Directed by Maj. W.S. Van Dyke II Produced by Hunt Stromberg. From the Dwight Deere Wiman Broadway production of a musical by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. Edwin B. Willis. It ran 338 performances.
Spring is Here.
Rodgers and Hart had originally written it as a follow up to their 1932 Paramount film, Love Me Tonight which starred MacDonald and Chevalier. Angel was proposed as Miss MacDonald's first film when she moved to MGM in 1933. Rodgers and Hart reclaimed their work and took it to Broadway, where, in 1938, it was a sensation. Since contemporary critics were fond of proclaiming the superiority of the stage Angel over the film, it is important to note that the brightness of the original was based more on style than substance. Once the concept of the angel who becomes charmingly and embarrassingly mortal after her wedding night is established, the story falls into more conventional musical comedy lines with a plot involving getting money for Willie's bank from a wealthy widow.