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Fallen Angel (1945 film)
Encyclopedia
Fallen Angel is a 1945 black-and-white
film noir
directed by Otto Preminger
, with cinematography
by Joseph LaShelle
, who had also worked with Preminger on Laura
a year before. The film features Alice Faye
, Dana Andrews
, Linda Darnell
, and Charles Bickford
. It was the last film Faye made as a major Hollywood star. Disappointed at how studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck
cut her role out of the picture, Faye left the studio the day after a preview screening, and did not make another film until State Fair
(1962).
called Pop's Eats, where Pop (Percy Kilbride
) is worried about waitress Stella (Linda Darnell) because she has not shown up for work for days. Ex-New York cop Mark Judd (Charles Bickford) tells him not to worry. Sure enough, the sultry Stella returns soon after. Stanton (like the others) is attracted to her, but she is unimpressed by his smooth talk and poverty.
Stanton cons his way into a reserved hotel room to sleep by pretending to know Professor Madley (John Carradine
), a traveling fortune-teller
. Stanton talks his way into a job with Madley. It turns out that no one is willing to buy tickets to the "spook act" because influential local spinster Clara Mills (Anne Revere
) disapproves. Stanton gets to Clara through her inexperienced younger sister June (Alice Faye) and persuades them to attend the performance.
Madley puts on an entertaining séance
to a large audience, ending the show by channeling Abraham Mills, the deceased father of Clara and June. Using information secretly dug up by his assistant Joe Ellis (an uncredited Olin Howland
), Madley brings up the sisters' financial problems. The two leave the séance quite upset.
Meanwhile, Stanton gets to know Stella, watching her steal from the cash register and go out with men. Stanton falls in love with her. She, however, makes it clear that she wants a man who is willing to marry her and give her a home. He is so obsessed with her that he agrees to her terms.
To raise the money he needs to satisfy Stella, Eric romances and marries June, planning to divorce her as soon as he can. Clara, who has been burned by a man of Stanton's type, is unable to prevent their marriage. However, Stanton cannot stay away from Stella even on his wedding night. Instead of sleeping with his wife, he goes to see Stella. She has heard the news and has given up on him, but he explains his odd scheme. By the time he returns to his wife, she has fallen asleep, so he settles in for the night on the sofa.
The next day, Stella turns up dead. Judd is asked by the local police chief to investigate. He first tries to beat a confession out of Dave Atkins (Bruce Cabot
), Stella's latest boyfriend, but Atkins has an airtight alibi. Stanton is also a strong suspect, having been seen quarreling with Stella shortly before her death. Judd tells him not to leave town.
Stanton flees to a seedy hotel room in San Francisco with June. He tells her all about his drifter's life of failed schemes. June tells Stanton that she loves him. The next day, June is taken into custody when she goes to the bank to withdraw her money.
Stanton returns to Pop's Eats, where Judd is waiting for him. Stanton proves Judd is the killer. Judd found out that Stella had agreed to marry someone else rather than wait for his wife to give him a divorce. Judd pulls out his gun, but Pop wrestles it away, and Judd is arrested. Outside, when June asks Stanton where they are going, he tells her, "Home."
(1949). According to the British Film Institute
, "Hardly anything is known about Marty Holland except that, he, was a she called Mary, who wrote two or three best selling pulp novels and then in 1949 -- to all intents and purposes -- vanished, there being no further record of her at all."
The filming locations were in Orange, California
.
Bosley Crowther
, film critic at The New York Times
, liked the acting in the film but was disappointed by the story. He wrote, "As the frustrated adventurer, Dana Andrews adds another excellent tight-lipped portrait of a growing gallery. Linda Darnell is beautiful and perfectly cast as the sultry and single-minded siren, while Miss Faye, whose lines often border on the banal, shoulders her first straight, dramatic burden, gracefully. Charles Bickford, as a dishonorably discharged cop, Anne Revere, as Miss Faye's spinster sister, and Percy Kilbride, as the lovesick proprietor of the diner in which Miss Darnell works, are outstanding among the supporting players. But for all of its acting wealth, Fallen Angel falls short of being a top flight whodunit."
Critic Tim Knight, at Reel.com, notes that if the viewers can forget the "headlong dive into preposterousness, it's still a lot of fun". His review adds, "... the movie does have much to recommend, from Joseph La Shelle's atmospheric, black-and-white cinematography to Preminger's taut direction to the juicy, hard-boiled dialogue. Veteran character actors Charles Bickford
, John Carradine
and Percy Kilbride
(of Ma and Pa Kettle
fame) lend strong support to the sizzling twosome of Andrews and Darnell, who would make only one more film together, when they were both past their prime: 1957's Zero Hour!
