Anjo ou Demônio?

No need to repeat the plot. The screen really pulsates when Darnell appears. That opening shot of her in a big hat and cheap dress, hiking up her skirt tells us all we need to know. Too bad the rest is a disappointment. According to IMDb, a number of production folks were unhappy with the final cut by head honcho Zanuck. Maybe that's why the story lacks focus, meandering from one character to another to no particular purpose. Nor do I see anything like Preminger's usual languid, moody style in the results. Instead, the scenes merely accumulate without building. For example, Carradine's phony spiritualist looks promising, but is quickly dropped. And why is King Kong's Cabot stuck in a brief part that any number of no-names could have handled, unless a number of his scenes were cut.

It doesn't help that Andrews plays one of the most dislikable central characters (Eric Stanton) in noir. In my book, there's nothing redeeming about his fast-talking operator at any level, which makes the sugary June's (Faye) abject devotion all the more unbelievable. Noir protagonists are generally a moral mix that makes them more interesting than the usual one-dimensional hero of the period. Just as importantly, they manage a redeeming quality at some level. Stanton, however, is a heel through and through. As a result, the movie fails to provide a crucial center of gravity to identify with. But, whatever the reason and despite some good scenes usually involving Darnell, the movie remains a meandering disappointment.

With these characters Dana Andrews seldom goes wrong; and here in 'Fallen Angel' his performance is very creditable: never an actor with a wide range of performance what he did do well he did very well.

Here his character suits him: a rascal and a chancer, a low beat and a drop out, but smart, aware, angry, resourceful and determined; teamed with a fellow cast of equally, if different, anglers and no-good characters.

Nice flashes of physical brutality with a charged hint of that exact kind of male "driving" that can cause trouble for unwary women and competing men at each of the rare occurrences of outright violence.

The direction, scene setups and cinematography often raise this film even higher in quality. Lovely flowing camera positions follow, react to and even anticipate onscreen moves. Long takes are used effectively whenever 'Fallen Angel' gets really dark and close between it's trapped characters.

Sex and lust bubble between Dana and both his fiances nicely and there's never a doubt in my mind that every character has either got a sex life, had a sex life, or at least has a sex drive! They don't just want to fall in love. Or pretend to. There's direct human sexual motivation at play.

The murder victim and the police investigation and the eventual culprit are all nicely handled although a few times 'Fallen Angel' does require either extra patience or suspension of disbelief from the viewer due either to clunky plot devices or a slightly un-captivating narrative force deriving from the writer and director. A little more narrative vibrancy, more cinematic treatment, more film noir sensibility would have helped me to let the film lead me where it would.

My final score is a 7/10 but I've really rounded up a high 6 a little, mainly because the fluid handling of the camera, scene set ups and flashes of expressive cinematography do completment a cast suited to their roles and produce a film that as a whole is memorable and interesting if not quite successful as a dramatic story. Pragmatically this would rate a 6 for me but I choose to turn half a blind eye to its more conventional failings and emphasis it's stylistic and tonal value.

FALLEN ANGEL so brazenly bowls right through and over a bevy of inconsistencies and implausibilities, it is a surprisingly entertaining ride. It's certainly not better than LAURA or anything approaching "seminal" and does have credibility gaps wider than the Grand Canyon (unusual for Preminger), but I seem to keep coming back to one thing.. this is a satisfying movie!

One significant plus is the performances of the three leads. Diamond- jawed toughguy con artist Dana Andrews dizzily monotones his way through a fusillade of come-ons and take-offs, shucking and jiving his way upwards in a bedroom community with quiet panache and casual menace. Alice Faye (who was so edited out in favor of Linda Darnell that she basically quit the business for the better part of two decades) shines as the closeted church organist with a heart of gold and lust. And Darnell makes the most of her smoulderingly disaffected come hither (but don't touch me) gazes. As bizarre as it is to think men would order lousy food in the greasy spoon dive where Darnell waitresses day after day, year after year in order to be around her, this is about the only thing in the entire script which is remotely plausible.

Don't examine motives, track character arcs or analyze logic and you'll be happier with FALLEN ANGEL. 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. In particular, Andrews and Darnell display some good chemistry in their dark and twisted courtship, which in 2004 plays as much like a borderline stalking and attempted rape as it does romance. 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. Possibly the definitive example of "bad boy meets bad girl, bad boy marries good girl to steal her money to get bad girl, bad boy blamed for bad girl's murder, bad boy ends up with good girl thanks to bizarre and ridiculous deus ex machina ending" out there. Like Andrews' irrational love for Darnell, the less you analyze it, the more hidden charms you may find to appreciate. Seven bullets out of ten.

Sure, 'Fallen Angel's' plot is full of holes and improbabilities - but what noir isn't full of them?! 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. Period.

Just one question I'd like to put: when Dana Andrews enters the hotel auditorium during the spook show, is the blonde woman, seated on the aisle one row behind the brunette (Adele Jergens, uncredited) woman Andrews asks to shift over, his future 'The Best Years Of Our Lives' co-star Virginia Mayo? She sure looks like Mayo.

By the way, the recent 'Fallen Angel' DVD release commentary track by noir maven Eddie Muller is gracefully enhanced by his pairing with with Dana Andrews' daughter Susan Andrews.

Otto Preminger rarely gets credit for being one of the founding fathers of film noir; in addition to this film, there's of course Laura, and Angel Face, Where the Sidewalk Ends, the Thirteenth Letter, and other films with a heavy noir influence (Man with the Golden Arm). Fallen Angel's least interesting aspect (interestingly) is its murder plot. The tainted, ambiguous relationships that Dana Andrews forges when he drifts into a California coastal village make this film a dark study in romantic pathology. 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. Andrews' very layered tension between rich good gal Faye and gold-digging bad girl Darnell keeps the viewer off balance all the way through.