Actress Janet Gaynor was having quite a 12-month success rate in Hollywood. As in ice hockey with three goals, Gaynor scored the hat trick appearing in that year's most heralded movies. Leading off was 1927's "7th Heaven," a nominee for the Academy Awards' Most Outstanding Picture, followed by 1927's "Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans," which won the Academy's Unique and Artistic Picture, the only time that award was offered. Then came April 9, 1928's "Street Angel," the third highest box office movie for 1928.
For its first awards ceremony, the Academy considered the 12-month body of work for most categories. Examining Gaynor's lead roles in the three outstanding pictures she co-starred in, it was inevitable the Philadelphia native became a slam-dunk winner for Best Actress. "Street Angel" also has the unique distinction of receiving nominations for the following year's second Academy Awards. The Academy in its early years considered their award nominations not by the calendar year but by a 12-month time span, from the 1st of July the previous year to the end of June the following year. Academy members felt "Street Angel" deserved a nomination for Best Art Direction (Harry Oliver) and Best Cinematography (Ernest Palmer). Only one other English-language film received Academy nominations in separate years: the Sidney Meyers' directed 1948 documentary 'The Quiet One' for 1949's Best Documentary Feature, then the following year for Best Original Screenplay.
The role of Angela in "Street Angel" was teed up for Gaynor to display her dramatic chops. Based on a Monckton Hoffe play, 'Lady Cristillinda,' the film opens with her poor mother dying for want of needed medicine. Angela first turns to hooking to secure some funds, then steals money to buy the drugs to save her mom. Caught, indicted and sentenced to jail in a Naples, Italy, prison, she escapes to find her sick mother dead. She meets a painter, Gino (Charles Farrell), at a circus, falls in love-but with a past like hers, it's bound to catch up with her.
Director Frank Borzage learned a thing or two from F. W, Murnau's 1927's "Sunrise." He paints a dose of Expressionism in "Street Angel," using shadows to foretell menaces and threats hovering over Angela, especially in scenes where police are present. The concluding sequences particularly finds Borzage designing a waterfront dock scene where Gino and Angela are walking separately after several months apart. A heavy mist hangs over the darkened set, similar to "Sunrise's" famous scene where the married man meets his new girlfriend. The murky weather reflect the inner turmoil of the two characters as they wander aimlessly throughout the night, not knowing what's facing them at every turn. They do meet, setting off an unexpected conclusion that the Academy took note when voting Gaynor for Best Actress.
"Street Angel" contained Fox Films' early Movietone sound system with its musical selection and a handful of sound effects . It became the first movie with sound to be played in New Zealand on March 8, 1929, almost a year after the film's premier.
For its first awards ceremony, the Academy considered the 12-month body of work for most categories. Examining Gaynor's lead roles in the three outstanding pictures she co-starred in, it was inevitable the Philadelphia native became a slam-dunk winner for Best Actress. "Street Angel" also has the unique distinction of receiving nominations for the following year's second Academy Awards. The Academy in its early years considered their award nominations not by the calendar year but by a 12-month time span, from the 1st of July the previous year to the end of June the following year. Academy members felt "Street Angel" deserved a nomination for Best Art Direction (Harry Oliver) and Best Cinematography (Ernest Palmer). Only one other English-language film received Academy nominations in separate years: the Sidney Meyers' directed 1948 documentary 'The Quiet One' for 1949's Best Documentary Feature, then the following year for Best Original Screenplay.
The role of Angela in "Street Angel" was teed up for Gaynor to display her dramatic chops. Based on a Monckton Hoffe play, 'Lady Cristillinda,' the film opens with her poor mother dying for want of needed medicine. Angela first turns to hooking to secure some funds, then steals money to buy the drugs to save her mom. Caught, indicted and sentenced to jail in a Naples, Italy, prison, she escapes to find her sick mother dead. She meets a painter, Gino (Charles Farrell), at a circus, falls in love-but with a past like hers, it's bound to catch up with her.
Director Frank Borzage learned a thing or two from F. W, Murnau's 1927's "Sunrise." He paints a dose of Expressionism in "Street Angel," using shadows to foretell menaces and threats hovering over Angela, especially in scenes where police are present. The concluding sequences particularly finds Borzage designing a waterfront dock scene where Gino and Angela are walking separately after several months apart. A heavy mist hangs over the darkened set, similar to "Sunrise's" famous scene where the married man meets his new girlfriend. The murky weather reflect the inner turmoil of the two characters as they wander aimlessly throughout the night, not knowing what's facing them at every turn. They do meet, setting off an unexpected conclusion that the Academy took note when voting Gaynor for Best Actress.
"Street Angel" contained Fox Films' early Movietone sound system with its musical selection and a handful of sound effects . It became the first movie with sound to be played in New Zealand on March 8, 1929, almost a year after the film's premier.