, a forgotten grade-Z thriller."
Critic Fernando F. Croce wrote of the film, "Fallen Angel, the director's follow-up to his 1944 classic, is often predictably looked down as a lesser genre venture, yet its subtle analysis of shadowy tropes proves both a continuation and a deepening of Preminger's use of moral ambiguity as a tool of human insight...Preminger's refusal to draw easy conclusions—his pragmatic curiosity for people—is reflected in his remarkable visual fluidity, the surveying camera constantly moving, shifting dueling points-of-view in order to give them equal weight. Fallen Angel may not satisfy genre fans who like their noir with fewer gray zones, but the director's take on obsession remains no less fascinating for trading suspense for multilayered lucidity."
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
directed by Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...
, with cinematography
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
by Joseph LaShelle
Joseph LaShelle
Joseph LaShelle, A.S.C. was a Los Angeles born film cinematographer.He won an Academy Award for Laura , and was nominated eight additional times.-Career:...
, who had also worked with Preminger on Laura
Laura (1944 film)
Laura is a 1944 American film noir directed by Otto Preminger. It stars Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews and Clifton Webb. The screenplay by Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Elizabeth Reinhardt is based on the 1943 novel of the same title by Vera Caspary....
a year before. The film features Alice Faye
Alice Faye
Alice Faye was an American actress and singer, called by The New York Times "one of the few movie stars to walk away from stardom at the peak of her career." She is remembered first for her stardom at 20th Century Fox and, later, as the radio comedy partner of her husband, bandleader and comedian...
, Dana Andrews
Dana Andrews
Dana Andrews was an American film actor. He was one of Hollywood's major stars of the 1940s, and continued acting, though generally in less prestigious roles, into the 1980s.-Early life:...
, Linda Darnell
Linda Darnell
Linda Darnell was an American film actress.Darnell was a model as a child, and progressed to theater and film acting as an adolescent. At the encouragement of her mother, she made her first film in 1939, and appeared in supporting roles in big budget films for 20th Century Fox throughout the 1940s...
, and Charles Bickford
Charles Bickford
Charles Bickford was an American actor best known for his supporting roles. He was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for The Song of Bernadette , The Farmer's Daughter , and Johnny Belinda...
. It was the last film Faye made as a major Hollywood star. Disappointed at how studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl F. Zanuck
Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American producer, writer, actor, director and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors...
cut her role out of the picture, Faye left the studio the day after a preview screening, and did not make another film until State Fair
State Fair (1962 film)
State Fair is a 1962 film directed by José Ferrer. The film is a remake of the 1933 and 1945 films of the same name.It was considered to be a financially and critically unsuccessful film. It starred Pat Boone, Bobby Darin, Ann-Margret, Tom Ewell, Pamela Tiffin and Alice Faye.Richard Rodgers wrote...
(1962).
Plot
Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews), a down-on-his-luck drifter, gets pulled off a bus at the small hamlet of Walton because he does not have the $2.25 extra fare to take him to San Francisco. He finds a greasy spoonGreasy spoon
Greasy spoon is a colloquial or slang term originating in the United States to mean a small, especially cheap, archetypal working class restaurant or diner. The term is now used in many English speaking countries to mean the same thing...
called Pop's Eats, where Pop (Percy Kilbride
Percy Kilbride
Percy W. Kilbride was an American character actor. The son of Irish immigrants, he made a career of playing country hicks, most memorably as Pa Kettle in the Ma and Pa Kettle series of feature films.-Career:...
) is worried about waitress Stella (Linda Darnell) because she has not shown up for work for days. Ex-New York cop Mark Judd (Charles Bickford) tells him not to worry. Sure enough, the sultry Stella returns soon after. Stanton (like the others) is attracted to her, but she is unimpressed by his smooth talk and poverty.
John Carradine
John Carradine was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns as well as Shakespearean theater. A member of Cecil B DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, he was one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history...
), a traveling fortune-teller
Fortune-telling
Fortune-telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. The scope of fortune-telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination...
