User reviews

... a satisfyingly menacing Peter Lorre, and a bunch of other people I never heard of before. No seriously, you have Broderick Crawford in a very bit part as a cop, but everybody else is pretty obscure. And Universal really had to limp along in that state from 1936 when the Laemmles lost control and took virtually everybody with name recognition working for the studio with them, into the 1950s. And yet this one works.

Martin Blair (Dan Duryea) is a songwriter who has been on a drunken jag since his wife singer Mavis Marlowe found fame and dumped him. One night, on what would have been their wedding anniversary, he attempts to see her, is bounced out of the building by the doorman, gets plastered, and is taken home by his good friend Joe, and locked in his room. After he is thrown out, Martin sees a mysterious character (Peter Lorre) admitted to see Mavis by the doorman. Even later, Kirk Bennett, who has had an affair with Mavis comes up to her apartment to tell her he can't pay her blackmail anymore to keep her quiet about the affair. He finds her body, manages to touch everything, and then panics and leaves but is spotted by Mavis' maid as she returns from her night out.

Bennett is arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to die for Mavis' murder. All the while his cheated upon wife Catherine stands by him. Then - rather late it seems - she goes to confront Martin, whom she thinks is the killer. When she finds that Martin was locked in his room, out stone cold drunk at the time of the murder, she relents.The two oddly decide to pair up, present themselves as a musical team, and try to investigate shady nightclub owner Marko (Peter Lorre) and solve the murder and save Kirk.

The thing is, while Catherine and Martin are posing as a musical team, they actually start making beautiful music together. Martin is on his longest dry stretch in years, and with Catherine rather ambivalent, you can't help but wonder, given Duryea's usual screen persona, is he now that motivated to find the real killer and send Kirk Bennett back to his wife's arms? Watch and find out.

This one has an ending worth waiting for - I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it. Don't let the somewhat slow middle deter you. Highly recommended.

Don't miss this great Universal film noir mystery! Excellent cast brings to life a gritty story of neer-do-well songwriter, the murder of a dispicable sexy blackmailer, and the death sentence of seemingly the wrong man. Throw in wise guy police inspector Broderick Crawford, sinister nightclub owner Peter Lorre (in a fascinating role reversal from "Casablanca"--this time HE is the club owner)Peter Lorre is ALWAYS a treat!!

What a shame Dan Duryea didn't do more pictures! He's very effective in his role. The beautiful love interest June Vincent is another who should have made more pictures--she's very sweet and believeable.

This is another example of the Film Noir genre which was so popular in the 40s and early 50s--gorgeous photography, mood and plot twists!

Despite starring the likes of June Vincent and Dan Duryea, this is a surprisingly good film--thanks to good writing and acting. I was particularly happy to see Duryea in the film, as he usually only got supporting roles as greasy heavies--here he's given a chance to do a lot more.

The film begins with a woman named Mavis Marlow being killed. A guy is convicted of the crime, but his wife (Vincent) is convinced he was innocent. So, with the help of Marlow's ex-husband (Duryea) they investigate. For much of the film, they go undercover at a nightclub run by Peter Lorre but fortunately there is a lot more to this story. While the ending might perhaps be a bit hard to believe, it is pretty original and exciting. I won't say more about this, as I don't want to ruin this excellent film noir movie. I particularly can commend the film for doing so much with so little. It proves you don't need big-name actors to make a very good movie--just a lot of talent, writing and style.

This interesting, creative film-noir is much less widely known than are most of the classics of the genre, but it is well worth seeing both for the story and the cast. In a relatively brief running time, it packs in a satisfying and unpredictable story with numerous turns, with a very good cast that work together quite well. The settings are well-conceived, and together with the photography and the rest of the production, they establish a convincing noir atmosphere.

Dan Duryea is always so good at straightforward villainous "noir" roles that he sometimes seems not to have received many opportunities to do anything else, and so it's very nice to see him get such an interesting role here. He delivers very well, believably portraying the different sides of a more complex character. He also works surprisingly well with June Vincent, as together they try to solve the mystery.

Peter Lorre does not have a very large role, but as you would expect, he makes the most of it. Toss in Broderick Crawford as the police captain, and you have a cast very well suited for film-noir.

