In 1928 Fox tried the impossible, they wanted to make a film that echoed the prestige of "Sunrise" with the commercial success of "Seventh Heaven" and they almost pulled it off with "Street Angel". The film reunited Janet Gaynor with her "Seventh Heaven" co-star Charles Farrell and it was a huge success. Fox, more than any other studio, embraced the expressionism of the German UFA studios and for the first 15 minutes of "Street Angel" there was a concentration of ten years of the best German techniques - fantastic sets, symbolic and geometric grouping of people, a mobile camera and amazing lighting. It was almost impossible to maintain that high artistic level but it did return for the closing reel. In between the story was rambling but it was saved by the freshness and enthusiasm of it's two stars.
With the constant musical love theme, "Angela Mia", played continuously throughout the movie, the story is set in Naples, as Angela (sweet Janet Gaynor), desperate for money for medicine for her ailing mother, tries her hand at soliciting - she has seen how easy it is for other girls but men just don't seem interested in her. In desperation she steals, for which she is bought before a magistrate and sent to the local workhouse for a year. She escapes and a chase through almost surrealistic streets sees her helped by a traveling carnival.
One day she meets handsome Gino (Charles Farrell), he is a painter and his funny antics are drawing the crowds away from the circus!!! It is love at first sight - for Gino!! Angela hates men and says she will never love - silly Angela!! Being in a circus is a nice change of pace for Janet who gets to wear lots of spangley tutus and to show off her fetching figure, but all too soon the light hearted days are over. Angela falls off a pair of stilts, breaks her ankle and Gino takes her to Naples to seek medical assistance. They settle down to a blissful yet poor existense, always one step ahead of being evicted but a local gendarme observes Angela and tries to remember....
The last part of the movie returns to the moody and atmospheric seediness of the film's beginning. Angela is taken back to the workhouse but is happy because she is convinced Gino will do great things. Oddly enough, she doesn't tell Gino where she is going, only requesting the policeman to let her have an hour with Gino who is celebrating his Mural commission!!! But Gino is not doing well, he is suffering depression, has lost his job and is drifting into the life of a barfly.
The last ten minutes or so are magnificently stylized as Gino wanders along the waterfront looking for a girl to paint - one with the face of an angel whose soul he can show as being as black as night. Of course he finds his Angela and within a few moments all his dark thoughts are dispersed as they embrace at a church altar. Even though the story bordered on pretentious Frank Borzage showed why he was the master of romance in Hollywood.
With the constant musical love theme, "Angela Mia", played continuously throughout the movie, the story is set in Naples, as Angela (sweet Janet Gaynor), desperate for money for medicine for her ailing mother, tries her hand at soliciting - she has seen how easy it is for other girls but men just don't seem interested in her. In desperation she steals, for which she is bought before a magistrate and sent to the local workhouse for a year. She escapes and a chase through almost surrealistic streets sees her helped by a traveling carnival.
One day she meets handsome Gino (Charles Farrell), he is a painter and his funny antics are drawing the crowds away from the circus!!! It is love at first sight - for Gino!! Angela hates men and says she will never love - silly Angela!! Being in a circus is a nice change of pace for Janet who gets to wear lots of spangley tutus and to show off her fetching figure, but all too soon the light hearted days are over. Angela falls off a pair of stilts, breaks her ankle and Gino takes her to Naples to seek medical assistance. They settle down to a blissful yet poor existense, always one step ahead of being evicted but a local gendarme observes Angela and tries to remember....
The last part of the movie returns to the moody and atmospheric seediness of the film's beginning. Angela is taken back to the workhouse but is happy because she is convinced Gino will do great things. Oddly enough, she doesn't tell Gino where she is going, only requesting the policeman to let her have an hour with Gino who is celebrating his Mural commission!!! But Gino is not doing well, he is suffering depression, has lost his job and is drifting into the life of a barfly.
The last ten minutes or so are magnificently stylized as Gino wanders along the waterfront looking for a girl to paint - one with the face of an angel whose soul he can show as being as black as night. Of course he finds his Angela and within a few moments all his dark thoughts are dispersed as they embrace at a church altar. Even though the story bordered on pretentious Frank Borzage showed why he was the master of romance in Hollywood.