Black Angel

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.

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.

... 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.

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.