The story is not all that complex, but it is well-written, features some well-conceived turns, and fits together nicely. Roy William Neill has a good touch with the material, not trying to make it fancier or bigger than it is, but simply crafting a solid, enjoyable movie that has just about all that you could reasonably ask for in a film-noir.

This claustrophobic B featuring the usually unctuous Dan Duryea in the lead is a patient and understated murder mystery. Cleverly laid out it does a fine job of leaving the viewer in the dark until the film's final moments.

Tease, blackmailer, hard on the help, easy on the eyes Mavis Marlowe (Constance Dowling) is murdered. Kirk Bennett stumbling upon the scene is accused tried and sentenced to death. His wife Cathy (June Vincent) however is determined to prove him innocent and together along with Marlowe's former husband, pianist songwriter Marty Blair (Duryea) they launch an elaborate plan to catch the killer and save Bennet from the chair.

Angel is a gruff film featuring a slew of surly types. Mavis is pure poison, nightclub owner Peter Lorre an unsettling threat, Broderick Crawford a cynical dick, Bennet's husband a worthless bungler and Duryea himself a raging alcoholic attempting one day at a time. Roy William Neil's direction is sober and subtle deftly handling not only the mystery but the romantic implications between Marty and Cathy arriving at denouement without resorting to sensationalism. An impressively handled low key mystery.

I have stumbled onto this movie several times. It doesn't seem to make a strong impression. It's well directed and acted but packs relatively little punch.

On the other hand, it has quite an amazing cast: Dan Duryea, Peter Lorre, Broderick Crawford ...! The lead female is played by an exotic June Vincent.

What really impressed me was the composition of the scenes in the first half: Minor characters are set in the foreground and the action takes place behind them. The set decoration is brilliant.

The plot is good but it is not the best Woolrich adaptation, by any means. But it's suspenseful and a lot of fun.

In William Irish 's aka Cornell Woolrich's novels ,woman is rarely a femme fatale; most likely a victim or a wife who gets out of her way to help her husband sentenced to death: such were the case of the heroines of "phantom lady" by Robert Siodmak or "silent as a grave" (adapted for the screen by French director Jean Delannoy as "obsession")

"Black angel follows suit : it's essentially a three-part movie, the middle one being IMHO the weakest,in spite of the talented Lorre and the smart trick of the piano playing ;Dan Duryea is the typical Irish hero; in the writer's world ,there are no brilliant lawyers,no sleuths , and the gangsters often take a back seat ;Duryea is a common piano player ,overtaken by events and he does not really intervene to save the damsel in distress in Lorre's den.

The trick of the brooch is a really a smart one, and amnesia,which has often been present in films noirs ,is given a very special treatment here .Suspenseful.

There are stretches of 'Black Angel' that make it feel longer than its 80-odd minutes and sometimes the reticence and reserve of June Vincent can leave her character almost a solid wood bench but otherwise this is a deceptive and bleak tale told with touches of film noir visuals with the camera work and scene blocking as well as art nouveau set design and music which add up to make this a sleepy hit.

Dan Duryea has more to do with his character than I expected; Wallace Ford gets a few lines of dialogue, which I think improves any film; Peter Lorre has a few scenes of stealthy slime and Broderick Crawford has fun underplaying a police officer more in the know than he lets on and Constance Dowling gets a lot of bang for her buck from a small but memorably mean role.

Well directed and photographed, albeit I felt that June Vincent needed a little more help interpreting her character in some scenes and some of the musical interludes were overlong and needed tighter control or editing.

It's impossible to say much of the plot beyond a brief premise because it's a simple tale but one easily ruined and it deserves not to be for those watching for the first time.

Suffice to say that the two female characters and the two males in their lives, the wives played by June Vincent and Constance Dowling and their troubled husbands were all interesting parallels of each other: the wives being beautiful singers capable of getting strong emotions from their piano playing husbands and the husband's having plenty of problems each; which allows for a lot of the plot points to develop from their characters.

I rate a good score of 6.5/10 which I've upped to 7/10 on IMDb's star ratings because 'Black Angel' is a film that I want to recommend and it has Wallace Ford waddling with energy so I've happily rounded up.

I recommend if you like mellow noir and films built simply but effectively plus fans of artistic design will be happy.

