7th Heaven [Seventh Heaven] **** (1927, Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, Ben Bard) – Classic Movie Review 7538

Director Frank Borzage’s achingly yearning and appealing – though alas now faded – 1927 silent classic 7th Heaven is a romantic, idealised view of the lower depths. Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell star as a couple of waifs from the sewers of Paris. She is a young prostitute named Diane and he is Chico, a sewer worker with high hopes. They marry but, after a blissful honeymoon, he goes to war in World War One and comes home blind.

It won three 1929 Oscars: Best Actress in a Leading Role (Janet Gaynor), Best Director, Dramatic Picture (Frank Borzage) and Best Writing, Adaptation (Benjamin Glazer). And it was one of the first three films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture (or Outstanding Picture) at the first Academy Awards held on 16 May 1929.

Gaynor’s lovely performance of sincerity and suffering still shines through in a gorgeously shot and brilliantly directed picture. The screenplay by Benjamin Glazer from Austin Strong’s play won an Oscar, as did Borzage and Gaynor, who took the first ever best actress Oscar (shared for her work in Sunrise and Street Angel).

Borzage took the winning formula and stars on to Street Angel the following year, and 7th Heaven affected Thirties French directors Jean Vigo and René Clair in its poetic view of people of the Paris streets.

Also in the cast are Gladys Brockwell as Diane’s sister Nana, David Butler as Gobin, Ben Bard as Colonel Brissac, Albert Gran as Boul, Emile Chautard as Father Chevillon, George E Stone as Sewer Rat, Marie Mosquini as Madame Gobin, Jessie Haslett as Aunt Valentine, Brandon Hurst as Uncle George and Lillian West as Arlette.

7th Heaven lobby card featuring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell.

Though made as a silent, it was later given a musical score and sound effects. It was released by the Fox Film Corporation as a standard silent film on 6 May 1927  in Los Angeles but re-released at New York City’s 5,920-seat Roxy Theatre on 10 September 1927 with a synchronised Movietone soundtrack with the musical score arranged by Ernö Rapée and also sound effects.

7th Heaven was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1995 as being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.

7th Heaven features in the Treasures section at the 2018 BFI London Film Festival.

It is remade as Seventh Heaven by Henry King in 1937, with James Stewart improbably cast as a worker in the Paris sewers.

The hit team of Gaynor and Farrell went on to star in 11 more films together and were called ‘America’s Favourite Lovebirds’.

Austin Strong’s 1922 Broadway play Seventh Heaven starred George Gaul and Helen Menken and ran at the Booth Theatre for 704 performances.

7th Heaven was the 13th-highest-grossing American silent film by 1932, earning more than $2.5 million at the box office.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7538

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