CF01
Sunrise
7th Heaven
7th Heaven (1927)
Resources
Druker, Donald. 'Frank Borzage', in Focus!, vol. 9, Spring-Summer 1973, p15.
Frank Borzage was a poet who exalted the power of love over the power of the person. His finesse of observation and his psychological gifts are revealed in a body of work not merely brilliant, but imbued with a warmth, a humanity, that often carried his work over the line between delicacy and preciousness, between compassion and sentimentality, but which never failed to stir the passions of his audience. Borzage's simplistic vision of love and life is especially evident in his characters, who are often cursed by an evil destiny -- the consequence of living in an egotistical and brutal world -- and who can fulfill themselves only at the cost of great suffering and sacrifice. His protagonists are suprisingly similar from film to film -- from the poor couple of Seventh Heaven, to the impetuous and violently erotic couple of The River (1929), to the touching victims of the Depression in A Man's Castle (1933). Borzage's sweetness and delicacy should not be considered a weakness; and if the Borzage oeuvre seems to wallow in tenderness, it must be remembered that his delicacy possesses a vigor, and his lyricism a potential for action. Thus The Spanish Main (1945), a truculent pirate film, rich in color and overflowing with vitality; thus his greatest dramas - Little Man What Now? (1934), Three Comrades (1938), The Shining Hour (1938) - and the delirious scenes of love in Desire (1936).The prodigality of Borzage, his excessiveness, is occasionally of such density that, despite his minor errors, his work presents itself as one of the most prodigious and original in the history of cinema.
Picture Show, February 4th, 1928
Extract from Dumont, Hervé. Frank Borzage: The Life and Films of a Hollywood Romantic, Jefferson, North Carolina & London: McFarland, 2005, pp. 111-112.
There is a great deal of background leading up to the shooting of 7th Heaven, the film to which Frank Borzage owes his worldwide reputation. It is based on a sentimental play by Robert Louis Stevenson's great nephew, Austin Strong (1881-19520, whose literary activity today has been largely forgotten. Produced by John Golden, it opened in New York October 30, 1922, at the Booth Theater, with Helen Menken (Humphrey Bogart's first wife) and George Gaul in the roles of Diane and Chico. This somewhat puerile drama, which combines a sentimental look at the sordid side of life with religiosity, was a phenomenal success on Broadway, running for three seasons, with 704 performances selling out! The powers that be in Hollywood were on the lookout and took great pains to get their hands on this choice piece, set in the sordid alleyways of Montmartre, near Sacré Coeur. In March 1924, William Fox offered $200,000 to buy the play, a small fortune that John Golden refused. However, the following year he finally accepted an attractive offer from Fox. "'Seventh Heaven' to be filmed!" the press heralded in September 1925, and from that point on, show business gossip collumnists were obsessed by the casting dilemmas. Borzage was not yet in the running: producer-director Emmett J. Flynn intended to keep the project for himself, and Frances marion developed a first script for him (December) [Further drafts were later done by Benjamin Glazer]. No word of the subsequent intrigues has been recorded, but Borzage's involvement appears to have been quasi-accidental. 7th Heaven was the pet project of [Studio Head Winfield] Sheehan, a devout Catholic. Probably concerned about Flynn's chronic alcoholism, he asked Borzage one day in late April of 1926 why he had never shown more interest in the project. "Because I understood it has been assigned to someone else" Borzage replied candidly. "But it isn't," exclaimed the head of the studio, "do you want it?" Borzage jumped at the chance.1
Mary Pickford, Bessie Love, Delores Costello, Blanche Sweet and Joan Crawford were tested for the coveted role of Diane; even Helen Menken, who created the role on stage, did a screen test (March 1926). The most likey candidate was Madge Bellamy, supported on high by William Fox and Sheehan (she was his mistress); while she was in France, publicity shots of the actress were taken on the battle fields of Château-Thierry and Belleau. But, as we have seen, the heroine of Lazybones was rejected by Borzage, remaining inflexible in spite of pressure put on him by management. The filmmaker's mind was made up. Janet Gaynor, twenty, the delicious Cinderella of American film (Disney took her as the model for Snow White!) had begun with Fox in January, as a bit player. She was the prototype of the ingénue, a tender, touching combination of girl and woman. Borzage paid a surprise visit to the set of her fifth film, the supernatural melodrama The Return of Peter Grimm, directed by Victor Schertzinger. He sat quietly in a corner, then left an hour later without having said a word. The same day, he announced to Sheehan that Janet Gaynor would be Diane; calling her in for testing would be superfluous. As for the role of Chico, it had been reserved in 1924 for John Gilbert, before he got angry with Fox and went back to MGM. When Borzage took over, he first thought of Bernard Nedell, who had played the Paris sewer worker in Albany, New York, but the actor backed out, not wanting to work in Hollywood. Jeol McCrea was tested (nothing came of it), and George O'Brien was being seriously considered when Murnau chose him for Sunrise. Finally, Charles Farrell was selected. This handsome, 6'2", twenty-one year old was good-natured and possessed an almost naive candor. Farrell had gone to Borzage to intercede on behalf of a collegue, his friend Richard Arlen. Borzage heard Farrell's generous plea, placed him next to Gaynor, who only went up to his shoulder (she was 5'), and hired him on the spot. This is how one of filmdom's most popular romantic couples came to be. Adulated by millions of fans, Janet Gaynor and Charles farrell would, over the course of several years, make a fortune for Fox (12 films together, from 1927 to 1934). For the moment, however, two unknowns had been cast in 7th Heaven.
