Fallen Angel (1945)

Réalisateur:

Otto Preminger

Writers:

Marty Holland (novel)
Harry Kleiner (writer)

Release Date:

5 décembre 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Film-Noir | Mystery | Romance

Accroche:

The creator of "Laura" does it again!

Plot:

Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews), thrown off a bus for not having the fare, begins to frequent a diner called "Pop's Eats" ...

Plot Keywords:

Cheap Hotel | Mentalist | San Francisco California | Film Noir | Jukebox

Avis des utilisateurs:

Dark Lustrous Gem

Ensemble

Alice Faye	...	June Mills
Dana Andrews	...	Eric Stanton
Linda Darnell	...	Stella
Charles Bickford	...	Mark Judd
Anne Revere	...	Clara Mills
Bruce Cabot	...	Dave Atkins
John Carradine	...	Professor Madley
Percy Kilbride	...	Pop

Autre(s) titre(s) :

Crime passionnel (France) [fr]

Durée:

98 min

Pays:

USA

Langue:

Anglais

Couleur:

Noir et Blanc

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Son:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Classification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #10940)

Emplacements De Pelliculage:

Orange, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Anecdotes:

Alice Faye, married to Phil Harris and raising two young daughters, then tiring after nearly a dozen years of hectic moving-making, and disappointed with the outcome of this release, chose to leave Twentieth Century-Fox before her contract expired. Eventually, she would return to work at the studio once, playing the mother role in a bland filming of Rodgers and Hammerstein's State Fair (1962). Originally, Miss Faye had turned down the band-singer part in the more satisfying 1945 version.

Guillemet:

June Mills: I need you, Eric.
Eric Stanton: [sarcastically] You need me, right.
June Mills: You're my husband, and I'm your wife.
Eric Stanton: Right out of a book, again.
June Mills: Yes, out of a book: "We were born to tread the earth as angels, to seek out heaven this side of the sky. But they who race above shall stumble in the dark, and fall from grace."
Eric Stanton: Go on. Sounds good.
June Mills: "Then love alone can make the fallen angel rise. For only two together can enter Paradise."

Connexions De Film:

Featured in "Biography: Linda Darnell: Hollywood's Fallen Angel" (1999)

Soundtrack:

Slowly

Dark Lustrous Gem

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.