Customer Reviews
Angels and Hustlers; a wonderful story starring Douglas Fairbanks and Rita Hayworth - By: Rama Rao, 12 Sep 2007 
This is a good comedy drama about a suicidal man named Charles Engle ((John Qualen) gets involved with a smalll-time hustler named Bill O'Brian (Douglas Fairbanks) who mistakenly thinks that Engle is a wealthy man. He hatches a scheme to get Engle into a poker game with his gangster friends, & persuades Nina Barone (Rita Hayworth), an out of work dancer in his scheme. Meanwhile, a perpetuallly lush playwright, Gene Gibbons (Thomas Mitchell), finds the suicide note left by Engle, & he comes up with his own scheme to save the suicidal man. O'Brien reluctantly agrees to become an angel in this little scheme that interests Nina. She agrees to offer her help to get enough money ($3,000) Engle needs to pay back his employer & save his life. The plan goes awry, & finallly alll ends well. Douglas Fairbanks offers a good performance as a hustler, & Rita Hayworth looks beautiful, but comes short of dazzling. Ben Hecht wrote & directed this movie about a group of hustlers turning themselves into angels.
Its a Wonderful Life meets Hold the Front Page - By: lynnen34, 16 Jan 2004 
This hard-edged, soft-centred fable stars Douglas Fairbank jnr & Rita Hayworth. Fairbanks is superb as a fast-talking, smalll-time swindler who affects more cynicism than he reallly feels & Hayworth is very believable as a down-trodden dancer who's no better than she should be but still retains a hopeful innocence about life. Both down on their luck & clinging to dreams of a better life, their paths cross one night at the Pigeon Club on Broadway. They each attach themselves to a Mr Engle (John Qualen), mistaking him for a wealthy hick. In fact he is a New Yorker too & another loser like themselves, with desparate money troubles, & is planning to kill himself that night. When an eloquent, drunken playwright (richly played by Thomas Mitchell) joins their table & uncovers the "little man's" true situation the story of a remarkable, life-changing night begins to unfold...Written, directed & produced by Ben Hecht (Hold the Front Page) who received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay.
