat the popular and critical acclaim of 7th Heaven. Even more mystical and visually ravishing than its predecessor, this stylized studio melodrama rings a few variations on Borzage’s patented romantic formula. Gaynor stars in the title role as an impoverished Neapolitan waif running from the law who finds refuge in the arms of Farrell’s vagabond painter. The least-known of the three films for which Gaynor garnered her Oscar, Street Angel was adapted from a novel by Monckton Hoffe and incorporates authentic details into an expressionistic backlot design surely influenced by the émigré genius Murnau.