![Frank Borzage, Vol. 1 (7th Heaven / Street Angel) [DVD]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71e7lV+UhIL._SY300_.jpg)
Wonderful to have these two great classics of the late silent era (1927-28) on Region 2 DVD at last. Director Frank Borzage was known for his emotional melodramas in which romantic love surmounted all obstacles. Janet Gaynor - small and delicate in appearance, wonderfully expressive in performance - was paired with tall, handsome, wavy-haired Charles Farrell twelve times between 1927 and 1934; they were the most famous romantic couple of the period, and these films are the first and second they made together.
In Seventh Heaven, Gaynor plays a Parisian waif, beaten by her sister and taking refuge with street cleaner Chico (Farrell). They live together in his top floor apartment (the `Seventh Heaven' of the title), and gradually he falls in love with her as she has been with him all along. Separated by the First World War, they promise to think of one another at eleven o'clock every day; but can their love survive?
Street Angel, the 1928 follow up, is set in Naples. Angela's (Gaynor's) mother is very ill; without money for medicine, she tries to become a streetwalker. Arrested for stealing money whilst soliciting, she escapes the police and runs home. The scene in which she finds her mother dead and lies down beside her and puts her arms around her is heartbreaking! Running away with a circus, Gaynor meets itinerant artist Gino (Farrell) - they fall in love, she at first reluctantly, but the police are closing in. Will Gino continue to love her once he knows of her past?
These two films are thoroughly recommended - they truly are beautiful works of art, heartfelt and sincere, gorgeously designed and photographed, and wonderfully acted. Many thanks to the British Film Institute for making them available!
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