Directed: Frank Borzage

Year: 1927

Nominated: Best Film, Best Director –  Frank Borzage, Best Actress – Janet Gaynor

Won: Best Director –  Frank Borzage, Best Actress – Janet Gaynor

Plot in 25 Words: A man pretends a prostitute is his wife to prevent her arrest. Lies turn to love. Sadly war intervenes. Man returns alive but blind.

In My Opinion: I was slightly confused by this film. I think it was the era’s way of handling the subject matter rather than the actual writing or direction.

I read the Wikipedia page for the film just to get an idea of the plot and I’m glad I did. If not I would never have had any idea the story was about prostitution!

The whole film was pretty vague. There was no back-story given. Just one sister viciously beating the other – no explanation to why they lived the way they did. The only slight clue to the girl’s profession comes when an uncle comes to claim them and asks if they ‘have been good girls and kept [themselves] clean.’ It amused me more than it should have. I don’t know how I expected 1920’s prostitutes to promote themselves, but floor-length plain dresses and bonnets wasn’t it!

The most interesting part of the story to me, though, was the occupation of Chico. He begins the film as a sewer-cleaner, with lofty aspirations of becoming a street-washer. Once he achieves this promotion he is truly happy, and his street-washing neighbour treats him as a friend rather than a lower-class citizen. Even telling Chico they can be seen in public together, now Chico was of a higher station. I’m very intrigued to know if it was just a setup for the film or it those sorts of attitudes were the norm for Paris in the 1920s. At times it seemed to mimic the Indian ‘caste’ system, something I genuinely wasn’t expecting to see in a western film.

The rest of the film was fairly simpering and twee and not my sort of thing at all. A very dreamy Charles Farrell as Chico takes Janet Gaynor’s misunderstood prostitute Diane in as his ‘wife’ to protect her from the law. They live together and in a matter of a day they are in love. Flowery, gushing, over the top love. Then war intrudes. Chico must go and fight. Bad idea. He returns from the war but not before a false death notice is served. Not that Diane believes. She knows Chico is alive. She can feel it. And is proven right. Sadly!

Star Performer: Gladys Brockwell as Nana. She only featured at the beginning of the film, but her performance as the evil sister was truly sinister! There was a real glint of joy in her eyes as she whipped and beat her sister.

Overall: I didn’t particularly enjoy this film. The first half hour or so was intriguing, as I tried to work out what the hell was going on, and the basic premise made itself clear. But once the drama had subsided and the two leads had fallen in love it was game over for me. The film just meandered on dully from that point.