Fallen Angel (Director's Suite) (1945)

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General		Extras
Category	Film-Noir	Theatrical Trailer-(2.32)
Rating
Year Of Production	1945
Running Time	95:00
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Otto Preminger
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Alice Faye Dana Andrews Linda Darnell Charles Bickford Anne Revere Bruce Cabot John Carradine Percy Kilbride
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	David Raksin

    Otto Preminger remains one of the most controversial figures in old Hollywood. Critics and film buffs don't doubt that he made great films - Laura (1944), The Man With the Golden Arm (1956) and Anatomy of a Murder (1959) are all classic movies - but the jury is probably indefinitely out on whether he was a great film maker.

The dent in his legacy probably arose for two reasons. Firstly, as a director who often acted as freelance producer his own films he was prone to choosing projects that would make money, such as film adaptations of bestsellers, rather than films with which he could personally identify and be identified. Secondly, and perhaps more relevantly, his reputation as a film set tyrant has coloured the way we look at his movies and remember the man himself. Even Foster Hirsch, who wrote the seminal 500 plus page biography of Preminger is forced to concede that part of his job in writing the book had been to "rescue Preminger from his persona". Yet, try as he might, the book is a litany of legendary blow-ups including the famous fight with power produced Darryl Zanuck which nearly saw Preminger's career in Hollywood come to a dramatic end before it had even started.

The son of a Viennese/Jewish prosecutor Preminger spent his early years in Vienna ostensibly studying law but really just addicted to theatre. In the 30's all the American studios had talent scouts in Europe, a mark of respect for UFA studios and the high quality of the output for the European directors. The common story is that Preminger, who spoke no English, was snapped up by Twentieth Century Fox's Joseph Schenck to come to the new Babylon. In fact, the highly successful theatre director (he had only made one film) had already received an invitation to direct on Broadway in 1935. Whatever the reason, Preminger moved to Los Angeles in 1935 to a bright future. Things didn't get away to such a bright start. He was assigned two B pictures in 1936 and 1937 and messed up his big break, the large budget adaptation of Kidnapped, by fighting with studio head and screenwriter Zanuck. Although he did some acting gigs in various pictures it would be 5 years before Preminger helmed another film.

Some say his finest moment came with the noir film Laura in 1944. This sleek thrilling film established Preminger as a major creative force in American cinema.

Fallen Angel (1945) is the first (in time) of the three Preminger films released by Madman Entertainment as part of its Directors Suite series. The others are Whirlpool (1949) and Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950). Although not Preminger's best films they are unified by the fact that they represent three of Preminger's stabs at film noir.

Fallen Angel was made as a follow up to Laura. The more cynical might say that it was a pure attempt to cash in on the success and recapture the glory of his earlier film. Although the film, then and now, was not highly regarded it is an interesting noir and helped solidify Preminger as a master of the genre.

Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews) gets kicked off a bus going from Los Angeles to San Francisco. He has run out of money. Deposited at night in in nowhereland he walks to Pop's (Percy Kilbride) diner and into trouble. It semms that Pop's waitress Stella ( Linda Darnell) has gone missing, not for the first time, and all the men in the diner are worried - Pops' himself, local Dave Atkins (Bruce Cabot) and a burnt out New York detective named Mark Judd (Charles Bickford). When Stella wanders in unharmed the reason for the concern becomes clear. Stella is a knockout, albeit with the Troublemeter set pretty high. Every man in town wants Stella as their friend and Stanton quickly joins the queue.

It turns out that Stanton was a successful promotor. He uses those skills to get a full house for a travelling spiritualist (John Carradine) by convincing the town guardians of morality June (Alice Faye) and Clara (Anne Revere) Mills to attend.

Realizing that he and Stella have no chance of a life together without money he hatches a plan to woo and marry June then steal her inheritance. The plan is working splendidly until Stella turns up dead and Stanton becomes a suspect, like the other guys in town!

As said, Fallen Angel is not the masterpiece of Laura. Part of the blame must go to the adapted script which is clunky and often unbelievable. As audience members we have no problem working out that Stanton wants Stella from the moment he sees her, but making an honest woman of her? Also, it is difficult to buy the fact that Stanton could seduce and marry June within 24 hours of their meeting.

The film was originally designed as a breakout vehicle for musical star Faye to earn some dramatic credibility. It failed. One look at Darnell smoking up the screen and Zanuck demanded that she be given more screen time at the expense of Faye. Hollywood legend has it that upon seeing the rough cut of the film and realising she was sharing equal screen time at best Faye stormed out, throwing her studio keys to the security guard, refusing to return despite threats from Zanuck. Whatever the truth she did not make another film for 15 years and it effectively killed her career.

Preminger was apparently harsh on Linda Darnell during production of Fallen Angel leading to her drinking heavily. However, the relationship cannot have been that poisonous as the pair made a total of four films together.

Andrews is pretty good as the publicist down on his luck and Darnell is perfect as the small town girl with aspirations. I do have a problem with the performance by Charles Bickford as Judd. Whilst you have to respect any actor who has been mauled by a lion (East of Java (1935)) he seems uncomfortable here and his performance is slightly out of sync with the others as if he was struggling with his lines. Percy Kilbride plays Pop with the sort of aw shucks that would soon see him playing Pa Kettle in a stream of movies from 1947 to 1957. Character actor spotters will also notice Preston Sturges regular Jimmy Conlin in a minute long role as a desk clerk at a hotel.

