7th Heaven (also known as Seventh Heaven) is a 1927 American synchronized soundromantic drama directed by Frank Borzage, and starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the Movietone sound system. The film is based upon the 1922 play Seventh Heaven, by Austin Strong and was adapted for the screen by Benjamin Glazer.[3]7th Heaven was initially released as a standard silent film in May 1927. On September 10, 1927, Fox Film Corporation re-released the film with a synchronized Movietone soundtrack with a musical score and sound effects.
In 1995, 7th Heaven was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[5][6] The film entered the public domain in the United States in 2023.
Plot
7th Heaven full film
In the early 1910s, Chico works in the sewers of Paris. He expresses his desire to be a street sweeper to work above ground and light candles at a nearby church. After a meeting with the church's priest, Chico gets the recommendation he needs for the street sweeping job.
Diane and her sister Nana live together, facing financial difficulties since their parents left them a few years ago. When news arrives that their parents have returned with a fortune, Diane and Nana anticipate a return to comfortable living. However, their father discovers their involvement in prostitution to make ends meet and refuses to accept them back, disowning them instead. Nana, furious at Diane for revealing the news, begins to beat her. As Diane tries to escape, Chico steps in, intervening in the confrontation and rescuing her.
After a brief flirtation, Nana returns with the police intending to arrest Diane. Once again, Chico intervenes, asserting that Diane is not a prostitute but his wife. Despite initial skepticism, the police refrain from arresting Diane due to lack of evidence. Concerned about potential repercussions for lying, Chico fears losing his job as a streetsweeper. To provide an alibi, he suggests Diane move in with him. After ensuring she's not being exploited, Diane agrees to Chico's proposal.
Soon afterwards, the police visit Chico's apartment for further investigation, and their strategy succeeds, absolving them both of suspicion. With no more reason to stay, Diane prepares to leave, feeling disheartened after having grown fond of Chico and his apartment. When Chico offers her to stay, she joyfully accepts, feeling that Chico is a godsend. As they spend more time together, they quickly fall in love, and decide to marry genuinely.
News of World War I reaching France arrives, prompting the couple to hold an unofficial wedding in their apartment, with God as their sole witness. Chico is swiftly recruited, forcing him to depart for the battlefield. Upon his departure, a resentful Nana returns, deriding Diane for her marriage and attempting to assault her once more. However, Diane instead triumphs over Nana, expelling her from the apartment, and cites Chico’s support for her newfound bravery.
As Chico fights in the war, Diane finds work at a munitions factory. During a battle, Chico is gravely wounded and believes he's dying. Diane is told by a soldier that Chico has been officially declared dead, leaving her devastated. When the war ends, Chico returns home, his death having been wrongly recorded, but he is now blind.
The Broadway play upon which the film is based starred George Gaul and Helen Menken and ran at the Booth Theatre for 704 performances.[7]
When the play was adapted for the screen, Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell were cast in the lead roles. The pairing proved to be so popular, the two went on to star in 11 more films together and were dubbed "America's Favorite Lovebirds".[8][9]
7th Heaven features the song "Diane" by Ernö Rapée and Lew Pollack, who wrote the song specifically for the film. The song is included on the re-released version of the film.[10]
Upon its release, 7th Heaven was a critical and commercial success.[14]The New York Times critic stated that the film "grips your interest from the very beginning and even though the end is melodramatic you are glad that the sympathetic but self-satisfied Chico is brought back to his heart-broken Diane." The critic also praised Borzage's direction, stating that the director "has given it all that he could put through the medium of the camera."[11] The film went on to play for 19 weeks in New York City and for 22 weeks in Los Angeles.[13]
Due to the film's success and the success of other Fox films featuring sound elements (Sunrise, What Price Glory?), the studio re-released 7th Heaven with a synchronized Movietone soundtrack, including a musical score arranged by Ernö Rapée and sound effects. The re-release version premiered at New York City's Roxy Theatre on September 10, 1927.[10]
By 1932, 7th Heaven had become the 13th-highest-grossing American silent, earning more than $2.5 million at the box office.[2]
Chinese writer-director Yuan Muzhi's 1937 film Street Angel has been cited as being influenced by elements of 7th Heaven and another Frank Borzage film Street Angel (1928).[23]
The theatrical poster for 7th Heaven is displayed on the wall of the student Watanabe's lodgings in the oldest surviving film by the Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu, Days of Youth: A Student Romance (Gakusei Romansu: Wakaki Hi, 1929).[24]
The Fox Film Corporation was an American independent company that produced motion pictures and was formed in 1915 by the theater "chain" pioneer William Fox. It was the corporate successor to his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attraction Company.
Janet Gaynor was an American film, stage and television actress as well as an accomplished oil painter.
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is a 1927 American synchronized sound romantic drama directed by German director F. W. Murnau and starring George O'Brien, Janet Gaynor, and Margaret Livingston. The film's plot follows a married farmer (O'Brien) who falls for a woman vacationing from the city (Livingston), who tries to convince him to murder his wife (Gaynor) in order to be with her. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the Movietone sound-on-film process. The story was adapted by Carl Mayer from the short story "The Excursion to Tilsit", from the 1917 collection with the same title by Hermann Sudermann.
Street Angel is a 1928 American synchronized sound drama film. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process. The film was directed by Frank Borzage, adapted by Harry H. Caldwell (titles), Katherine Hilliker (titles), Philip Klein, Marion Orth and Henry Roberts Symonds from the play Lady Cristilinda by Monckton Hoffe. As one of the early, transitional sound film releases, it did not include recorded dialogue, but used intertitles along with recorded sound effects and musical selections.
