Universal
Pictures, 80m 32s
On
paper, precious few film noirs convey
potential commensurate with this one. Roy Chanslor's screenplay is based upon
the 1943 Cornell Woolrich novel THE BLACK ANGEL, an amalgamation of two of
Woolrich's short stories: MURDER IN WAX
and FACE WORK. Woolrich crime stories inspired such expressive go-to film noirs as PHANTOM LADY (1944), THE
CHASE (1946) and THE WINDOW
(1949). The cast includes two undisputed greats in Dan Duryea and Peter Lorre,
as well as accomplished supporting players such as Broderick Crawford and
Wallace Ford. BLACK ANGEL would be
the final film directed by Roy William Neill, a talented filmmaker best known
for helming Universal's popular Sherlock Holmes series with Basil Rathbone and
Nigel Bruce.
From
start to finish, most of the expected genre trimmings fall into place, but BLACK ANGEL is not mentioned alongside
the most beloved film noirs of the
mid-1940s for a reason. Though a production that sports little flab, it hobbles
along pro forma in comparison with Universal's similarly structured, Woolrich-inspired
PHANTOM LADY, which harbors another
indefatigable woman at its center. The "wrong man" mechanics of BLACK ANGEL also got a workout in THE BLUE DAHLIA (1946), released by
Paramount Pictures earlier the same year. Mostly bereft of the noir visual style that characterized
other genre offerings of 1946, BLACK
ANGEL lacks the certitude of purpose that darkly drives THE BIG SLEEP, THE DARK CORNER, GILDA, THE KILLERS, THE LOCKET and NOTORIOUS.
The dismaying absence of a sense of dread probably best explains why BLACK ANGEL pales next to its more
famous contemporaries.
When
the curtain goes up, we meet a blackmailing woman whose time is coming to an
end. Soon the strangled remains of Mavis Marlowe (Constance Dowling is quite a
looker) are discovered as her own recording plays on her turntable. The song
that spins was written by her ex Marty Blair (Dan Duryea), who would be an
obvious suspect were he not locked in his own room after another of his
patented evenings of excessive drinking at the time of the murder. Though he is
shown only to have discovered her lifeless body, Mavis's boyfriend Kirk Bennett
(John Phillips) is convicted of her murder and sentenced to death. His
incredulous wife Catherine Bennett (June Vincent) forms an alliance with Marty
in search of the real killer. In an effort to see if there is any dirt on
Mavis's former employer Marko (the scene-stealing Peter Lorre), Catherine and
Marty create the musical team Carver and Martin and accept regular work at
Marko's nightclub Rio's.
Even
if its parts are not assembled in such a way to amount to a compelling whole, BLACK ANGEL honors genre conventions. Film noir credentials begin with a Los
Angeles setting that houses an irredeemable femme fatale. Many other signals of
noir authenticity leap out as the
narrative chugs along, i.e. the framed, idealized photos that suggest the power
of characters who are not present, a potentially dangerous stairway that leads
to a mysterious lair, oblique camera angles that reflect the shifting
sensibilities of a disoriented protagonist and a determined woman who seems not
only convinced of her husband's innocence of criminal wrongdoing, but obsessed
with it. A homoerotic subtext seems to exist between Marko and his
sturdy-looking, discourteous manservant Lucky (former middleweight champ
Freddie Steele), especially when the two monitor auditions for club entertainment.
What might be the "most noir"
of any genre example must be left to viewer subjectivity, but for me it has to
be the manner in which cigarette smoking comments on the major male characters.
When Marty strikes a match on his apartment wall to light a smoke, the marred
wall provides evidence of how many times he has made that crude method a
practice. We sense he is nearing rock bottom, or maybe has landed there
already. And with a cigarette just barely hanging from his mouth, nobody looks anything
like Peter Lorre, the embodiment of lackadaisical yet sinister authority. A
classic movie moment is registered when Lorre blows out the flame that ignited
his cigarette without removing the cig from his mouth.
