Directed: Frank Borzage

Year: 1928

Nominated: Best Actress – Janet Gaynor

Won: Best Actress – Janet Gaynor

Plot in 25 Words: Woman becomes prostitute by necessity. Escapes arrest and joins the circus. Falls in love. Her past catches up with her. Serves time, lives happily ever after.

In My Opinion: Janet Gaynor as a prostitute? Charles Farrell as the man who saves her? Directed by Frank Borzage? That sounds awfully familiar!

Because it is. A very similar premise to the last film i watched, but this time with a slightly bleaker ending. Which I prefer!

A problem I’ve had with both films is the idea of Janet Gaynor as a prostitute. She is very young and innocent looking. it’s easy to picture her as a woman that men want to save, she has a very child-like, damsel in distress quality to her. But hard to picture herself getting in the situation to require saving in the first place.

Some of the extras playing prostitutes come across as fairly brash, harsh women. Putting Janet Gaynor alongside those women and it being her arrested for solicitation is fairly laughable.

I think a mistake I made was watching this film directly after their previous prostitute escapade. There are just far too many similarities to make either film really stand out.

In this film Janet Gaynor plays a much stronger woman. She successfully evades arrest by herself and finds work in a traveling circus. Only needing help and rescue when a broken ankle ends her carnival career.

Then the film’s middle section could be lifted straight from 7th Heaven. They live together in bliss. But suddenly – no! The police are here. Having recognised Angela from her escape years before (really? really?!) a policeman gives her time to explain and say her goodbyes before taking her to the workhouse. So obviously she leaves without a word.

She spends her year happily working because her love is out there waiting. Her love is spending the year drinking himself out of a job and a home because his love abandoned him.

The film ends with the pair reuniting on a dock, where he has gone to find a prostitute. He picks his love up in his arms and carries her off.

I can only hope he threw her into the sea.

Star Performer: The monkey in the traveling circus. Or alternatively Janet Gaynor’s stilt stunt double.

Overall: Please don’t let there be another Janet Gaynor/Charles Farrell romantic drama about prostitution in my future.