Street Angel

'Everywhere... in every town... in every street ... we pass, unknowing, souls made great by adversity.' Not, perhaps, the most modish sentiment for the '80s, but nevertheless the cornerstone of a wholly modern movie: one in the coherent collection made between the mid-'20s and World War II, sublime demonstrations of a system of sensual spirituality, the products of their director's uncompromising romanticism and fluent sense of cinemotion. Testing the same screen lovers almost as stringently as he had in Seventh Heaven, Borzage here damns 'morality' and opts for the pure passion of a sacred amour fou. Both films affirm, triumphantly, that melodrama can mean much more than just an excuse for a good weep. Both just have to be seen to be believed. (From the play by Marion Orth.