The film is billed as a film noir but it lacks a lot of the hallmarks of that genre. For one, the femme fatale is not really that bad at all. Stella just wants a stable man with some financial stability. She isn't suggesting that anyone murder a useless husband. Stanton is just down on his luck - he is not the conman suggested by the back of the DVD case. As Dr Adrian Martin points out in his commentary track much of the film is shot in daylight and there is a distinct lack of a rigid plot structure. It is something of a character study of a bunch of different people. The camera work of Joseph LaShelle shines. Perhaps it justifies the noir tag. Moody shadows, odd angles and walls of cigarette smoke keep the viewer interested.

In short, Fallen Angel is not a great film - it may not even be a great Preminger film. But it is a lot of fun and makes a good introduction to the work and style of this intriguing filmmaker.

Video

   Fallen Angel comes to DVD in a whisker off its original Academy Ratio 1.37:1 cinematic aspect ratio.

It is of, of course, not anamorphically enhanced.

Though acceptable it must be said that generally the image is average to poor. It has not been the subject of a detailed digital restoration and as a consequence the quality pales in comparison with fully restored films from that era including Citizen Kane and Casablanca.

It is perfectly understandable that a film which has perhaps limited appeal should (economically speaking) not justify an expensive restoration. However, it would have been nice to see some effort put into cleaning up the print. There is a fairly liberal sprinkling of artefacts, from scratches and blobs to full height lines, throughout the film and the film is subject to flickering. As an interesting aside the greyscale changes from time to time during the film where it goes from a stark black and white to a brownish tinged image. It can't be a difference in the film stock as it occurs at various points often within a single shot.

Given the short length of the film compression issues are non-existent. This is despite the fact that the film is burnt onto a single layer DVD 5.

The transfer features a medium level of grain and the image has degraded over the years into softness. Occasionally the focus wavers.

All of this suggests that the film is better watched on a small screen. It is not disastrous but the film could certainly look a lot better.

There is a telecine wobble from time to time which is hardly noticeable after the opening credits. Minor aliasing can be seen on one of Faye's dresses.

There are subtitles in English for the Hearing Impaired which give a good account of on-screen action.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

Fallen Angel receives a Dolby Digital 2.0 mono transfer running at 224Kb/s.

This is perfectly adequate to carry the dialogue of the film. The soundtrack is undamaged but subject to a persistent hiss which can be annoying if you are listening out for it. Audio sync appears fine.

The music for the film is by David Raksin who scored a hit with Laura's Theme from that movie. In this film he wrote a ballad, Falling, which was to be sung by Alice Faye. Unfortunately, it didn't fit her goodie-two-shoes character and the song came to be associated with the Stella character, played on the juke box at Pop's and used as a motif for her character.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

The DVD contains two extras.

Theatrical Trailer

The trailer, in the 1940's tradition is a dizzying blend of excerpts, new voice-over work and attention grabbing titles. Worth a watch.

Audio Commentary - Dr Adrian Martin

An audio commentary by Dr Martin is always a treat. As well as the formidable interpretive insight he can provide from decades of sitting in darkened rooms he also takes time to fully research the film and the major players in the film. He refers in the commentary to excerpts from Hirsch's book on Preminger as well as critical commentators from the 70's and 80's.

The best complement I can pay to the commentary track is that it sent me back to the film to re-examine some perceived weaknesses of the film. In other words he can find the best in any film.

If there is a flaw in the commentary it is that Dr Martin doesn't detail the weaknesses of the film as well as he identifies the virtues. Although it is hard to disagree that Preminger is masterful at his placement of actors in the scene, particularly large groups of characters, to my mind the film suffers from inconsistent performances of the ensemble. The movement of the actors looks like traditional theatre blocking but communication and direction of his actors is something with which Preminger seems to struggle with in this film.

   The film has been released in Region 1 and 2 (France, England and Italy). The Region 2 releases have biographies but no commentary.

The Region 1 release has the following extras:

• Audio Commentary with Film Noir Historian Eddie Muller and Dana Andrews' daughter Susan Andrews
• Publicity Gallery
• Production Stills Gallery
• Unit Photography Gallery
• Theatrical Trailer
• Fox Noir Trailers: The House on Telegraph Hill, No Way Out

The bulk of the extras are inconsequential though the presence of Andrews' daughter would be interesting. Apparently she has many things, good and bad, to say about her late father. A tough choice as to the best version. The commentary track on the Region 4 release is excellent. Having a look at screen grabs from the Region 1 and Region2 UK suggests that the visual quality of the Region 1 is better. The Region 4 release seems to be from the UK release.

The Region 1 is probably the better buy for the die-hards.

    It is great to see Fallen Angel getting a Region 4 release. Though I don't see it as one of Preminger's best films it is still an enjoyable watch and has many moments and performances to recommend it.

The DVD looks a little too close to the way the film has been seen on late night TV over the last 50 years but is watchable.

The only real extra, the commentary track, is not only listenable but assists in understanding this and other Preminger films.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall