Fallen Angel

Plot synopsis:
Eric Stanton (Andrews), a down-on-his-luck drifter, gets pulled off a bus in the hamlet of Walton because he does not have the $2.25 extra fare to take him to San Francisco. He finds a greasy spoon called Pop's Eats, where Pop (Percy Kilbride) is worried about waitress Stella because she has not shown up for work for days. Ex-New York cop Mark Judd (Bickford) tells him not to worry. Sure enough, the sultry Stella (Darnell) soon returns. Stanton (like the others) is attracted to her, but she is unimpressed by his smooth talk and poverty.
Stanton cons his way into a job with Professor Madley (John Carradine), a traveling fortune-teller. 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 (Faye) and persuades them to attend the performance.
Madley stages an entertaining séance, 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 quite upset.
Stanton gets to know Stella, watching her steal from the cash register and go out with men. Stanton falls in love with her. She makes it clear that she wants a man who is willing to marry her and buy her a home. He is so obsessed that he agrees to her terms.
To raise the money, Stanton romances and marries June, planning to divorce her as soon as he can. Clara, who has been victimized by a man of Stanton's type, is unable to prevent their marriage. Stanton cannot stay away from Stella even on his wedding night. Instead of sleeping with his wife, he goes to Stella, who has given up on him. He explains his odd scheme to her. By the time he returns to his wife, she has fallen asleep.
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."

Tags: paranormal, murder

Review:
It also features Linda Darnell at her most sultry and mercenary; Alice Faye (her only appearance, I think, in the noir cycle);  John Carradine; Charles Bickford (as a policeman with a past); Ann Revere (whom most of us think of as a tenement mom to John Garfield); and even Percy Kilbride before his Pa Kettle days.
Indeed much of the appeal and frisson of the genre stems from its tales' and characters' nightmarish, inexplicable irrationality.The almost always underrated Dana Andrews is superb here in a brilliantly understated performance: by posture, tilt of head, and deft deployment of his eyes he communicates more than most actors manage to tell with their whole scenery-chewing bodies; and Alice Faye kept me guessing: was her June the "still water runs deep" character whodunit?
Most of all there's 'Fallen Angel's peerless camera-work and direction that raise it a notch or two above the rather overrated 'Laura' - whose plot sometimes drags and which is chiefly rescued by the literate, finicky presence of Clifton Webb; and Gene Tierney's mannered, diffident, and albeit mysterious Laura isn't half the hard-boiled noir femme fatale that Linda Darnell's Stella is in 'Fallen Angel.' There's another lovely, understated effort here from Bruce Cabot and still another from Percy Kilbride; but in the supporting cast Anne Revere stands out for moving the plot along, for creating tangible suspense, and for two solid moments of palpable nape-prickling foreboding.'Fallen Angel' is just one of the most underrated noirs.
However, "Laura" still holds it's own even by today's standards and the media, along with the marketing people, have done us all a favor (this time!!!) in keeping this classic alive and popular.Needless to say, "Fallen Angel" redeems Preminger's ability to present a film in the classic noir of it's time and because of this is competitive with Billy Wilder's "Lost Weekend" (1945) and "Double Indemnity" (1944), both huge successes with audiences.
We all know that Bickford, along with Kilbride, Dana Andrews and Bruce Cabot all are victims to the whims of the dark Darnell.And the way the blonde, good and virtuous Faye is contrasted with the dark, bad and selfish Darnell is more proof that this film should be marketed for the masses.
The plot is strong, the camera work of Joseph LaShelle and, especially the film direction by Preminger rates this movie as one of the best of it's time.
It is an engrossing story about a man (Dana Andrews) who marries a woman (Alice Faye) for her money, but seeks to kill her in order to inherit her fortune and hook up with vamp Linda Darnell.The movie is star studded.
It not only features Andrews, Darnell and Faye, but spectacular performances are made by Charles Bickford, Anne Revere and Bruce Cabot.The movie is a typical film noir with a catchy plot.
Otto Preminger makes great use of lighting to portray the typical murky image found so often in a hard boiled, sex-money drama as film noirs were meant to portray.It is a shame that this movie is not available on video..
While the men (naturally) gravitate to the darker sexy role of the femme fa-tale in the movie, the stunning Linda Darnell, Alice is just as important to realize what she represented during that time in the public's eye and Darryl Zanucks.