The
major aftereffect derived from BLACK
ANGEL is its formal indictment of alcoholism and related ruination of the
chronically lovesick composer Marty. So dire is Marty's affliction that he must
be confined to his tenement building after each night's pub crawl to prevent
him from harming himself or others. When he writes a song for Catherine, he really seems like a glutton for
punishment. Still faithful to the husband who maneuvered behind her back,
Catherine rejects Marty's mawkish advances, which prompts the piano pounding
drunkard to stand before a fire hose of alcohol. The lesson buried in all this
is a familiar one to the noir
form: once you fall in too deep, it is
all but impossible to claw your way out. This theme is supported by Marty's
failed attempts to act responsibly, as when Dr. Courtney (Junius Matthews) does
not believe Marty knows who really killed Mavis. A short time later, alcohol
consumption prevents Marty from receiving a call that could rescue an innocent
man from the gas chamber.
Woolrich
thoroughly disliked his novel's adaptation, which minimizes lessons learned by
the female protagonist of the source material. No doubt some of the concessions
made for the sake of the Production Code lessened what could have been.
Nonetheless this film noir boasts
some excellent lines, for instance:
"Some guys are never
satisfied."
"You've just gotta play
detective, don't you? Do I go around playing the piano?"
"Let her cry it
out."
A
Blu-ray edition of BLACK ANGEL was
issued earlier this year by Arrow Academy. Newly restored from an original
nitrate combined 35mm fine grain positive and dupe negative scanned in 2K, the
feature film is framed at 1.33:1 with uncompressed Mono 1.0 PCM as the main
audio option (the disc's packaging incorrectly indicates an aspect ratio of
1.37:1). No matter, this dual-layered Blu-ray rendition presents superior
contrast and more detail at the top and bottom of the frame versus the
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment DVD released in 2004:
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| Arrow Academy Blu-ray |
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| Universal DVD |
When
it comes to audio commentary tracks, nobody shows up better prepared than film
scholar and frequent film festival host Alan K. Rode, who always goes the extra
mile for the most detailed production background information possible. Rode
discusses the major contributors as one might expect, but also assigns credit
to a number of the bit players. The 35-day production schedule began April 8th,
1946 on a $600K budget, a hefty amount for Universal at the time. The completed
film was released theatrically in the US on August 2nd, 1946. This is a rare occasion
when the major players performed their own musical numbers (Duryea at the piano
with Vincent on the mic). In fact Vincent actually sang all three of the film's
songs. Despite his off-camera reputation as a happily married fellow who walked
a straight line, Duryea could not resist flirting with his blonde co-star
during filming according to Vincent. Ava Gardner originally was to be loaned
out for the role of Catherine Bennett, but Gardner quickly declined.
One
of Rode's best stories about the cast involves Peter Lorre, who once was
greeted by FBI agents at his doorstep. When the Feds pressed Lorre to reveal
the names of any communist sympathizers he knew, Lorre proceeded to list
everyone in Hollywood with whom he was acquainted, including notable studio
bosses! The frustrated agents soon departed. Another interesting piece of
information from Rode is in regard to film censor Joseph Breen, who was invited
to the set to witness the black dress worn by June Vincent during one of the
night club sequences. The filmmakers were concerned the Production Code
Administration enforcer might consider Vincent's attire to be too revealing
unless he saw it in person. As part of his Code approval process, Breen
frequently employed the boilerplate message, "De-emphasizing the female
figure, particularly breasts."
"A
Fitting End: Neil Sinyard on BLACK ANGEL” (2019, 20m 53s) collects
the thoughts of the accomplished author Sinyard, emeritus professor of film
studies at the University of Hull in the United Kingdom. He communicates a lot
of information about the life of novelist Cornell Woolrich, who died from a
stroke in 1968 at the age of 64. The character portrayed by Dan Duryea is about
as close to a self-portrait of Woolrich as anyone is likely to see according to
Sinyard. If that is basically correct, perhaps that observation is the reason
why Woolrich did not have nice things to say regarding this adaptation of his
work. The remaining supplemental material includes a theatrical trailer (1m
32s), a whopping 95 production stills as well as 17 posters and lobby cards,
along with an illustrated booklet with an essay by Philip Kemp.
Another
impressive product released by Arrow Academy, this is one of those cases when
the great effort that went into the restoration work and supplemental material
succeeded in making the product more collectible than it otherwise might have
been.
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| Reversible artwork always is appreciated |
