Black Angel (Universal Noir Collection)

Buy This Item Black Angel (Universal Noir Collection)  List Price: $14.98  Available from Amazon  $13.49  on 11-27-2008     Features Actors: Dan Duryea, June Vincent, Peter Lorre, Broderick Crawford, Constance Dowling Directors: Roy William Neill Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC Language: English Subtitles: English, French, Spanish Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.) Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Number of discs: 1 Rating: Studio: Universal Studios DVD Release Date: July 6, 2004 Run Time: 81 minutes Average Customer Review:   18 Reviews 5 star:  (4) 4 star:  (9) 3 star:  (4) 2 star:  (1) 1 star:    (0) See all 18 customer reviews...   (18 customer reviews) Reader Reviews Within the last ten years or so, I've really come to appreciate films of the `noir' period, so I was pleased to see a couple of the major studios cracking their vaults and releasing some to DVD. The snappy dialogue (including all those wonderful euphemisms), the immaculately dressed characters (who do you know who dresses `to the nines' to go out and buy a newspaper or pack of cigarettes? Unfiltered, of course...), the bleak atmosphere, scheming mugs, cynical tough guys, and beautiful, yet dangerous, dames...it's a world rarely defined in terms of black or white, but various shades of gray, where very little is as it seems... Black Angel (1946), directed by Roy William Neill (his last film before his death), who did a handful of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes throughout the 40's, stars Dan Duryea (Scarlet Street, The Flight of the Phoenix) and June Vincent (Trapped by Boston Blackie). Also appearing is the ever lovable, bugged eyed Peter Lorre (Casablanca) and J. Edgar Hoover look-a-like Broderick Crawford (New York Confidential). After the murder of a particularly nasty woman with a penchant for extortion (as we find out later), Catherine Bennett's (June Vincent) husband Kirk is fingered for the crime, since he was the last person witnessed going to the woman's apartment (woo woo), but, as we saw, she was already dead when he got there (hey Kirk, nice job of getting your grimy fingerprints all over everything in her posh apartment...did you really have to pick everything up, including the gun? Knucklehead...) Catherine knows he's innocent, of the murder at least, and feels she must learn the truth, as the great, whopping pile of evidence pointing towards Kirk, aka Mr. Touchy, has scheduled an appointment for him in the gas chamber for a crime he didn't commit. She seeks the aid of the murdered woman's estranged husband, Martin Blair (Duryea), who's been on one heck of a bender since getting the old heave ho by his wife, especially now that she's dead, and isn't inclined at first to help, but soon has a change of heart as Catherine's a heck of a looker and certain possibilities begin to cross his mind. The trail leads our two junior detectives to Mr. Marko (Lorre), a nightclub owner and generally shady character (I did think it was really cool him having a barber chair and set up right in his office...imagine a haircut and shave whenever you wanted). Time is against the plucky pair (well, June is kinda plucky, but not so much Martin...I would call him optimistically opportunistic), as Kirk's day of reckoning is quickly approaching (movie justice sure is swift). All in all, I thought this was a pretty good film, with a few problems, mainly in the plot. I thought June Vincent (she's a real knockout and sings well, too) and Dan Duryea did well (nice coif Duryea...looks like a can of pomade a day man) but the enjoyment came from Peter Lorre's semi-sinister character of Marko. Sadly, his role was relegated to that of a supporting player, so he didn't appear as much as I would have liked. Even when he plays the most despicable of characters, he's just so damn adorable, you can't help but love him...and that distinctive voice. As an actor, he just seemed to fit so well in the time when he was most popular, playing the characters he did. I thought the direction was highly professional (a perfect example is at the beginning, as we're outside and we see a shot of a cab pulling up to a hotel...as the cab stops, we see from the sign on the cab door that informs us the film takes place in some city in California...it may not seem like much, but the beauty is in the subtlety. A less capable director would have found a way to beat us over the head with this minor fact. I thought the dialog pretty good, but not as snappy as I would have liked...I suppose it's probably because I use The Maltese Falcon as a frame of reference for `gangster speak' (unfairly, I admit) when it comes films within the genre. The problems, for me, lie in the plot. Initially, it seemed like there were some gaping holes, but those were cleared up later on...leaving some minor pot holes causing a niggling sense of the parts not all fitting together quite right. Kirk being such a gullible chump, the convoluted part about Catherine and Martin forming an act as to allow them to infiltrate Marko's club (I had a good laugh when a certain revelation was made that torpedoed their well laid plans and essentially sunk their efforts). After awhile, and well before the identity of the killer is revealed, I guessed whodunit, although I was a bit fuzzy on one particular detail, which was haphazardly explained away (in my opinion). Also, given the who the killer was, I was a bit surprised at the ease of which the killer managed to slip by Kirk when they were both in the murdered woman's apartment, at the beginning of the film, but given what a bonehead Kirk was, I guess I can't pick at that point too much. Also, did it seem to anyone else like the only reason to have June Vincent's character sing a couple of numbers was to capitalize on her singing ability, rather than forward the storyline along? She was a very good singer, but that whole plot element seemed awkward and jammed into the story, interrupting the general flow. I suppose I'm probably making too much of these essentially minor elements, as the film is really pretty entertaining, and deeply steeped with the `noir' qualities I was looking for when I bought it. The print Universal used on this DVD looks pretty good, with a few, very minor aging elements apparent. The picture is full screen (original aspect ratio), and the audio is excellent. Included is an original theatrical trailer. Cookieman108  Comment | Permalink |  function showYesNoCommunityResponse(uId,result,value) { var msgLayer = getElement("thanks" + uId); if ( result == "SUCCESS" ) { msgLayer.innerHTML = "Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided to other Amazon.com readers and reviewers. Your vote will be counted and will appear on the product page within 24 hours."; } else { showVoteErrorResponse(msgLayer,result,value); } } (Report this)

Black Angel (Universal Noir Collection) List Price: $14.98 Available from Amazon Price: $13.49 Updated on 11-27-2008.

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