As always, there is no way to tell whether LaShelle or Preminger came up with these unusual images, but they are exceptionally effective.bWhat's more, the film is perfectly cast down to the smallest role: Linda Darnell is particularly effective as the slutty tough girl who knows what she wants; and middle-aged Alice Faye, having put on a little weight since her Don Ameche musical days, looks and acts exactly like a lonely and desperate small-town woman who can't help loving the wrong man.
The acting is marvelous, especially Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, and all those wonderful character actors that Otto Priminger hand picked for their roles.
Darnell is good as the sluttish café worker, going out with everyone who asks, but when we see Faye with her hair down towards the end and playing dynamic scenes we surely realize that without intervention, Preminger's film would have been just that little better balanced.
Curiously chosen by the studio's biggest musical star Alice Faye for her 'comeback' role as a dramatic actress (and she is fine in it), unfortunately for her, it collided with Linda Darnell's own stunning "femme fatale" revamp who, even though bumped off halfway through, effortlessly walks away with the film; needless to say, Faye wouldn't make another picture for the next 17 years!
Andrews  who would have turned 100 on January 1st of this year had he lived and thus I'll be watching several of his movies throughout this month  plays the anti-hero: a penniless cad who marries Faye (against elder sister Anne Revere's advice) for her inheritance money but lusts after Darnell  as do, understandably, most of the male cast: married detective Charles Bickford (his paradoxical character is a fascinating creation), jukebox salesman Bruce Cabot and Darnell's own employer Percy Kilbride; favorite character actor John Carradine, made up to look like some forbidding Scandinavian pastor, has an amusing bit as a mentalist Andrews hitches up with early on.
The fortune hunter (Dana Andrews), the flirtatious girl (feline Linda Darnell) and her suitors, the good girl of the village (Alice Faye), and a murder...
Also, the instant romance between June Mills, the spinster church organist and Eric Stanton and their surprise wedding is something one only sees in movies, but then again, who knows, the old maid must have been just ripe for picking.For this film being made in 1945, it has a sexuality that comes across openly whenever we are taken to the seaside cafe and watch all the men ogling Stella, the waitress who provokes desire in them.
Alice Faye in a dramatic role doesn't come as well as the others, perhaps because her character is not clearly defined.A film to watch for the great cinematography and as a curiosity piece from Otto Preminger..
The film stars Alice Faye, Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell & Charles Bickford.
Zanuck and Preminger cut her role out of the picture (they were all about Darnell), Faye left the studio the day after a preview screening, and did not make another film for 16 years.The plot sees Andrews as press agent Eric Stanton, who down on his luck gets turfed off the bus some 150 miles from San Francisco and finds that he is in the small coastal town of Walton.
Pretty soon his life will be surrounded by love, infatuation, jealousy and worst of all—murder.More a mystery whodunit than an overtly dark venture into the realm of film noir, Fallen Angel is still a tidy and atmospheric movie.
Eric decides to seduce the lonely June Mills (Alice Faye), a wealthy woman that lives with her controller sister Clara Mills (Anne Revere), to have money to move with Stella.
When Eric becomes the prime-suspect, he investigates the murder seeking the identity of the real killer."Fallen Angel" is a disappointing film-noir by Otto Preminger.
In a movie where the police deputize civilians to beat up witnesses in order to "gather information" and where some individuals' entire character and identity change at the drop of a hat, the charm of this movie is in the gleefully melodramatic yet charming interactions of the love quadrilateral that is Alice Faye, Faye's sister, Dana Andrews and Linda Darnell.
It must have been particularly racy in 1945.Not believable for a second, but enjoyable for more than an hour, FALLEN ANGEL is worth a look for hardcore fans of crime drama, noir, and Dana Andrews / Linda Darnell.
All the traditional noir elements are in place:  a drifter, Dana Andrews, who sails into town on a bus, hooks up with a sultry waitress, Linda Darnell, and romances an old maid, Alice Faye, with plans to swindle her and run off with the waitress.
The film is brim full of atmosphere -- shadowy scenes in the hash house where Darnell works, a song that keeps playing on a jukebox, a la the "Laura" theme (and by the same composer, David Raskin), lots of sharp, smarmy character actors on the edge of things.
