''Black Angel'' is a 1946 American

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American '' ...

directed as his final feature by

Roy William Neill Roy William Neill (4 September 1887 – 14 December 1946) was an Irish-born American 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 1 ...

and starring

Dan Duryea Dan Duryea ( , January 23, 1907 – June 7, 1968) was an American actor in film, stage, and television. Known for portraying a vast range of character roles as a villain, he nonetheless had a long career in a wide variety of leading and second ...

June Vincent June Vincent (born Dorothy June Smith, July 17, 1920 – November 20, 2008) was an American actress. Life and career Vincent was born in Harrod, Ohio, the daughter of Sybil Irwin and the Rev. Willis E. Smith. Stage Vincent's acting career began ...

and

Peter Lorre Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before movin ...

. Produced by

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Americ ...

, it is set in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

and broadly adapted from the 1943 novel of the same title by

Cornell Woolrich Cornell George Hopley Woolrich ( ; December 4, 1903 – September 25, 1968) was an American novelist and short story writer. He sometimes used the pseudonyms William Irish and George Hopley. His biographer, Francis Nevins Jr., rated Woolrich th ...

Plot

Catherine Bennett, a falsely convicted man's wife, together with alcoholic musician Marty Blair, team up in an attempt to clear her adulterous husband of the murder of the singer, Mavis Marlowe, who had once been Marty's wife. Their investigation leads them to confrontations with a determined policeman,

LAPD The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

Captain Flood, and a shifty nightclub owner, Mr. Marko, whom Catherine and Marty suspect may be the real killer. Marty had seen Marko heading for Mavis Marlowe’s apartment on the night of the murder. Since Marty is a composer and pianist, while Catherine is a former singer, the two audition for a spot in Marko's club and are hired. Their suspicion is increased when Catherine recognises an envelope from Mavis's branded stationery in Marko's office; she therefore decides to search it in his absence. When she is caught, Marko admits that his daughter was being blackmailed by Mavis, but the main evidence they had been looking for, a distinctive heart-shaped brooch that Marty once gave Mavis, is not there. Marty has fallen in love with Catherine during their partnership and he has given up drinking. On the night Catherine's husband Kirk is due to be executed, she admits to Marty that Kirk had always been the only man for her and that their own association has no future. In his disappointment, Marty goes back to the bars where he used to drink and chances on a girl wearing the brooch for which he and Catherine had been searching. The girl insists that it was Marty himself who had given it her on the night the murder was discovered. Marty now has a flashback and realises that it was he himself who had strangled Mavis and then drunkenly forgotten. Marty's subsequent attempts to contact Captain Flood are thwarted as the final minutes tick away for Kirk, but he manages to call Flood at last to a meeting at Catherine's home, where Marty confesses what had really happened in time for Flood to get the execution stayed.

Cast

as Martin Blair *

as Catherine Bennett *

as Marko *

Broderick Crawford William Broderick Crawford (December 9, 1911 – April 26, 1986) was an American stage, film, radio, and television actor, often cast in tough-guy roles and best known for his Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning portrayal of Willie Stark in ''All th ...

as Captain Flood * Constance Dowling as Mavis Marlowe *

Wallace Ford Wallace Ford (born Samuel Grundy Jones; 12 February 1898 – 11 June 1966) was an English-born naturalized American vaudevillian, stage performer and screen actor. Usually playing wise-cracking characters, he combined a tough but friendly-fac ...

as Joe *

Hobart Cavanaugh Hobart Cavanaugh (September 22, 1886 – April 26, 1950 ) was an American character actor in films and on stage. Biography He was born in Virginia City, Nevada on September 22, 1886. Cavanaugh attended the University of California. He worked in ...

as Hotel Caretaker * Freddie Steele as Lucky * John Phillips as Kirk Bennett *

Ben Bard Ben Bard (January 26, 1893 – May 17, 1974) was an American movie actor, stage actor, and acting teacher. With comedian Jack Pearl, Bard worked in a comedy duo in vaudeville. In 1926, Bard, Pearl, and Sascha Beaumont appeared in a short f ...

as Bartender * Junius Matthews as Dr. Courtney *

Marion Martin Marion Suplee (born June 7, 1909 – August 13, 1985) known professionally as Marion Martin was an American film and stage actress. Biography Martin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of a Bethlehem Steel executive. She beca ...

as Millie * Archie Twitchell as George Mitchell (as Michael Branden) * Maurice St. Clair as Dancer (as St. Clair) * Vilova as Dancer * Robert Williams as Second Detective

Interpretation

Classed as a noteworthy

, ''Black Angel'' was based on

's 1943 novel of the same name and directed by

as his final work before retirement. There were many differences from the original story and the film was disliked by Woolrich himself. However, in the opinion of biographer Thomas C. Renzi, of the several contemporary "adaptations based on Woolrich's novels, Neill's film ranks among the most competently conceived and produced, even though its plot has only a superficial connection" with the original story line. And according to Francis M. Nevins: "Neill and cinematographer

Paul Ivano Paul Ivano, ASC (May 13, 1900 – April 9, 1984), was a Serbian– French– American cinematographer whose career stretched from 1920 into the late 1960s. Born Paul Ivano Ivanichevitch, to Serbian parents in Nice, France, he served for two ye ...

invest every shot with a visual style which translates Woolrich as any novel needs to be translated: with total fidelity to its essence and little if any to its literal text." Some credit must also go to

's interpretation of the part of Marty Blair, who "remains the most sympathetic character in the film and far worthier of the heroine than her weak and disloyal husband".John Howard Reid, ''Movie Mystery & Suspense'', Lulu.com, 2006
p.36
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Plot

Cast

Interpretation

References

See also