February 18, 1970

Street Angel (1928) *

Hopelessly dated melodrama about a pure and innocent girl (Janet Gaynor) falsely convicted of prostitution, which ruins her relationship with a painter (Charles Farrell). Gaynor won the first Oscar as Best Actress for this and two other, far superior films, "Sunrise" and "Seventh Heaven". Curiously enough, the film was also nominated the following year for Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction - the only American film nominated for Oscars in two different years (something that usually only happens to foreign films since Best Foreign Language Film has a different admission criteria from other categories).