Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution
support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has a new film restoration of
prolific director Roy William Neill’s 1946 film adaptation of Cornell Woolrich’s
1943 novel, Black Angel, in
the works for delivery as a Blu-ray edition in the New Year … Jan. 28 to be
exact.
The legendary Sherlock
Holmes film series in the mid-40s starring Basil
Rathbone and Nigel Bruce were often the work-product of filmmaker Roy William
Neill who, astonishingly, delivered 11 in the series for Universal Pictures
between 1942 and 1946. After Dressed
to Kill finished the series in 1946
(Rathbone wanted to move on, so Universal decided against a replacement and
called an end to the series), Neill turned his attention to the post war film phenomenon
of film noir with the production of Black
Angel. It
would be his last film … he died shortly after the film’s completion of a heart
attack.
Dan Duryea, who had just come off of Frit Lang’s Scarlet
Street, stars as washed-up songwriter Martin Blair,
who is still married to, but not living with, popular songstress Mavis Marlowe
(Constance Dowling — Boston Blackie and the Law, Gog,
etc.). As the film opens he attempts to
see her, but is turned away at her up-scale apartment building by the doorman,
only to the see the little weasel Marko (fittingly played by Peter Lorre)
granted admission.
As a result of the rebuff, Martin does the only
sensible thing and gets drunk again!! Smashed, he is finally taken home by his old
buddy Joe (Wallace Ford), who has him locked up is his apartment so that he won’t
do any harm to either himself or others.
Meanwhile, Kirk Bennett (John Phillips), a musician,
arrives at Mavis’ apartment late that same evening and finds her dead. He thinks about calling the police, changes
his mind and takes off. During the
investigation it is revealed that he was being blackmailed by Mavis. With nothing more than that, he is arrested,
tried and sentenced to death for her murder.
Bennett’s wife, Cathy (June Vincent — The
Climax, Trapped by Boston Blackie, The Creeper), desperately
turns to Martin for help and he tells her that it was Marko, not her husband,
that he saw going up to Mavis’ apartment.
The police, headed by Captain Flood (Broderick Crawford), aren’t buying
it, case closed, move on. So they
decide to go after Marko themselves.
The clues we have, as the audience, are as
follows. A missing brooch, the record
playing when Kirk Bennett found the body, “Heartbreak” and the discovery by
Cathy and Martin (who have gotten jobs as a musical act at Marko’s Rio
nightclub) that Mavis was a serial extortionist, who was also blackmailing
Marko.
During the amateur investigation Martin sobers up
and falls in love with Cathy, but that’s a problem as the date is drawing ever
nearer for her husband’s execution. Oh,
and there is one other problem, the obvious suspect, Marko, was in police
custody when the murder took place. So
who killed Mavis?
Black Angel is a
solid mystery/thriller with film noir
overtones that comes complete with a twist ending … and enough red herrings to
keep you guessing.
Bonus features include a newly-prepared commentary
by author and film scholar Alan K. Rode (“Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film,” “Charles
McGraw: Biography of a Film Noir Tough Guy,” etc.), the featurette titled “A
Fitting Ending” and extensive gallery of stills and promotional materials
associated with the film.
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