. Stanton talks his way into a job with Madley. It turns out that no one is willing to buy tickets to the "spook act" because influential local spinster Clara Mills (Anne Revere
Anne Revere
Anne Revere was an American stage, film, and television actress.-Early life:Born in New York City, Revere was a direct descendant of American Revolution hero Paul Revere. Her father, Clinton, was a stockbroker, and she was raised on the Upper West Side and in Westfield, New Jersey...
) disapproves. Stanton gets to Clara through her inexperienced younger sister June (Alice Faye) and persuades them to attend the performance.
Madley puts on an entertaining séance
Séance
A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma"...
to a large audience, ending the show by channeling Abraham Mills, the deceased father of Clara and June. Using information secretly dug up by his assistant Joe Ellis (an uncredited Olin Howland
Olin Howland
Olin Howland was an American film actor. From 1909 to 1927 he appeared on the Broadway stage while balancing a career in silent movies. In 1921, he appeared in the play Two Little Girls in Blue with Oscar Shaw and the Fairbanks Twins. He was in Janice Meredith with Marion Davies...
), Madley brings up the sisters' financial problems. The two leave the séance quite upset.
Meanwhile, Stanton gets to know Stella, watching her steal from the cash register and go out with men. Stanton falls in love with her. She, however, makes it clear that she wants a man who is willing to marry her and give her a home. He is so obsessed with her that he agrees to her terms.
To raise the money he needs to satisfy Stella, Eric romances and marries June, planning to divorce her as soon as he can. Clara, who has been burned by a man of Stanton's type, is unable to prevent their marriage. However, Stanton cannot stay away from Stella even on his wedding night. Instead of sleeping with his wife, he goes to see Stella. She has heard the news and has given up on him, but he explains his odd scheme. By the time he returns to his wife, she has fallen asleep, so he settles in for the night on the sofa.
The next day, Stella turns up dead. Judd is asked by the local police chief to investigate. He first tries to beat a confession out of Dave Atkins (Bruce Cabot
Bruce Cabot
Bruce Cabot was an American film actor, best remembered as Jack Driscoll in King Kong . He is also known for his roles in films such as the sixth version of Last of the Mohicans, Fritz Lang's Fury and the western Dodge City.-Early life:Cabot was born Etienne Pelissier Jacques de Bujac in Carlsbad,...
), Stella's latest boyfriend, but Atkins has an airtight alibi. Stanton is also a strong suspect, having been seen quarreling with Stella shortly before her death. Judd tells him not to leave town.
Stanton flees to a seedy hotel room in San Francisco with June. He tells her all about his drifter's life of failed schemes. June tells Stanton that she loves him. The next day, June is taken into custody when she goes to the bank to withdraw her money.
Stanton returns to Pop's Eats, where Judd is waiting for him. Stanton proves Judd is the killer. Judd found out that Stella had agreed to marry someone else rather than wait for his wife to give him a divorce. Judd pulls out his gun, but Pop wrestles it away, and Judd is arrested. Outside, when June asks Stanton where they are going, he tells her, "Home."
Cast
- Alice FayeAlice FayeAlice Faye was an American actress and singer, called by The New York Times "one of the few movie stars to walk away from stardom at the peak of her career." She is remembered first for her stardom at 20th Century Fox and, later, as the radio comedy partner of her husband, bandleader and comedian...
as June Mills Stanton - Dana AndrewsDana AndrewsDana Andrews was an American film actor. He was one of Hollywood's major stars of the 1940s, and continued acting, though generally in less prestigious roles, into the 1980s.-Early life:...
as Eric Stanton - Linda DarnellLinda DarnellLinda Darnell was an American film actress.Darnell was a model as a child, and progressed to theater and film acting as an adolescent. At the encouragement of her mother, she made her first film in 1939, and appeared in supporting roles in big budget films for 20th Century Fox throughout the 1940s...
as Stella - Charles BickfordCharles BickfordCharles Bickford was an American actor best known for his supporting roles. He was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for The Song of Bernadette , The Farmer's Daughter , and Johnny Belinda...
as Mark Judd - Anne RevereAnne RevereAnne Revere was an American stage, film, and television actress.-Early life:Born in New York City, Revere was a direct descendant of American Revolution hero Paul Revere. Her father, Clinton, was a stockbroker, and she was raised on the Upper West Side and in Westfield, New Jersey...
as Clara Mills - Bruce CabotBruce CabotBruce Cabot was an American film actor, best remembered as Jack Driscoll in King Kong . He is also known for his roles in films such as the sixth version of Last of the Mohicans, Fritz Lang's Fury and the western Dodge City.-Early life:Cabot was born Etienne Pelissier Jacques de Bujac in Carlsbad,...
