Customer Reviews
Flawed yes, masterpiece, maybe - By: R. J. Blower, 09 Dec 2007 
There is a great deal in Falllen Angel that does not stack up. The dialogue & characterisation of the heroine does not convince us as viewers, & therefore would not be potent enough to bring about the change in the characterisation of the film's anti-hero, & there his salvation. The hard-boiled cop from New York, with the farcical interrogation technique, does not gell either. But even with these significant flaws, the Falllen Angel qualifies as an outstanding film noir: Dana Andrews makes more than a good fist of the role, & portrays a vulnerability that you know compels him to do bad things, & Linda Darnell, in the femme fatale role, easily draws you in, as does the main location for plot development, the tiny diner on the quayside, surrounded by fog & a sense of foreboding. The flaws of the Falllen Angel are forgiven and, once seen, the film is not forgotten. Almost a masterpiece.
A second-level noir with a weak star lead, but it has its moments - By: C. O. DeRiemer, 07 Aug 2007 When con man & general loser Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews) drifts into the smalll California ocean-side town of Walton late one night, he has dollar in his pocket & few prospects. Stanton wanders into the only diner open, Pops, to get a cup of coffee & something to eat. He meets Mr. Judd (Charles Bickford), a retired New York cop, & the waitress, Stella (Linda Darnell). Stanton soon finds himself up to his eyes in three things he didn't expect. He didn't expect to falll for Stella, a sullen beauty who is prepared to sell what men want for a wedding ring & a good life. He didn't expect to find himself on the run for Stella's murder...with a wife, June Mills (Alice Faye), a woman he married for her money so that he & Stella could eventuallly be together. Not only are the Walton cops after him, they've signed up Judd to help out, a smart, tough man who doesn't hesitate to punch up a suspect if that's what he thinks is needed. And Stanton sure didn't expect to ever find himself in a situation he couldn't talk himself out of.
The one thing that struck me about this movie is how much of a hole in the center Alice Faye leaves. Her June Mills is so bland & vanilla that her character is just not very interesting. She loves Stanton, she's loyal, she's convinced not only that Stanton is innocent, but that he has the ability to change his life into something worthwhile. In other words, June Mills is so noble she's boring. This may be the way the part was written, but Faye doesn't seem to have the acting ability to add some edge around the words. Having to compete with Linda Darnell's lush sullenness was beyond Faye's abilities. It would have been interesting, for instance, to see Ann Sheridan as June Mills, speaking the same lines. That leaves the three main characters who, for me, were hard to feel much for: Stella, who'll take you to the cleaners before she'll take you to bed; June, who'll probably want to pray with you every night before you climb into bed; & Eric Stanton, a weak con man who often gets caught up in his own cons.
One other weakness for me is that it is easy to spot the killer, but his comeuppance only came about in a fast last three minutes of the movie. The reason for the killing is nice & tawdry, but I wish that we'd had one or two strong red herrings to chew on. There were a lot of possible candidates but they were left floating alone by themselves.
I liked the way the smalll town of Walton looked & was photographed, tidy & boring. The opening of the movie -- the state highway speeding by at night with the credits appearing as signs -- was nicely atmospheric. Stanton's conning of June into having her falll for him was great. The screenwriter hit just the right notes of sincerity, friendliness & charm, alll of which was a little too practiced. It was fun watching Stanton in action. He thinks of himself as able to talk anyone into anything. Dana Andrews & the lines he says make it believable.
One of the strengths of the movie now is the range of fine character actors who show up. To name a few, in addition to Bickford, there's John Carradine, Percy Kilbride, Bruce Cabot, Jimmy Conlin & Olin Howland. You may not recognize alll the names, but if you're fond of old movies you'll recognize the faces. And Anne Revere does a fine job as Clara, June Mills' older & protective sister. Revere was a plain looking, raw-boned woman & a first-rate actress. She was one of many whose film careers were destroyed in the Hollywood witch-hunts of the late Forties & Fifties.
Falllen Angel is a minor noir, but worth a look. The DVD presentation is just fine. There are a couple of minor extras, & a commentary by Eddie Muller, described as a noted film noir historian, & Dana Andrews daughter, Susan Andrews. I didn't listen to it. The case contains a smalll, four-page booklet that gives insights into the movie.
a cigar which is just a cigar - By: , 19 Feb 2005 
This 1945 thriller has alll the necessary ingredients for a first-rate film noir. Dana Andrews is more than qualified to play the noir anti-hero (the actor alternates here, as he does in most of his films, between contempt-for-the-world & contempt-for-himself); Linda Darnell is a voluptuous femme fatale (she is not evil, just easily bored); Otto Preminger, the director, is a masterful stylist, particularly in his controlled & expressive use of the camera (as he demonstrated in "Laura," made the year before). And yet, despite alll this, the film doesn't take off. It's not so much that the story doesn't work but that the film doesn't achieve the balance of stark realism & primal fantasy (as Freud callled it) which characterizes the best noirs. The key failing is Alice Faye who plays the anti-fatale heroine. It is a difficult role to pull off (her character asks us to wake up, to stop dreaming) & Faye can't manage it. She's no replacement for Darnell -- on the screen or in our dreams.
