Black Angel

Plot synopsis:
Black Angel begins as we zoom up to a swanky apartment building in Los Angeles as Marvis Marlowe (Constance Dowling) is primping and berating her maid for putting the wrong music on the phonograph. The recording of the song Heartbreak reminds her of her musician husband Martin Blair (Dan Duryea) who wrote the song and is standing downstairs barred from entering by the doorman. When Martin sees the doorman allow Marko (Peter Lorre) up to Marvis apartment he gives up and walks away. Martin and Marvis were married at one time but now she refuses to meet with him which causes emotional reactions in Martin so great that he goes on a drunken bender before going to his current piano-playing job at Als Place, a local saloon. When Martins best friend and custodian shows up, he takes the hapless musician away and locks him in his apartment to sleep it off. In the meanwhile Kirk Bennett (John Phillips) goes to Marvis apartment and discovers the femme fetale dead on the floor and the seeming presence of someone just exiting the apartment. Kirk is held for the murder in the case led by detective Capt. Flood (Broderick Crawford) who can only find a heart-shaped brooch missing from the dead womans apartment. After a trial Kirk Bennett is convicted and is sentenced to execution. Kirks wife Catherine Bennett (June Vincent) goes into action believing that her husband is innocent of murder she tracks down Martin and confronts him about his actions on the night his ex-wife was murdered. Catherine is dismayed when she learns of Martins alcoholism and his obvious emotional vulnerability in regards to his murdered wife, but what really convinces her that he is innocent is that he was locked in his apartment at the time of the murder. Martin decides to help Catherine because he remembers Marko entering the apartment and thinks he may be the murderer. Martin and Catherine concoct a scheme to get a job performing at Rios, the club Marko owns in hopes of getting more information on Marko that may lead to showing that Catherines husband is innocent. They begin finding clues of Markos relationship with Marvis, many of which are secured in a safe in the night club. During this Martin has developed a real connection with June and confesses his feelings for her, but when she rejects him because of her determined belief of Kirks innocence, Martin goes on a drunken bender. When Martin sees a woman wearing the missing brooch from Marvis, he realizes that in an earlier drunken stupor he had given it to her, and the details of the murder slowly become clear.

Tags: murder, flashback

Review:
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..
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!
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!.
"Black Angel" (Universal, 1946) is one of the most entertaining films noir of the 1940s, that era when Hollywood discovered the genre and brought to it a high polish.In this outstanding dark mystery, based on the novel of the same name by Cornell Woolrich, director Roy William Neill guides stars Dan Duryea and June Vincent through a byzantine plot that begins with murder and proceeds through the arrest and conviction of an innocent person, then finally ends with the true murderer being uncovered.It sounds simple and straightforward, but Neill keeps the audience off balance throughout.
When we think another bit of business is benign, it turns out to be a crucial clue to the unraveling of the mystery.Duryea and Vincent are compelling throughout, and they are supported by two excellent character actors, the always-sinister Peter Lorre and future Oscar winner Broderick Crawford.And I like to think that with "Black Angel," Universal finally atoned for the fatal mistake it made with another Woolrich thriller, "Phantom Lady," in 1944.
But when the story was filmed in 1944, Universal made the outrageous decision to reveal the killer's identity to the audience from the start.In "Black Angel," the murderer's identity is kept from the public until the end, the suspense is sustained, and the final scenes allow the audience to exhale after an hour and a half of diverting tension.Now that "Black Angel" is available in VHS, you can enjoy one of the finest examples of American film noir on your own screen..
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 Black Angel" is really a great film-noir experience - plenty of plot twists throughout to really throw you off and some very interesting characters to boot!
His wife, Catherine Bennett (June Vincent) pairs up with Marty Blair (Dan Duryea) to do some investigating of their own.
Marty Blair is the widower of Mavis Marlowe, which keeps things interesting!Enter some other interesting characters, a nightclub owner played by the always interesting and good actor Peter Lorre, who obviously has something to hide - and a Police Captain played by Broderick Crawford whose small part keeps the action going round and round!Someone had to kill Mavis - wonder which one of the characters had the strongest motive?
