Street Angel is a 1928 American silent drama film with a Movietone soundtrack, directed by Frank Borzage, adapted by Harry H. Caldwell (titles), Katherine Hilliker (titles), Philip Klein, Marion Orth and Henry Roberts Symonds from the play Lady Cristilinda by Monckton Hoffe. As one of the early, transitional sound film releases, it did not include recorded dialogue, but used intertitles along with recorded sound effects and musical selections.
Street Angel | |
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Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Frank Borzage |
Produced by | William Fox |
Written by | Philip Klein Henry Roberts Symonds Monckton Hoffe (play) |
Starring | Janet Gaynor Charles Farrell Alberto Rabagliati |
Cinematography | Paul Ivano Ernest Palmer |
Distributed by | Fox Film Corporation |
Release date | April 9, 1928 |
Running time | 102 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
Box office | $1.7 million |
Street Angel was one of three movies for which Janet Gaynor received an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1929; the others were F. W. Murnau's Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans and Borzage's 7th Heaven. Street Angel was also nominated for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography.
The acting award was given in 1929 and the other two in 1930, which accords the movie the distinction of being one of only two films to ever receive an Oscar nomination in two different years that was not a foreign language film. The other was The Quiet One nominated in 1949 for Documentary Feature and 1950 for Story and Screenplay.
Screenplay
A spirited young woman (Gaynor) tries to prostitute herself and, failing in that, to steal money, to pay for her seriously ill mother's medicine. She is caught in the act and convicted but escapes from her guards, only to find her mother dead. Fleeing the pursuing police, she joins a traveling carnival, where she meets a vagabond painter (Farrell). Though they fall in love, her past will not leave her alone.
- Janet Gaynor as Angela
- Charles Farrell as Gino
- Natalie Kingston as Lisetta
- Henry Armetta as Mascetto
- Guido Trento as Neri, Sergeant of Police
- Alberto Rabagliati as A Policeman
- Demetrius Alexis as Museum Waiter (uncredited)
- Jennie Bruno as Landlady (uncredited)
- Gino Conti as Policeman (uncredited)
- Milton Dickinson as Bimbo (uncredited)
- Helena Herman as Andrea (uncredited)
- Dave Kashner as The Strong Man (uncredited)
- Louis Liggett as Beppo (uncredited)
- Hector Sarno as Spaghetti Cook (uncredited)
The film was thought lost for years, but it is now part of a 12 film collection by Fox that was released in 2008.