STREET ANGEL

In Naples, in order to obtain medicine for her sick mother, poor Angela clumsily tries to prostitute herself in the streets. Arrested and sentenced to a year in prison, she escapes and takes refuge in a small circus where she becomes the attraction. The painter Gino falls in love with her and portrays her in a painting. After other vicissitudes, the painting became the vehicle for their rapprochement. Made immediately after 7th Heaven, Borzage’s film proved that ‘melodrama can be more than a pretext for a good cry’, earning Janet Gaynor, with 7th Heaven and Sunrise : a song of two humans, the Oscar for Best Actress. In November 1928, the Italian authorities withdrew the visa given in August, finding it offensive. So Street Angel was put back into circulation only a year later with 30 minutes less and the new title Piccola santa.