Notes
1. MGM Studio News, no. 2, February 2,
1940.
Contemporary Reviews from Cinema Trade Magazine Kinematograph Weekly, 17/07/27
"What a picture! It is one of the most beautiful things William Fox has ever
done." - New York Evening Graphic.
"7th Heaven is packed with beauty, romance and thrills." - New York
American
"THE SUPER OF ALL SUPER-FILMS." - Weekly Dispatch.
"Poignant, romantic picture ... Excellent direction, acting and photography ...
love scenes ... are very tender and touching ..." - New York Sun.
"A very remarkable picture indeed." - New York Morning Telegraph.
"Grips your interest from the very beginning." - New York Times.
"A triumph for every player in the cast, as well as for William Fox. Other great
productions undoubtedly will be made, but few will present such a combination of
story interest, acting value and production care." - Moving Picture
World.
"7th Heaven is a beautiful, poignant, stimulating piece of filmery ... No one
errs in this master of dramas. It is utterly delightful." - New York Daily
News.
Hall, Mordaunt. 'The Screen - Seventh Heaven', in The New York Times, May 26, 1927.
In the William Fox screen version of Austin Strong's play, "Seventh Heaven," which was presented last night at the Sam H. Harris Theatre, you can once again meet those lovable characters - Chico, Diane, Papa Boule and Pere Chevillon in that little patch of Paris within sight of the Eiffel Tower. This picture grips your interest from the very beginning and even though the ending is melodramatic you are glad that the sympathetic but self-satisfied Chico is brought back to his heart-broken Diane.
This is an exceptionally well-acted place of work and Janet Gaynor's performance as Diane is true and natural throughout. This young woman was discovered by Winfield R. Sheehan, general production manager for the Fox Film Corporation. Never once does she falter in her difficult task of reflecting the emotions of the character she portrays. There is no effort to make her unduly beautiful with a halo over her head. She is winsome from the moment one beholds her countenance. She can cry and smile simultaneously and she impresses one by her depiction of faith when every day at 11 o'clock she "meets" her Chico, who is in the trenches. Sometimes Miss Gaynor reminds one of Lillian Gish and in other moods she resembles Lois Moran. Yet in her acting there is nothing imitative, but always an earnest and successful effort to impersonate the French girl who is rescued from hardship and cruelty by that "very remarkable fellow," Chico.
Charles Farrell, who has already been seen in "Old Ironsides" and "The Rough Riders," makes a splendid Chico. Sometimes he may seem to be a little too swaggering, but what of it? The actions suit the young man's agreeable bombast. You find that you like him, possibly just as much as you do Diane. God owed him ten francs, he said, and all of a sudden half of this money appears to be repaid by Pere Chevillon announcing that Chico is to be promoted from his labors in the sewer to do the work of a street washer. And you know, although Chico himself doesn't then, that the other five francs is erased from the indebtedness by the discovery of Diane, whom Chico rescues reluctantly from her drunken sister.
One of the joyous notes of this film, a masterly bit, is where Chico first takes Diane to his Seventh Heaven. You see them nearing the dingy-looking buildings and then they trudge upstairs. They pass the premier ètage, and the camera follows them as if you could see through the walls of the building. So, without a halt, there the two are perceived mounting the second flight of stairs, then they are beheld a little more tired on the third flight, and so on until Chico proudly throws open the door of his garret, outside of which are the stars. He who works in the sewer chose to dwell as near heaven as he could get!
And the way in which Chico arranges for the comfort of Diane is beautifully pictured, here a tear and then a laugh, then another tear and then a smile.