Its not a top notch noir and there is barely any location shooting at all but it has a good feel with the murder mystery element nicely set up. Based upon a Cornell Woolrich story and reputedly with much of him in the sad, heavy drinking main character played by Dan Duryea. He does well here and if the dialogue is not particularly inspiring there are still enough good lines to keep this going. There is a strange fascination in leading lady June Vincent too and the two make an unusually flawed pair teaming up to solve the unseen killing at the start. Peter Lorre, of course, is always a welcome addition to any film and here he plays the man we love to hate but is he simply a distraction? Rather nondescript studio bound shooting but enlivened with a few rather innovative montage sequences and a decent night club set where the main two perform. Not sensational by any means but a pleasant watch with most noir tropes at least getting a toe in.

In Los Angeles, when the singer Mavis Marlowe (Constance Dowling) is found dead in her apartment, Kirk Bennett (John Phillips) is accused for the murder, since he had been blackmailed by the victim. Kirk's wife Catherine Bennett (June Vincent) believes her husband is innocent and joins to Martin Blair (Dan Duryea), the alcoholic former husband of Mavis, to investigate the crime and try to find the killer. They suspect of Marko (Peter Lorre), the owner of a night-club that was seen in Mavis' place in the night she was murdered, and they try to prove his possible guilty.

I had no information about "Black Angel", but being a great fan of film-noir, I decided to buy the DVD. I have just watched this unknown film, and I can say that it is surprisingly good. The simple and credible story is disclosed in a good pace and the plot point surprised me, since I did not have the slightest guess of who might be the criminal. The performances are very natural, and the black and white cinematography and the work of the camera are excellent, and in the beginning of the movie there is a spectacular traveling of the camera from Martin to Mavis apartment. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Anjo Diabólico" ("Diabolic Angel")

Black Angel is directed by Roy William Neill and adapted to screenplay by Roy Chanslor from the novel written by Cornell Woolrich. It stars Dan Duryea, June Vincent, Peter Lorre, Broderick Crawford, Constance Dowling, John Phillips and Wallace Ford. Music is by Frank Skinner and cinematography by Paul Ivano.

Kirk Bennett (Phillips) is convicted of a singer's murder, but his wife Catherine (Vincent) tries to prove him innocent with the help of the victim's estranged husband, Martin Blair (Duryea).

For a mid 1940s film noir entry Black Angel is modest in terms of visuals and a general noir vibe, but with strong casting, intelligent scripting and a genuinely interesting mystery driving the story forward, it proves to be an enjoyable who done it?.

Director Neill, in spite of some gaping plot questions that surface, does a fine job of dangling carrots to keep us guessing on how this will eventually pan out. He also ensures that the principal players are given room to breath, with Duryea repaying the director's approach with a great, and rare, sympathetic performance.

A couple of technical flourishes hint at what a better film it could have been in terms of atmosphere and darkening of the mood; such as the re-creation of the murder in a swirling expressionistic haze, however, with deft observations on emotionally charged characters shaded in grey, it has enough interest to entice the film noir fan. 7/10

Dan Duryea, a perfectly decent B-movie actor who made lots of lookalike noirs in the 1940s, can't do much with this one: young man is accused of murdering an unhappily married singer; when he's sentenced to die, his wife decides to solve the case herself with help from the dead woman's husband. After a dazzling opening shot, flick quickly settles into B-movie formula. It certainly looks good, but the twist finish is colorlessly handled and the cast (including Peter Lorre and Broderick Crawford) is just a bit stiff. Based on a Cornell Woolrich novel, and passable for a single viewing.

** from ****

It wasn't that Dan Duryea never played nice people. He could be typecast as an evil villain most of the time, but occasionally he got cast as a nice guy. The best examples of this is the movie executive in KATHIE O (1958), who helps a young child actress save her normal life from her mother's clutches, and this film, where he tries to help a condemned man's wife prove the man is innocent. The chief suspect is a crooked nightclub owner (Peter Lorre), and Duryea and the young lady attempt to get the proof to convince a police detective (Broderick Crawford) that Lorre did the the crime. Duryea (a musician) is the boyfriend of the murdered woman, and has an interest in finding the perpetrator. And he does at the end, but at considerable cost.

A superior film noir, and well worth the watching.

