Sometimes you just have to be swept away...
For 7TH HEAVEN Borzage cast two actors in their 20s, who had been progressing at Fox recently.
Casting Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell was a masterstroke: their chemistry remains electric and they appeared in eleven more films together, silents and talkies.
Chico, a street-cleaner, saves innocent Diane from being beaten in the street by her bullying sister.
Chico tells the police that they are married to stop homeless Diane from being arrested, and takes her to his attic rooms above the slums of Paris, sleeping separately naturally!
Diane agrees to leave after the police have verified she lives there but by then, they are in love.
But WWI interrupts their plans so they perform their own marriage ceremony, exchanging holy medals. They swear to 'visit' every other at 11am, their own moment together.
But can love keep them safe from war?
Shelf or charity shop? A definite keeper. Frank Borzage's romantic, lyrical masterpiece, transcends it's melodramatic plot to deliver a sweeping vision of the all-consuming power of love; he later revisited the idea of two lovers separated by WWI in his 1932 version of A FAREWELL TO ARMS. 7TH HEAVEN still looks wonderful with great cinematography that sweeps you through the story, most notably where the camera follows the lovers climbing the stairs to his attic rooms in one seemingly fluid ascending shot. Gaynor and Farrell are glorious - her performance is all the more remarkable considering she was filming FW Murnau's SUNRISE on neighbouring soundstages at the same time. Janet Gaynor won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Actress for her roles in 7TH HEAVEN, SUNRISE and Borzage's STREET ANGEL (the Academy stopped multi-nominations soon after) and she remained the youngest-ever Best Actress winner for 57 years. Frank Borzage won his first Best Director Academy Award for 7TH HEAVEN, and the film also won for Adapted Screenplay. A special mention to the delightful supporting performances of Albert Gran, David Butler and George E Stone as Chico's best friends and the memorable villainess of Gladys Brockwell as Diane's sister Nana.
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