Load of rubbish!!

Great Film overall

As Good As It Gets

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This film begins with a man named "Martin Blair" (Dan Duryea) attempting to visit his wife "Mavis Marlowe" (Constance Dowling) in her high-rise apartment but being intercepted by the doorman and refused entry. Not long afterward another man by the name of "Marko" (Peter Lorre) is inexplicably allowed access which causes Dan to visit a nearby bar and become quite inebriated. The next morning Dan wakes up in his bed from his drinking binge and is told that his wife has been murdered. Not long afterward another man by the name of "Kirk Bennett" (John Phillips) is arrested and charged with the crime. He is subsequently tried and upon being found guilty he is incarcerated in prison to await execution in the gas chamber. Yet, in spite of all of the evidence against him, his wife "Catherine Bennett" (June Vincent) believes in his innocence and with nobody else to turn to decides to search for clues which might exonerate him. It's at this time that she happens to meet Dan and together they decide to conduct their own investigation which leads them directly to none other than—Marko. But there is a big difference between having a possible suspect and obtaining actual evidence which might free Kirk--and time is not on their side. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I found this movie to rather enjoyable for the most part with several twists and turns along the way. Unfortunately, I didn't care for the ending at all and because of that I have somewhat lowered my rating accordingly. Average.

Of course, we're all familiar with the saying "The suspense is killing me!" - Right?... Well, with Black Angel, it isn't the suspense that'll kill you. No. It's the sheer boredom of it all that's gonna do you in, for sure.Black Angel was a very dry and uninspired "Whodunit" where it seemed to me that all of the actors were playing their parts in a state of half-stupefied sleep. I ain't kidding! It was the miscast actor, Dan Duryea, in particular, whose stunned character (the popular songwriter, Martin Blair) that seemed to be forever moping around in a muddled state of alcoholic amnesia. (I guess Blair was supposed to be the "black angel" who this film's title is referring to) Initially this amateurish Detective/Thriller started off with plenty of promising dramatic-clout. But once that snarling, queen-bitch, Mavis Marlowe got bumped off, its story took an immediate nose-dive as it continually turned over just about every melodramatic cliché in the book.And, speaking about actor Peter Lorre - It really killed me in a number of scenes where this 5' 3" pipsqueak was ordering everyone around, trying to be such a big, tough menace.Time & again, Lorre stood at least a full-head shorter in height than all the rest of the actors, including the women. Believe me, this munchkin posing as a tough guy was just too funny for words.*Trivia Note* - Black Angel was director Roy William Neill's last film. The following year, at the age of 59, he died of a heart attack.

Seeing this referred to so often as a "noir" raises the question, "What does 'noir' mean?" Usually it suggests a despairing mood, stark lighting and odd camera angles, and a femme fatale. I think that's what the Frogs originally had in mind. But using those criteria rules out films like "Black Angel." True, it was released in 1946, is in black and white, stars Dan Duryea, and involves a deadly serious search for a murderer, but that's about it. If our definitions get too generous, then Charlie Chan movies wind up in the "noir" category too.Roy William Neal, the proficient director who gave us a couple of Universal's Sherlock Holmes, has given us a straightforward murder mystery that lacks a lot of tension because of its weak structure -- Peter Lorre is in this, why? -- and an ending that is a variation on the "it-was-all-a-dream" climax, only in this case a nightmare. I have no idea who or what the title, "Black Angel", refers to. All the women here are perfectly normal. But I suppose there had been a successful "Blue Dahlia," "Black Dahlia", "Blue Gardenia," and "Fallen Angel" -- so, why not? Whatever happened to gardenias, by the way? You never hear about them anymore.I'd never heard of June Vincent, the girl in the case, but whatever her acting talents, she has an admirable bosom. I kind of like Dan Duryea too. If his acting range and this role were part of a Venn diagram there would be considerable overlap. He's not his usual woman-slapping cad, but his whiny voice projects a weakness that fits the character. I also rather like him because he was a graduate of the same college I attended. (Well, what the hell.) There's no particular reason to get into the plot. Duryea and Vincent team up to find out the real murderer of Duryea's wife -- before Vincent's husband is executed after having been mistakenly convicted of the crime. There's nothing shameful about the film. Everything in it is pretty routine.

The main things that personify the film noir genre are dark atmospheres and even darker characters. This film features shady examples of both; but neither is dark enough, which makes Black Angel very disappointing. The film is short at only eighty minutes and obviously didn't have a lot of budget; so as a result the plot is rather thin. We focus on the death of a woman and a man she was blackmailing; who gets blamed for her murder. His wife doesn't believe he did it and so sets out to prove his innocence; enlisting the help of drunken barfly and husband of the murdered woman along the way. June Vincent takes the starring role; but never really convinces as a femme fatale, and this brings the film down. She stars opposite Dan Duryea, who isn't particularly gritty as the leading man; and Peter Lorre, who is rather wasted. This film is directed by Roy William Neill; who is best known for his Sherlock Holmes films. This was actually Neill's last feature film before his death later in 1946; and it's disappointing that such a great director couldn't have gone out with something better. The main problem is certainly the plot; which never gets out of first gear and constantly fails to get the audience involved. Overall, this is a disappointing noir effort and I'd only recommend it to completists.