With a more appropriate actress in Faye's role, this might have been a major noir.Great scene:  Andrews walk into the diner where Darnell works and hears the film's theme, a low, sultry love ballad, playing on the jukebox for the umpteenth time.
Sadly undernourished film noir has shady Dana Andrews and Linda Darnell plotting to bilk Alice Faye out of her money.
That being said, it's still a snappy but minor film noir, the story of a down-on-his-luck man who falls in love with a vixen and marries a nice girl for the money.
Andrews plays a bitter, down-on-his-luck promoter who arrives in a town near San Francisco and falls for sultry waitress Darnell, but marries rich spinster Faye.
Yes, Darnell is sultry, but the dialogue and Andrews' one-note acting remove any interest in the outcome of this film-gris(more gray than black).Everyone and everything seems manipulated to serve ill-considered marketing,as opposed to dramatic interests...And a final quibble--film noir works best when attention is paid to the minor details--don't throw lit matches onto tables, punch a number on the jukebox before playing your favorite song,if you're penniless, don't have an endless supply of cigarettes, and don't have a magic room that cleans and presses your clothes when you're on the road with one shirt and suit...I love film noir...this movie ain't it..
(IMDb informs me that she was a direct descendant of Paul Revere, the hero of the American Revolution, so I had better show a bit more respect!) Severe is trying to save her little sister from falling into the clutches of Andrews, who wants to marry her for her money while being insanely infatuated by Darnell.
Knowing what we learn about his character as the film Fallen Angel progresses, you have to wonder what both good girl Alice Faye and bad girl Linda Darnell see in him.Dana Andrews gets dropped off the bus in a small, sleepy California town because he's got no more money to proceed any farther.
In this case his biggest message is from the late father of rich sisters Anne Revere and Alice Faye.In the meantime Andrews also gets himself involved with mantrap waitress Linda Darnell who's got the hormones in overdrive of a lot of people, salesman Bruce Cabot, retired cop Charles Bickford, her employer Percy Kilbride, just about every mail she comes in contact with.
"Fallen Angel" is a good, solid example of 'film noir', which should come as no surprise as the director is Otto Preminger, one of Hollywood's foremost directors.
(The theory that studio brass insisted on boosting Darnell's role at Faye's expense seems to make sense, though--if Faye's part was cut way down, no wonder she seems like such a dolt.)Andrews gives a good performance as the scheming, dreaming, irresistible drifter...his sometimes-despicable character is indeed almost sympathetic.
Anne Revere has a small but important role as Faye's not-so-gullible sister.The plot includes not only Andrews's wicked plans but other characters' jealous schemes as well, leading up to an eventual murder.
I have a penchant for film noir and it seems to me he was an adept in the genre.Here we have a movie with most of the convention staples present and intact, a loner anti-hero prepared to rob a pair of sisters out of their life savings to the extent of marrying the younger one and who yet walks out on her on their wedding night for a secret liaison with staple number 2, femme fatale Linda Darnell's beautiful-and-she-knows-it diner waitress who has him and every other customer there on a string.
The cast is very good, Dana Andrews as the drifter kicked off the bus at the start with insufficient fare to complete his journey to San Francisco where he encounters the alluring but astringent Stella with the other nighthawks at Pop's Diner, where you later realise the director is actually parading all the suspects for her future murder.
When Andrews' Stanton gets involved with a hokey spiritualist and his taciturn gopher, he encounters two well-read, clean-living, God-fearing but maid-ish sisters and forms a plan to inveigle himself into the affections of the younger of the two, played by Alice Faye, to get at their life savings so he can go back and marry Stella as part of their "deal".It's all realistically shot with plenty of hand-held camera shots and suitably gloomy atmospheric interiors.
No one knows anything about him, the audience least of all, he is a loser and maybe a criminal one, you can suspect all the worst about him, as Alice Faye's non-nonsense sister has every reason to do, and only gradually his real character comes into light, mainly in the great hotel scene in San Francisco, an even shabbier place than the road joint, clearly pointing out the direction of Hitchcock's "Vertigo" 14 years later.
