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After the extraordinary success of 7th HEAVEN, Fox's executives search for a story perfectly suited to the Borzage-Gaynor-Farrell trio. Thus, in the Fall of 1927, Borzage begins another film with Gaynor and Farrell in the lead, set this time in Naples.
In John Belton's view, STREET ANGEL is "perhaps" Borzage's "greatest silent film". In it Borzage uses the "traditional melodramatic form" and displays his spirituality through his particular style. According to Belton, the film's fist sequences "describe this spirituality - the essences behind things - far better than words ever could." Mordaunt Hall too, likes the first part of the film (and, indeed, the whole film) and calls STREET ANGEL "a picture of wonderful beauty". He goes on to say that "never has the camera been used quite so effectively and artistically as it is in this subject. ... The excellence of this feature does not depend on trick photography, but upon genuinely expert composition of the scenes and careful atmospheric effects. ... Mr. Borzage, who evidently knows his Naples, has done everything humanly possible to reflect the atmosphere of that blue-skied city, even to having the police going on their rounds in two and in the selection of his types." To create a Neapolitan setting in Hollywood was not a new experience for Borzage. He had already done it for the film THE GHOST FLOWER, which had opened in August of 1918, when he was a director for Triangle. In that occasion he had been assisted by Amy E. Sacker, who had "lived abroad extensively" and was "as familiar with Italian life as with American itself."
(Davide Turconi, in: Griffithiana 46, Dez. 1992)
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Bonner Kinemathek - 