Not too many people are going to mourn the passing of Constance Dowling who by all accounts was a two timing blackmailer. John Phillips has drifted into an affair with her and she's making him pay big time. So when she's found strangled and he's nearby suspicion falls on him and homicide cop Broderick Crawford makes the arrest. Phillips is scheduled to die in the gas chamber.

That does not sit well with Phillips's wife June Vincent who is a nightclub singer. She's still working to prove her man innocent and she collaborates with Dowling's former husband, composer Dan Duryea who has a drinking problem to rival Ray Milland's in The Lost Weekend. In fact the last ten minutes of the film are dominated by a very powerful performance by Duryea, very much rivaling what Milland got an Oscar for in The Lost Weekend. I'm betting that's what attracted Duryea to the role.

As singer and accompanist Vincent and Duryea take a job at Peter Lorre's nightclub. Lorre is known to be mobbed up to the gills and the team hopes to find answers there.

Black Angel is a real sleeper of a noir film with great performances all around by a talented group of players. But even with a scene stealer like Peter Lorre exuding the menace he does, the film is dominated by Dan Duryea who is a tragic figure.

Dan Duryea plays a pianist and songwriter who seeks shelter in a bottle whenever he gets dumped. In the opening scene, his estranged wife gives him the brush off and he goes on the first of his binges. There's a great closeup of him stumbling from one bar to the next. In the final locale, he's drunk out of his mind and banging away at a piano, and when he hits the final chord, he passes out as his head crashes down on the keyboard. Somewhere during that blurred night, we see his wife get strangled in a grisly scene where we see the hands of the killer but not the face, setting up the main plot as to who actually was the responsible party. Duryea ties the film together nicely, not an easy task given that it gets contrived in the hurry to find the murderer before an innocent man is executed. Duryea falls in love with the man's desperate wife and sets up the second round of heavy drinking when she rejects him that leads to a night in the county hospital where he goes into a surreal dream state that unlocks the mystery of the murder, all captured in vintage 40's FX. There's just enough tension here to save the film from itself, not so much the pending execution, which uses the clock on the wall and the newspaper headlines to remind us of its impending presence, but the portrayal of drinking and drunkenness which looks pretty realistic, and Duryea's performance, which remains good even in the film's laughable musical numbers in Peter Lorre's upscale night club.

When they were in love, Dan Duryea wrote a hit song for his wife, Constance Dowling. Now they're estranged, she won't see him, and he's making a living playing at a gin mill and taking his pay in product. He tries to see her, but she won't let him in. She will let in night club owner Peter Lorre. When Duryea wakes from his latest drunk, she's dead. Suspicion falls on Duryea, but his flophouse buddy, Wallace Ford, locks him in his room when he's that drunk. Despite Duryea's insistence, Miss Dowling's new regular boyfriend, John Phillips, is found guilty of her murder. Duryea and Phillips' wife, June Vincent, go into partnership to prove Lorre did it.

Roy William Neill's last movie before his death later that year at age 59, is a nice little murder mystery. Despite his use of a lot of film noir visual cues, it doesn't feel like one; the world is not corrupt, just wrong. It is full of nice performances, including ones by Broderick Crawford and Hobart Cavanaugh, and it plays well with Lorre's patented creep character.

For noir fans, Duryea is the quintessential "bad guy" and hardly ever the leading man, therefore I was surprised to see him billed as such in this movie.

Turns out, this is a perfect little gem of a noir. The evil femme fatale is Mavis Marlowe (Dowling), as a singer with a penchant for blackmail and who one night meets her fate.

Several men are among her victims and they could all be suspects, including ex-husband, drunkard piano player Martin (Duryea), who is still in love with Mavis.

The police pins the murder on Kirk, who is married with Catherine. She is a devoted wife and willing to forgive her husband's indiscretion, but most of all Cathy will never believe Kirk is a murderer. We know he isn't from the start, but what can Cathy do to prove it, thus saving Kirk from the gallows?

She joins forces with Martin, a character who shows Duryea actually had a range. Martin starts falling for Cathy, but will pursue the search for the real murderer at all costs.

Enjoy the musical numbers and the small role played to perfection by the suavely sinister Peter Lorre.

