Themes: Love Triangles, Down on Their Luck, Crumbling Marriages
Main Cast: Rock Hudson, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, Jack Carson, Robert Middleton
Release Year: 1957
Country: US
Run Time: 91 minutes
Plot
William Faulkner's novel Pylon was optioned by Universal producer Albert Zugsmith, who used it as the source for his 1957 production The Tarnished Angels. Robert Stack is a disillusioned World War One ace eking out a living as a barnstorming pilot/parachutist during the early 1930s. New Orleans newspaperman Rock Hudson runs across Stack at a two-bit carnival. He becomes fascinated with Stack's fall from grace, and latches onto him. As he is drawn into Stack's iconoclastic, individualistic lifestyle, Hudson finds he is also drawn to the pilot's long-suffering wife, Dorothy Malone. Jack Carson is on hand as Stack's chief mechanic, whose anger over the pilot's abusive treatment of Malone explodes into tragedy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Palpable desire fills the screen in The Tarnished Angels, but it's a desire that comes with strings attached to it. The four characters that form the basis of the plot each desire something or someone so badly that it passes into the realm of torture, and Angels, thanks to the guiding hand of director Douglas Sirk, revels in that torture. Tension, lust, and frustration practically drip from the screen, especially when Dorothy Malone is on hand. Even when her emotions are held in check, she never lets the viewer forget that a well of anguish lies beneath those tightly composed features. Malone's performance is utterly compelling, and she gets excellent help from Robert Stack, who brings just the proper intensity to his part. Even a puffy Jack Carson turns in a surprisingly well-judged performance. Unfortunately, Rock Hudson, in the crucial role of the reporter, falls far short; he's not bad, but he lacks a convincing passion. His character, we are told repeatedly, is obsessed with these people; the actor merely goes through the motions of being obsessed, and this throws much of the film out of kilter. Still there's enough in the film to make up for this (and some other) flaws, and Sirk creates some unforgettable images (a Mardi Gras reveler with a death mask interrupting Hudson and Malone, the carnival airplane sequence accompanying the crash of Stack's airplane). Angels is far from perfect, but it's almost always compelling. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Troy Donahue - Frank Burnham; Alan Reed, Sr. - Col. Fineman; Alexander Lockwood - Sam Hagood; Robert J. Wilke - Hank; William Schallert - Ted Baker; Betty Utey - Dancing girl; Phil Harvey - Telegraph editor; Steve Drexel - Young Man; Eugene Borden - Claude Mollet; Stephen Ellis - Mechanic; Chris Olson - Jack Shumann
New Orleansreporter Burke Devlin (Hudson) is intrigued by the gypsy-like lifestyle of the former war hero, but is dismayed by his cavalier treatment of his family and soon finds himself attracted to the neglected LaVerne. Meanwhile, Roger barters with wealthy and aging business magnate Matt Ord (Robert Middleton) for a plane in exchange for a few hours with his wife. Tragedy ensues when Jiggs' anger about his employer's refusal to face family responsibilities causes him to make a rash and fatal decision. He manages to start Shumann's aircraft, with some difficulty, but the plane crashes and Shumann is killed. After rejecting and then reconciling with Devlin, LaVerne returns to Iowa with son Jack.
Sirk chose to shoot Angels in black-and-white to help capture the despondent mood of the era in which it is set. Faulkner considered the film to be the best screen adaptation of his work [1].
In his review in the New York Times, Bosley Crowther said the film "was badly, cheaply written by George Zuckerman and is abominably played by a hand-picked cast. The sentiments are inflated — blown out of all proportions to the values involved. And the acting, under Douglas Sirk's direction, is elaborate and absurd." [2]
Variety called the film "a stumbling entry. Characters are mostly colorless, given static reading in drawn-out situations, and story line is lacking in punch." [3]
TV Guide rates it four out of a possible four stars and calls it "the best-ever adaptation of a Faulkner novel for the screen, directed with passion and perception by Sirk . . . The acting is first-rate here, and the script is outstanding, full of wit, black humor, and occasional fine poetic monologues." [4]
Zwei Genies (1934) • Das Mädchen vom Moorhof (1935) • Der Eingebildete Kranke (1935) • Dreimal Ehe (1935) • April, April! (1935) • Stützen der Gesellschaft (1935) • La Chanson du souvenir (1936) • t was een april (1936) • Schlußakkord Das Hofkonzert (1936) • Das Hofkonzert (1936) • Zu neuen Ufern (1936) • Zu neuen Ufern (1937) • La Habanera (1937) • Accord final (1938) • Boefje (1939)
1940s
Hitler's Madman (1943) • Summer Storm (1944) • A Scandal in Paris (1946) • Lured (1947) • Sleep, My Love (1948) • Shockproof (1949) • Slightly French (1949)