The Post-War Years had finally Arrived and Film-Noir, and the Seedlings Planted in the previous 10 Years, started to become Fully Formed and the Pure Film-Noir became more Abundant and the Crop bore Fruit for a Full 5 Years before the Genre would be increasingly Watered Down with Police Procedural, a more Friendly Style with the Conservative 1950's."Fallen Angel" was Directed by the Dictatorial Hand of Otto Preminger who Found Breakout Success with the Popular Murder Mystery "Laura" (1944).This Movie Suffered On-Set Strife and the End Result was a Work in Progress, Changed on the fly, and it Shows.
Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, and Alice Faye Star.Overall, Dense with Drama as the Movie Unfolds.
Dana Andrews is, nevertheless, compelling.....Anne Revere is always good.....Alice Faye's character makes little sense .
Having a way with words he is soon involved with the town hottie, waitress Stella (Linda Darnell) as well as a local pillar of the community June Mills (Alice Faye).
Alice Faye supposedly left Hollywood movies after "Fallen Angel", because she saw the final cut and some of her scenes were cut in favor of Linda Darnell.
Otto Preminger liked using Dana Andrews in his film noirish melodramas and, while this one is not quite up to the classic "Laura", it's a well played story of a drifter (Andrews) who comes into a small town and cons a decent woman (Alice Faye) into marrying him although her money is what he's after.
Years later she did for "State Fair".Linda Darnell excels in her role as a tart and the supporting cast includes veterans like Charles Bickford, Anne Revere, Bruce Cabot, John Carradine and Percy Kilbride.
Otto Preminger used 20th Century Fox stars - Alice Faye, Linda Darnell, and Dana Andrews for "Fallen Angel," a film noir about a drifter who falls for a sultry waitress.Since Linda Darnell's heyday was the 1940s, and she has now been dead for 40 years, her name doesn't appear on lists of all time beauties, but she was surely one of the most beautiful women ever to appear in films.
Then Darnell ends up murdered, and Andrews becomes an instant suspect.One thing about noir films that has always troubled me is the ease with which women fall for these nasty guys after about three seconds.
Otto Preminger's follow-up to his ground-breaking film noir "Laura" is an off-beat, dark and foreboding tale of con man Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews) who arrives in a small California coastal town with literally no money in his pockets.
Very difficult to like her in this film.Alice Faye just seemed in the doldrums in the first half of the film, but once she marries Dana Andrews, she turns in a very good performance.Charles Bickford as the retired police detective (and ultimately the murderer) is good, though not outstanding here.
Disappointing film noir despite the stellar cast.Anne Revere and Charles Bickford must have been thinking back to two years before when both received supporting nominations for "The Song of Bernadette."While an example of film noir, a student of Jessica Fletcher (Murder, She Wrote) could unravel the mystery very quickly.Andrews does an admirable job as the drifter who comes into town and romances both Linda Darnell and an older-looking Alice Faye.
Enter Dana Andrews in yet another great role for director Otto Preminger, as a drifter who sets up small towns for seances put on by the shady character played by the always interesting John Carradine.
After collaborating on one of the greatest films ever made(Laura (1944)), director Otto Preminger and star Dana Andrews this time join forces to make a lesser but nonetheless beautifully photographed film noir titled FALLEN ANGEL.
With 'Laura (1944)' and 'Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950),' director Otto Preminger and actor Dana Andrews collaborated to produce two of the great American film noirs.
Otto Preminger and star Dana Andrews made this film a year after their highly acclaimed "Laura", with leading ladies Linda Darnell and Alice Faye (top billed above Darnell and Andrews).
Eric (Andrews) arrives in town short of bus fare to San Francisco, and manages to involve himself with a sham-mystic (John Carradine) and a pair of young ladies with a small inherited fortune (Faye and Anne Revere as her jealous sister), all as a sidelight to falling in love with sultry barmaid Stella (Darnell).
The two women, Linda Darnell, as the vixen Stella, and the angelic Alice Faye's June, fill out the typical noir female personas.
FALLEN ANGEL is a typically classy slice of film noir from director Otto Preminger, starring that mainstay of the genre, Dana Andrews.
I came to appreciate Charles Bickford's role as the sadistic cop, but I still could not make heads or tails of Alice Faye's blind faith in the greasy Dana Andrews' character.This is a flawed film, but I must say, I enjoy it much more than 'Laura'.
Ironically Alice Faye gets top billing in what was to be her only non-musical, leading man Dana Andrews is solid but Darnell runs away with the movie thanks to a dream of a role.