7th Heaven

Frank Borzage, 1927: a Paris sewer worker (Charles Farrell) and a waif (Janet Gaynor) climb seven flights toward a heaven that is a walk-up. From Austin Strong's play; Fox, the year Murnau was on the lot making Sunrise. Gaynor won the first Best Actress Oscar, in part for this. Borzage shoots love as a religion that does not need a church. The war, the street, the room at the top. It is a silent that believes the staircase.