Wilhelm Fried Fuchs, commonly and better known as William Fox, was a Hungarian-American film industry executive who founded the Fox Film Corporation in 1915 and the Fox West Coast Theatres chain in the 1920s. Although he lost control of his film businesses in 1930, his name was used by 20th Century Fox and continues to be used in the trademarks of the present-day Fox Corporation, including the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox News, Fox Sports and Foxtel.
Frank Borzage was an American film director and actor. He was the first person to win the Academy Award for Best Director for his film 7th Heaven (1927) at the 1st Academy Awards.
The 1st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and hosted by AMPAS president Douglas Fairbanks, honored the best films from 1 August 1927 to 31 July 1928 and took place on May 16, 1929, at a private dinner held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Tickets cost $5 ; 270 people attended the event, which lasted 15 minutes. It is the only Academy Awards ceremony not broadcast on either radio or television; a radio broadcast was introduced for the 2nd Academy Awards.
What Price Glory? is a 1926 American synchronized sound comedy drama war film produced and distributed by Fox Film Corporation and directed by Raoul Walsh. The film was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the Movietone sound system. The film is based on the 1924 play What Price Glory by Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings and was remade in 1952 as What Price Glory starring James Cagney. Malcolm Stuart Boylan, founder of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, was title writer on the silent Fox attraction.
Charles David Farrell was an American film actor whose height was in the 1920s and 1930s and the Mayor of Palm Springs from 1947 to 1955. Farrell was known for his onscreen romances with actress Janet Gaynor in more than a dozen films, including 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Lucky Star. Later in life, he starred on TV in the 1950s sitcoms My Little Margie and played himself in The Charles Farrell Show. He was also among the early developers of Palm Springs.
Ernö Rapée was a Hungarian-born American symphonic conductor in the first half of the 20th century whose prolific career spanned both classical and popular music. His most famous tenure was as the head conductor of the Radio City Symphony Orchestra, the resident orchestra of the Radio City Music Hall, whose music was also heard by millions over the air.
Mother Machree is a 1928 American synchronized sound drama film directed by John Ford that is based on the 1924 work The Story of Mother Machree by Rida Johnson Young about a poor Irish immigrant in America. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score, singing and sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process. Rida Johnson Young had invented Mother Machree in the stage show Barry of Ballymoore in 1910. John Wayne has a minor role in the film.
Four Sons is a 1928 American synchronized sound drama film directed and produced by John Ford and written for the screen by Philip Klein from a story by I. A. R. Wylie first published in the Saturday Evening Post as "Grandmother Bernle Learns Her Letters" (1926). While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process.
Seventh Heaven is an American romantic drama film released in 1937 by 20th Century Fox, directed by Henry King and starring Simone Simon and James Stewart. The supporting cast features Jean Hersholt, Gregory Ratoff, Gale Sondergaard, and John Qualen.
Lucky Star is a 1929 sound part-talkie American romantic drama film starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, and directed by Frank Borzage. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Movietone sound-on-film system. The plot involves the impact of World War I upon a farm girl (Gaynor) and a returning soldier (Farrell).
The Man Who Laughs is a 1928 American synchronized sound romantic drama film directed by the German Expressionist filmmaker Paul Leni. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using both sound-on-disc and sound-on-film processes. The film is an adaptation of Victor Hugo's 1869 novel of the same name, and stars Mary Philbin as the blind Dea and Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine. The film is known for the grotesque grin on the character Gwynplaine's face, which often leads it to be classified as a horror film. Film critic Roger Ebert stated "The Man Who Laughs is a melodrama, at times even a swashbuckler, but so steeped in expressionist gloom that it plays like a horror film."
Sunny Side Up is a 1929 American pre-Code Fox Movietone musical film starring Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell, with original songs, story, and dialogue by B. G. DeSylva, Lew Brown and Ray Henderson. The romantic comedy/musical premiered on October 3, 1929, at the Gaiety Theatre in New York City. The film was directed by David Butler, had (now-lost) Multicolor sequences, and a running time of 121 minutes.
Christina is a lost 1929 sound part talkie starring Janet Gaynor and directed by William K. Howard. The supporting cast includes Charles Morton, Rudolph Schildkraut, Harry Cording, and Lucy Doraine. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Movietone sound-on-film system.
4 Devils is a lost 1928 American synchronized sound drama film directed by German director F. W. Murnau and starring Janet Gaynor. While the film has no audible dialog, it was released with a synchronized musical score with sound effects using the sound-on-film movietone process.
The River is a 1929 sound part-talkie drama film directed by Frank Borzage, and starring Charles Farrell and Mary Duncan. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Movietone sound-on-film system. Much of the film has been lost. A reconstructed version with the about 45 minutes of surviving film, using still images and explanatory titlecards to bridge the missing scenes, was produced by the Munich Filmmuseum, in collaboration with the cinémathèques of Switzerland and Luxembourg. This version was screened in 2006 by the American Museum of the Moving Image in New York City. Borzage also directed Farrell, opposite Janet Gaynor, in Seventh Heaven (1927), Street Angel (1928), and Lucky Star (1929) during this period.
Seventh Heaven was one of the most popular Broadway plays of the 1920s.
↑ American Society of Cinematographers (February 1996). "Films Chosen for Library of Congress National Film Registry". American Cinematographer. 77 (22). ASC Holding Corp.: 114. ISSN0002-7928.
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