It is obvious that this subject was admirably suited to the screen, but it should also be said that Frank Borsage in directing this production has given to it all that he could put through the medium of the camera. There is Papa Boule with his taxicab that he calls Eloise, which happens to be one of those old vehicles that stood the test of the run to the Marne. Incidentally, it is a noteworthy sequence when the poilus are shown commandeering all motor-driven conveyances and trucks, piling into them, sticking their bayonets contemptuously at the meters on the taxicabs and then the stream of automobiles pouring along the narrow white roads to turn back the green-gray enemy hosts. This section of the film aroused considerable applause and it merited every handclap it received. It recalls the valiant effort made by France at her darkest hour of the war.
Mr. Borsage, who produced some passages of this production in the French capital, reveals no little imagination in his work and sometimes when it is least expected. He has a happy way of setting forth a touch of comedy at the psychological moment. Take the moment when Papa Boule's dear Eloise explodes. All that is left of the taxicab is the old-fashioned horn, and Papa Boule, brushing away a tear, declares that Eloise died for France. You will always remember the bit where a poilu, a sewer companion of Chico's, steals a chicken, and the officers in lieu of observing a roast fowl when the dish cover is raised observe to their chagrin nothing but a block of wood.
Albert Gran is capital as Papa Boule. In fact his portrayal is about as perfect as one could wish. Emil Chautard plays the role of Pere Chevillon with sympathetic dignity. Gladys Brockwell is impressive in the part of Nana, Diane's drink-sodden sister.
Prior to the screening of "Seventh Heaven," there were several Movietone features, including Raquel Meller in her "Corpus Christi" recitation and song, and Gertrude Lawrence in one of her revue songs. These subjects were eminently successful.
'NEW GALLERY CINEMA - Seventh Heaven - A Fox Film Directed by Frank Borzage' in The Times, Friday October 14, 1927, p.14, Issue. 44712, Col. D.
Out of earshot of the blowing of noses and the clearing of throats, but still remembering that extraordinary constriction about one's own throat, the sensible course is to decide that this is a very curious film. For two hours or so one has been subjected to a quite murderous assault on the feelings - the sentiments, if you like; every conceivable trick has been used to bully the spectator into tears or, failing that, into occaisional snuffling. The fantastic thing is that the bullying works, is dreadfully effective, reduces one to a condition of maudlin sensibility. Sometimes, of course, it fails through sheer cunning, and one laughs derisively. But it is at best a hollow laugh; the simple fact about the film is that, incredibly sentimental as it is, it is often very moving. And so, coming out from the darkened theatre into the daylight, ashamed in greater or lesser degree of having been genuinely affected by such transparent artifice, the normally constituted person says, "What a curious film!"
There is no need to dilate on the story - it tells of the course of true love. It begins in a Paris sewer, passes through the trials of the war, plays continuously on a note of religiousity which, outside the theatre, would doubtless make one shudder, and winds up in much the same ecstasy of spirit as that in which a child might witness a transformation scene at a Drury Lane pantomime. As a film, it has innumerable advantages over the theatrical entertainment proper; the sewer scenes are provided with a satisfactory romantic colour; the view from the top of the seventh-floor dwelling, although painly "faked," almost justifies a liberal amount of nonsense in the sub-titling on the subject of the stars; and the war scenes, which are quite well done, have an intrinsic emotion which no stupid glorification of fighting could wholly destroy.
But what chiefly rouses one to constant emotion is the acting of Miss Janet Gaynor and Mr. Charles Farrell, and of Miss Janet Gaynor in particular. Hers is unquestionably great acting; one marvels at her power to give sincerity to the most obvious and most abused of sorrows, to the flagrantly manufactured pathos of her part. But not at the time; the pathos seems to be real, quite unforced, and there is nothing for it but to greive with her at every fresh movement of her small, Madonna-like face. Perhaps the effect of her acting is impossible on the stage; the coarseness of words would ruin the intensity of suggestion which the "silent drama" can convey. Here, at any rate, the emotion is so deep and true that the silly circumstances which provoke it are of no account. A curious film!
Theme Songs from Fox Film Corporation produced films of the late 1920s often featured on the Movietone soundtracks
These songs often became best selling popular hits, helping to further market the film
"Charmaine" by Erno Rapee and Lew Pollack from the film What Price Glory? (1926). Released by The Savoy Orpheans, 7-7-1927.
"Diane" by Erno Rapee and Lew Pollack from the film 7th Heaven (1927). Released by The Ipana Troubadours (Sam Lanin Orchestra), 1927.
"Angela Mia by Erno Rapee and Lew Pollack from the film Street Angel (1928). Released by Paul Whiteman, 21-4-1928.
"Ramona by Mabel Wayne and Wolfe Gilbert from the film Ramona (1928). Released by the star of the film Delores Del Rio, 6-5-1928.
"Sunny Side Up" by BG De Sylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson from the film Sunny Side Up (1929). Released by the star of the film Janet Gaynor, 1929.
Sheet Music for the song 'Diane'
