STRAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 271, 6 February 1928, Page 13

STRAND

“SEVENTH HEAVEN” A MASTERPIECE

When Fox Films purchased the screen .rights of the Austin Strong stage play “Seventh Heaven,” the second big picture now being screened at the Strand Theatre, they assigned the honour of directing such a masterpiece to Frank Borzage, who has already made some remarkably fine pictures fpr Fox Films. It was certain, however, that all his previous efforts would be eclipsed by “Seventh Heaven,” and he was given every facility to enable the production to be developed in its most satisfactory manner. Borzage and his assistants spent several months in and near Paris, where many scenes of the great French capital were photographed, thus enabling the settings of “Seventh Heaven” to be absolutely authentic. The interior scenes Were all constructed in Hollywood, being reproduced in detail from famous French paintings, photographs and data brought baclf by the Fox staff. Borzage himself spent most of his time in studying the Paris types needed in his film, with the result that the figures seem to “live” their roles, rather than act- them. Even the most sceptical Frenchman must admit that Liane, Chico, Papa Boul, Gobin and the host of other characters who move through “Seventh Heaven” are living prototypes of the Paris streets. The character of Pere Chevillion, played by Emile Chautard, is a small but important role, and is a faithful reproduction of many such priestly characters who are to be seen in France. Papa Buol, the driver of the disreputable, but famous “Eloise,” and played by Albert Gran, is an exact rejDroduction of the type Bozage saw in Paris, bottle-drinking old reprobate whose love for his country shines out through all else. Then, the leading roles of Liane and Chico are so wonderfully enacted by Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. As Liane, the younger sister of a brutal drug-crazed woman, Janet Gaynor gives a most difficult characterisation in a manner equal to anything previously seen on either stage or screen. Liane is nothing more than a dispirited waif of Paris, Whose life is dominated by her sister, Nana. In spite of the fact that her' antecedents are superior to those of Chico, whose parentage is one oJ: the mysteries of the section, she has sunk because of her lack of courage to face and defy her sister. “Chico,” who, according to his own valuation, is “a very remarkable fellow, and an atheist,” is a worker in the sewers of Paris. But his soul soars above his work, as he shows when he selects his home seven flights up above the street, as close to the stars as h© can get, and overlooking the roof-tops of Paris. And his ambitions are high for one of his class, for he aspires to be a member of the hose corps who wash the streets of Paris, and are considered among the elite of the Montmartre. Preceding the film, is a beautiful atmospheric prologue, with Miss Phyllis Hazel and Mr. Birrell O’Malley as the soloists. Eve Bentley and her Strand Symphony Orchestra render a special musical programme, and feature as their overture, “Mignon” (Thomas).