Dan Duryea is even better here than in his Fritz Lang films (he's got a better role), Veronica Lake clone June Vincent is refreshingly un Lake-like, and Peter Lorre is utterly adorable as a hard-boiled L.A. nightclub owner with a heart of Viennese schlag..
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..
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.
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 ...!
Along with Duryea, the fine cast includes June Vincent, Peter Lorre, Broderick Crawford and Constance Dowling.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Director Neill, best-known for his string of Sherlock Holmes movies, made this interesting film noir just before his untimely death.
He gets off to a good start with a clever opening shot involving Dan Duryea's profile, a Wilshire Boulevard sign, and a long zoom into an apartment window.We immediately meet the corpse-to-be, Mavis Marlowe, a tough broad who can't even be nice to her long-suffering maid.
Looks like Peter Lorre, and of course that means trouble.Poor Kirk Bennett, one of Marlowe's blackmail victims, shows up at the wrong moment and discovers Mavis's dead body.
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.
My only caveat in my positive opinion of this movie is the character of Catherine who, in the novel was the "Black Angel", destroying the men she comes across in her quest to prove her husband innocent.
FYI, before this movie was released, several scenes were cut (one involving Constance Dowling, and one involving Duryea and Vincent, as well as one scene in which June Vincent sings.) I know I am probably in the minority on the following opinion - but I wish someone would retire permanently that elitist description for mysteries: "Film Noir"!.
'Black Angel' is probably closest the magnificent character actor Dan Duryea got to be to a leading man.
Well directed and well paced, with good acting (besides Duryea there is Peter Lorre - another great sleazeball of old Hollywood), but the film misses the real punch.
When Kirk Bennett (John Phillips) is convicted of a singer (Constance Dowling)'s murder, his wife (June Vincent) tries to prove him innocent...
aided by the victim's ex-husband (Dan Duryea).What you need to know: Roy William Neill (1887–1946) was an English film director best known for directing the last eleven of the fourteen Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, made between 1943 and 1946 and released by Universal Studios.
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 is also excellent as always as the murder victim's boss, a no-nonsense nightclub manager, and the film features an absolutely unforgettable twist in the final twenty minutes that throws the material in a completely unexpected direction.
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.
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.
Constance Dowling (Mavis Marlowe) is murdered and John Phillips (Kirk Bennett) is sentenced to death as the man responsible.
Together with Dowling's husband Dan Duryea (Martin Blair), she follows a trail that will hopefully lead her to the killer before Phillips is executed.....This film starts with a string of camera gimmicks that leaves you thinking "This is stylish".
We soon find our musician heroes, June Vincent and Dan Duryea entertaining at a nightclub owned by Peter Lorre (Marko) who is their main suspect in the murder.
Their quest is to find a stolen brooch that will prove the innocence of John Phillips.As far as the cast is concerned, Broderick Crawford is good as the policeman "Captain Flood", Peter Lorre is good value as always with his creepy voice that suggests a simpleton of pure evil, Dan Duryea is fine as a musician and June Vincent is OK but annoying at certain key points, eg, the scene where she is trying to steal evidence from Lorre's safe.
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..
"Black Angel" is an unjustly forgotten film noir based on Cornell Woolrich's novel.
Dan Duryea, tagged in the preview as "he's no angel again!", adds yet another complex, dark portrayal to his gallery of ambiguous bad guys as Martin Blair, the estranged husband of murder victim Mavis Marlowe (Constance Dowling).
His loyal wife, Catherine (June Vincent, another under-appreciated talent), vows to clear her husband and enlists the help of Blair, who had passed out drunk after he last saw Mavis, and the pair team up to investigate nightclub owner Marko (Peter Lorre, exceptional performance), posing as a singing act.
