Fallen Angel [1945] [DVD]

Flawed yes, masterpiece, maybe, 9 Dec 2007

By 

R. J. Blower “Dark Side of the Noir” (England) –

  

There is a great deal in Fallen Angel that does not stack up. The dialogue and characterisation of the heroine does not convince us as viewers, and therefore would not be potent enough to bring about the change in the characterisation of the film’s anti-hero, and there his salvation. The hard-boiled cop from New York, with the farcical interrogation technique, does not gell either. But even with these significant flaws, the Fallen Angel qualifies as an outstanding film noir: Dana Andrews makes more than a good fist of the role, and portrays a vulnerability that you know compels him to do bad things, and Linda Darnell, in the femme fatale role, easily draws you in, as does the main location for plot development, the tiny diner on the quayside, surrounded by fog and a sense of foreboding. The flaws of the Fallen Angel are forgiven and, once seen, the film is not forgotten. Almost a masterpiece.

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a cigar which is just a cigar, 19 Feb 2005

This 1945 thriller has all the necessary ingredients for a first-rate film noir. Dana Andrews is more than qualified to play the noir anti-hero (the actor alternates here, as he does in most of his films, between contempt-for-the-world and contempt-for-himself); Linda Darnell is a voluptuous femme fatale (she is not evil, just easily bored); Otto Preminger, the director, is a masterful stylist, particularly in his controlled and expressive use of the camera (as he demonstrated in “Laura,” made the year before). And yet, despite all this, the film doesn’t take off. It’s not so much that the story doesn’t work but that the film doesn’t achieve the balance of stark realism and primal fantasy (as Freud called it) which characterizes the best noirs. The key failing is Alice Faye who plays the anti-fatale heroine. It is a difficult role to pull off (her character asks us to wake up, to stop dreaming) and Faye can’t manage it. She’s no replacement for Darnell — on the screen or in our dreams.

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