Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell and Alice Faye Illuminate Preminger's Fallen Angel

       I've been eagerly anticipating the DVD release of 1945's Fallen Angel, produced and directed by Otto Preminger and starring Dana Andrews. I don't believe the film ever saw a VHS release, and I'd never caught it on tv. The wait is finally over via the outstanding Fox Film Noir series, of which Angel represents the fourteenth title. I was happy to finally get a chance to view the movie, which concerns a shiftless young man, Eric Stanton (Andrews) who wanders into a small California coastal town and is immediately drawn to the town's fickle, cold, yet incredibly luscious waitress, Stella (portrayed by Linda Darnell). The plot thickens as Stanton attempts to woo and wed the town's richest girl, June Mills (Alice Faye) in order to get the money he needs to win the opportunistic Stella's hand. Costarring Charles Bickford, Anne Revere, Bruce Cabot, John Carradine, and Percy Kilbride. The story might have appeared far-fetched, but Preminger oversees the story with precision and a keen sense of pace, and Darnell (in one of her best performances) is so alluring as the cool, tough Stella it's easy to believe the film's premise, which has the town's entire male population passionately in love with her and spending any free time at the diner where Stella works.

        I enjoyed Angel a lot and didn't solve this "whodunnit" until the final reel. The movie serves as a worthy follow-up to Preminger and Andrews' previous collaboration in Laura; given the quality of the production, the cast, and the director, it's surprising the film wasn't released prior to this new DVD. Andrews again proves himself to be among the most compelling stars of his or any era, and an ideal noir hero or maybe slight anti-hero in the case of Angel, with his melancholy-yet-charming, low-key conviction and effortless sex appeal. There's a unique vulnerability and decency underlining Andrew's best work (see also his fantastic work as a falsely accused rancher in The Ox-Bow Incident, The Best Years of Our Lives and Boomerang) that puts the audience squarely on his side while drawing them into the plot, as a viewer rooting for Andrew's often-troubled characters want to see them and Andrews come out okay by the final fadeout. 

         In the other lead, top-billed Alice Faye reportedly was extremely upset during the shoot, thinking she wasn't being photographed attractively; she also believed the studio was favoring Darnell. Therefore, immediately following the movie's completion, Faye ended her starring career at Fox (she'd return to the studio seventeen years later for the State Fair remake) after years as one of the Fox's leading lights, specifically in a series of colorful musicals with comedic and dramatic elements (see In Old Chicago, Alexander's Ragtime Band and the wild The Gang's All Here for three of Faye's top Fox excursions). Ironically, although it's undeniable Darnell's a stunner who dominates her scenes, granting a cold-hearted flair to Stella, Faye does fine work in a rare dramatic role, and she should have been proud of her contribution to the film.

        With a terrific cast, deft direction, ace cinematography by Joseph LaShelle that beautifully sets and maintains a noir tone for the first frame to last, and a tight, absorbing screenplay by Harry Kleiner (based on the novel by Marty Holland), Angel is certainly one of my favorites in the 'Fox Film Noir' line, along with Laura, Nightmare Alley, Panic in the Streets, and Kiss of Death. The print is excellent, especially considering the film's "neglected" status, which is unwarranted, as the gripping Angel finds its own rhythm and style to creatively showcase key film noir elements and can stand tall as one of the genre's best from the 1940's, right up there with Double Indemnity, Out of the Past and yes, Laura. If you're into great mystery/noir, don't pass up this Angel.