The 81 minute length of this movie may be more to blame than the scriptwriter and director, but a hint that the above situations cause internal approach-avoidance conflicts would have truly raised this film above a "B" movie to a noir classic (Duryea gets the closest to achieving this--but the intermittent drinking bouts the script gives him provide him the opportunity).The scenes introducing Mavis at the beginning are shot in an effective "noirish" manner, but I found most of the direction to be so-so: close-up inserts (of letters and other clues) are at incorrect angles; the camera pans during a nightclub scene and doesn't end up on anything interesting or pertinent to the plot; the sequence where Catherine is about to be caught snooping is not played out to full suspense; the last of Martin's alcoholic binge montages include a couple of pretty silly-looking shots.
But using those criteria rules out films like "Black Angel." True, it was released in 1946, is in black and white, stars Dan Duryea, and involves a deadly serious search for a murderer, but that's about it.
If our definitions get too generous, then Charlie Chan movies wind up in the "noir" category too.Roy William Neal, the proficient director who gave us a couple of Universal's Sherlock Holmes, has given us a straightforward murder mystery that lacks a lot of tension because of its weak structure -- Peter Lorre is in this, why?
But it's Dan Duryea's hope against hope and his face longing for happiness and peace of mind that will haunt you after watching this good film noir..
A convoluted plot, flawed characters and an unexpected twist all add to the enjoyment of watching this movie and a race against time to catch the killer becomes increasingly tense as the execution date for an innocent man moves ever closer.Martin Blair (Dan Duryea) attempts to see his estranged wife on the night of their wedding anniversary but, on Mavis Marlowe's (Constance Dowling) instructions, is prevented from entering her apartment building.
His loyal wife Catherine (June Vincent), is convinced that Kirk is incapable of murder and so sets out to prove his innocence.
When it transpires that he has a cast-iron alibi, she asks for his help to prove Kirk's innocence and her agrees to help her.Martin, who's an accomplished pianist and composer, is surprised to discover that the man he saw being given access to Mavis' apartment was a nightclub owner called Marko (Peter Lorre) and so he and ex-nightclub singer Catherine decide to audition, as a double act, for work at Marko's club (Rio's).
Dan Duryea gives a very affecting performance as this sensitive and vulnerable character who instinctively turns to alcohol as a coping mechanism."Black Angel" begins impressively with a shot of Martin stood in the street outside the building where Mavis lives and then sweeps up to her floor and continues in through the window of her apartment.
A beautiful blackmailer(Constance Dowling) is killed and the wife(June Vincent)of the man(John Phillips) convicted of the murder sets out to prove his innocence with the aid of the victim's ex-husband(Dan Duryea).
This film begins with a man named "Martin Blair" (Dan Duryea) attempting to visit his wife "Mavis Marlowe" (Constance Dowling) in her high-rise apartment but being intercepted by the doorman and refused entry.
The plot in THE BLACK ANGEL is pretty typical of the noir film period in the 1940's.
However, the film is better than average, thanks to a pretty good performance by Dan Duryea.He's an alcoholic musician here, instead of being his normal 'tough guy'.
It is based on a novel by Cornell Woolrich, who wrote a lot of noir-ish screenplays before this and went on to become a excellent writer for television dramas later.Nothing really special all the way around, but it's held together nicely by the likes of Peter Lorre, who plays a somewhat-decent club owner instead of the usual bad guy, and other somewhat-less-known character actors of the 1940's..
I wish I couldn't recommend Black Angel, but as it stands it's a passable film-noir that happens to contain some moments of good suspense.
While the actors, mostly Dan Duryea and for what he's worth in an underused role for Peter Lorre, do what they can, it kind of reverts back to what was in the Hayes code at the time, which was that justice must be served and the real criminals couldn't get away with the crime and yada yada.The source material from Cornell Woolrich supplied some good dialog and a mid-section involving the piano player and his singer (quite a team they make for all of five minutes), but I wonder if the material was much the same in the story as here.
This is good B entertainment, but contains about three plots in one: who did the murder, will the Duryea-Vincent match-up work out, and will the Duryea character ever recover from his alcohol addiction?