as Dave Atkins - John CarradineJohn CarradineJohn Carradine was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns as well as Shakespearean theater. A member of Cecil B DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, he was one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history...
as Professor Madley - Percy KilbridePercy KilbridePercy W. Kilbride was an American character actor. The son of Irish immigrants, he made a career of playing country hicks, most memorably as Pa Kettle in the Ma and Pa Kettle series of feature films.-Career:...
as Pop
Background
The source of the film was the Marty Holland novel of the same name. She also wrote another story that was adapted for the film noir screen: The File on Thelma JordonThe File on Thelma Jordon
The File on Thelma Jordon is a 1950 film noir directed by Robert Siodmak from a screenplay by Ketti Frings. It stars Barbara Stanwyck and Wendell Corey.-Plot:...
(1949). According to the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
, "Hardly anything is known about Marty Holland except that, he, was a she called Mary, who wrote two or three best selling pulp novels and then in 1949 -- to all intents and purposes -- vanished, there being no further record of her at all."
The filming locations were in Orange, California
Orange, California
Southern California is well-known for year-round pleasant weather: - On average, the warmest month is August. - The highest recorded temperature was in 1985. - On average, the coolest month is December. - The lowest recorded temperature was in 1950...
.
Critical response
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
, film critic at The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, liked the acting in the film but was disappointed by the story. He wrote, "As the frustrated adventurer, Dana Andrews adds another excellent tight-lipped portrait of a growing gallery. Linda Darnell is beautiful and perfectly cast as the sultry and single-minded siren, while Miss Faye, whose lines often border on the banal, shoulders her first straight, dramatic burden, gracefully. Charles Bickford, as a dishonorably discharged cop, Anne Revere, as Miss Faye's spinster sister, and Percy Kilbride, as the lovesick proprietor of the diner in which Miss Darnell works, are outstanding among the supporting players. But for all of its acting wealth, Fallen Angel falls short of being a top flight whodunit."
Critic Tim Knight, at Reel.com, notes that if the viewers can forget the "headlong dive into preposterousness, it's still a lot of fun". His review adds, "... the movie does have much to recommend, from Joseph La Shelle's atmospheric, black-and-white cinematography to Preminger's taut direction to the juicy, hard-boiled dialogue. Veteran character actors Charles Bickford
Charles Bickford
Charles Bickford was an American actor best known for his supporting roles. He was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for The Song of Bernadette , The Farmer's Daughter , and Johnny Belinda...
, John Carradine
John Carradine
John Carradine was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns as well as Shakespearean theater. A member of Cecil B DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, he was one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history...
and Percy Kilbride
Percy Kilbride
Percy W. Kilbride was an American character actor. The son of Irish immigrants, he made a career of playing country hicks, most memorably as Pa Kettle in the Ma and Pa Kettle series of feature films.-Career:...
(of Ma and Pa Kettle
Ma and Pa Kettle
Ma and Pa Kettle are comic film characters of the successful film series of the same name, produced by Universal Studios, in the late '40s and '50s. They are a hillbilly couple with fifteen children whose lives turn upside-down when they win a model-home-of-the-future in a slogan-writing contest...
fame) lend strong support to the sizzling twosome of Andrews and Darnell, who would make only one more film together, when they were both past their prime: 1957's Zero Hour!
Zero Hour!
Zero Hour! is a 1957 movie whose screenplay was written by Arthur Hailey, starring Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, and Sterling Hayden, and released by Paramount Pictures. Zero Hour! was an adaptation of Hailey's 1956 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation play Flight into Danger...
, a forgotten grade-Z thriller."
Critic Fernando F. Croce wrote of the film, "Fallen Angel, the director's follow-up to his 1944 classic, is often predictably looked down as a lesser genre venture, yet its subtle analysis of shadowy tropes proves both a continuation and a deepening of Preminger's use of moral ambiguity as a tool of human insight...Preminger's refusal to draw easy conclusions—his pragmatic curiosity for people—is reflected in his remarkable visual fluidity, the surveying camera constantly moving, shifting dueling points-of-view in order to give them equal weight. Fallen Angel may not satisfy genre fans who like their noir with fewer gray zones, but the director's take on obsession remains no less fascinating for trading suspense for multilayered lucidity."
External links
- Fallen Angel trailer at You Tube