Main Cast: Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, Ben Bard, David Butler, Marie Mosquini, Albert Gran
Release Year: 1927
Country: US
Run Time: 119 minutes
Plot
In 1927, Janet Gaynor won the first Academy Award for Best Actress with her performance in this film, among the most celebrated romances of the late silent era. Chico (Charles Farrell) is a poor sewer worker who has only two dreams in life: to be promoted to sweeping streets and to find a woman who will be his wife. While he prays for guidance and blessings, he continues to work in the filth beneath the Parisian streets. However, one day he meets Diane (Gaynor), a beautiful woman who has been handed many hardships in life and is being chased by the police for a petty crime. Chico helps her hide from the cops, and soon the two have fallen in love. Despite their poverty, they give each other a reason to go on, and they happily marry. But their bliss is shattered when Chico is called to fight in World War I; Diane lives for the day he returns, and when she's told that Chico was killed in battle, her world collapses and she renounces her faith in God. However, while Chico was severely injured on the battlefield and is now blind, he did not die, and now he must find his way back to the woman he loves. In addition to Gaynor's Oscar, Seventh Heaven earned statuettes for director Frank Borzage and screenwriter Benjamin F. Glazer. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Seventh Heaven is proof that is drama from the age of silent film that can still be enjoyed and appreciated by modern audiences. The stylized acting that was required in pre-talkie films is often off-putting to those born after the end of the era, and sometimes with good reason. But the performances in Heaven, while still quite different from what evolved after The Jazz Singer, have a beauty and poetry to them that can be appreciated even by those who often laugh at the histrionics of silent actors. Janet Gaynor is simply entrancing; her Diane may seem like just another poor waif on the surface, but there are deep wells in her. The actress moves the audience quite unexpectedly, using her intensely downcast eyes to draw us in to the hopeless torment she feels. And when she is rescued and transformed, we share in her triumph and joy. Charles Farrell is perfectly cast as Chico, the sewer worker who comes to her aid and finds himself falling in love against his will. He, too, finds complexity in what could be a simple character, mixing conceit into his goodness and offering a portrait of a man who both can't believe his good fortune when he finds Diane and yet still feels perhaps he should deserve better. The stars are helped immensely by Frank Borzage's letter-perfect direction. Borzage believes so strongly in the power of romance that even the most cynical will buy into what in other hands would be hopelessly schmaltzy. With Borzage in charge, the result is a beautiful paean to the power of love. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Seventh Heaven (1927) is a silent film and one of the first films to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture (then called "Best Picture, Production"). The film was written by H.H. Caldwell (titles), Benjamin Glazer, Katherine Hilliker (titles) and Austin Strong (play), and directed by Frank Borzage.
Seventh Heaven is the 13th highest grossing silent film in cinema history, taking in more than $2.5 million at the box office in 1927.
In 1995, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The Pride and the Man •Dollars of Dross •Land o' Lizards •Immediate Lee •Flying Colors •Until They Get Me •The Gun Woman •The Curse of Iku •The Shoes That Danced •Innocent's Progress •Society for Sale •An Honest Man •Who Is to Blame? •The Ghost Flower •The Atom •Toton the Apache •Whom the Gods Would Destroy •Prudence on Broadway
1920s
Humoresque •The Duke of Chimney Butte •Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford •Back Pay •Billy Jim •The Good Provider •The Valley of Silent Men •The Pride of Palomar •The Nth Commandment •Children of the Dust •The Age of Desire •Secrets •The Lady •Daddy's Gone A-Hunting •The Circle •Lazybones •Wages for Wives •The First Year •The Dixie Merchant •Early to Wed •Marriage License? •Seventh Heaven •Street Angel •Lucky Star •They Had to See Paris •The River