An interesting cast and great atmosphere help to make "Black Angel" a very good noir. Directed by Roy William Neill, the plot concerns a woman, Catherine Bennett (June Vincent) trying to prove that her philandering husband Kirk (John Phillips) is innocent of the murder of a gorgeous woman named Mavis Marlowe (Constance Dowling). Mavis' husband, composer- pianist Martin Blair (Dan Duryea) teams with Catherine and the two start performing at a nightclub owned by a possible suspect, Marko (Peter Lorre), in order to get evidence to free Kirk. Can they get it before Kirk is executed?

The '40s atmosphere is wonderful, and the story really holds interest. Duryea plays a much softer character than he usually did, and he's very good. Broderick Crawford plays the officer in charge of the investigation into Mavis' murder. Vincent is sympathetic as Kirk's wife, who loves her husband even though he cheated. Lorre's role is small, but it's Peter Lorre after all, and he's very effective. Former Goldwyn girl Dowling is a knockout and looks like someone would want to kill her. Vincent and Duryea (both dubbed) perform some pleasant songs, including "I Wanna Be Talked About" and "Time Will Tell."

As good as this film is, I think in the hands of another director, it could have been even better. As it is, it's well worth seeing.

If you watched and enjoyed Lost Weekend with Ray Milland's Academy Award-winning performance, then you will surely appreciate Dan Duryea's performance in Black Angel. Everyone does a great job in this film, but especially Duryea and Lorre. The film does not go where you think it will go; there are more red herrings in this plot than you would find at the Fulton Fish market. Just sit back and enjoy the finest noir has to offer. And you thought you had a drinking problem.

Black Angel (1946)

What a vigorous, fast, surprising movie. This is a straight up crime film in a noir style, and Dan Duryea holds it up in his indecisive, regular guy kind of way. Duryea always has trouble as the leading man because he often plays a tough guy with a soft heart, and is a little whiny or annoying by design. It's an uncomfortable role to play, not quite sympathetic as the protagonist, not quite evil as the antagonist.

A better B-movie, the budget just had enough room for someone like Duryea, and a small part for both Peter Lorre, who is fantastic (as usual) playing a suspicious night club owner, and Broderick Crawford, who is an oddly subdued detective. The leading woman, June Vincent, is fine in her part as an everyday woman caught up in an effort to save her husband from the death chamber, though she was chosen more for her singing than her acting. She and Duryea sing and play the piano together, and torch song music is central to the feel of the movie. Duryea might not actually be playing the piano but he does such a good job of faking it, he might have pulled it off.

But what makes the film special? First of all, it's fast. The first twenty minutes have enough turns and dramatic climaxes for many entire movies. And then there's the filming, the visuals, which are vigorous and kinetic. The wild zoom in from the street up a tall building and into the room near the beginning is crazy--like low budget Gregg Toland from "Citizen Kane." But this is either cinematographer Paul Ivano, who is an uncredited photographer for part of "Frankenstein," believe it or not, or more likely the special effects guy, David Horsley, who helped with a whole slew of classics, including "Bride of Frankenstein," oddly enough. The scene near the end where Duryea is hallucinating is terrific, with its distortions.

Whatever the faults of the movie (possibly the weakness of the female lead, who becomes the central character) it has so much surprise and velocity it is terrific anyway.

This gets off to a strong start. We have a blackmailing socialite singer (Dowling) get murdered. A guy (Phillips) stumbles into her apartment touching everything in sight including the murder weapon to ensure he is the number one suspect. He gets nabbed and railroaded into a quick conviction. His wife (Vincent) takes up the cause of trying to find the killer enlisting the help of the murdered woman's drunken piano-playing husband (Duryea), who evidently was not at the trial! Peter Lorre, a nightclub owner/mobster, hires the couple as performers in his club and subsequently is suspected by the couple as the probable real killer. One big problem with all of this is the speed of conviction and trial seems improbable. But the other is that there are just no other suspects. We know Phillips isn't the killer. And it becomes all too obvious who is. And the movie drags as the romance between Duryea and Vincent develops. Duryea was far better in bad guy roles. Broderick Crawford is as subdued as I have ever seen him. Wallace Ford has a nothing role. Lorre does a pretty good job for what he has to work with. Constance Dowling was the best part of the movie but she doesn't last long. Fortunately, neither does the movie. So in spite of the good start and noirish atmosphere I can't recommend this.