Seventh Heaven

 

(1937)
Directed by Henry King
Written by Melville Baker, from a play by Austin Strong
Starring Simone Simon, James Stewart, Jean Hersholt, Gale Sondergaard
IMDB Entry

Sometimes old time Hollywood did casting that seems nonsensical to modern audiences, after we get used to a particular actor's type of performance. Seventh Heaven is a perfect example of this, but still manages to be a very good movie.

Chico (Jimmy Stewart) is a sewer cleaner in 1914 Paris, who hopes to be promoted to be a street washer. But one day he sees Diane (Simone Simon) being beaten by her sister Nana (Gale Sondergaard). He jumps in to save her and learns she has nowhere to go.* Chico takes her to his apartment. He is a gentleman towards her and sleeps the night at a friends. Chico is very opinionated and declares himself an atheist and Diane asks him to visit Father Chevillon (Jean Hersholt), who indulges him. The relationship between Chico and Diane deepens, and, when he is drafted, the proposes and they marry. But going into the trenches makes it all uncertain.

First of all, it's pretty hard to think of Stewart as a Frenchman named Chico. He has all the mannerisms that made him a star, and it's too much of a jump to see him as anything other but James Stewart. Still, he handles the full-on romantic role well

Simone Simon, is more believable as a Frenchwoman, mostly because she was French. Here she plays a wounded little bird character, who has suffered and strives to be happy, unable to believe her good luck in finding Chico. She had been brought to the US, but her career never took off, partly because she developed the reputation of being temperamental. She said it had to do with her adjustment to American society, but she never became a major star, though she did make an impression in Cat People, playing a similar troubled character.

Gale Sondergaard won an early Best Supporting Actress Oscar, and is best known for playing sultry and intimidating woman. She is far from sultry here -- the madam of a bordello who beats Diane for not acquiescing to her clients' desires. 

A couple of familiar names have bit parts. Sig Ruman -- the Marx Brothers' foil in A Night at the Opera and other films -- shows up as a customer of the bordello who gets upset when Diane rejects his advances. John Hamilton -- Perry White from The Adventures of Superman -- plays a gendarme, but it's easy to miss him.

The movie is a remake of a very early talkie (or, rather, a silent film with sound added), which won Oscars for Best Actress, Director, and Screenplay.

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*Her sister runs what is probably a bordello, though since this is after the Hayes Code, that's kept vague.