(2013-05-17 08:38:31)

SUPERB MARLENE !!!

I found this movie very underrated. I discovered Marlene thanks to this movie (and BORZAGE's "Desire"), and only after that, I saw the STERNBERG movies. For me, Marlene gave her finest performance thanks to LUBITSCH (and Billy WILDER's "A foreign affair"). I found her very touching and sensitive in "Angel". Of course, the story seems ordinary, but under Lubitsch's fine direction, it is not boring at all. And remember, BUNUEL's classic "Belle de jour" (with Catherine DENEUVE) is a remake of LUBITSCH's "Angel" !!! 3 1/3 stars !

bkoganbing

(2013-05-16 14:52:04)

A Double Dry Spell

Looking at the criticisms so far voiced about Angel, the majority seemsto feel it's a neglected Lubitsch masterpiece. Yet this was the filmthat caused Paramount and Marlene Dietrich to come to a parting of theways. Marlene would not be back on the screen until she signed a newcontract with Universal and made a comeback of sorts in something thatwould have been unthinkable for her in 1937. That film was a western,but the western was Destry Rides Again.Ernest Lubitsch and Marlene Dietrich hit a double dry spell in Angel.The sum and substance of it is that up and coming young Britishdiplomat Melvyn Douglas meets a mysterious and alluring woman at LauraHope Crews's palace in Paris who he falls hopelessly for. But thealluring as ever Marlene is merely the very bored wife of a seniordiplomat who is a member of the nobility, Herbert Marshall. It alsoturns out that Douglas and Marshall are old army buddies.Somehow Lubitsch could not work his usual magic with Marlene. Herscenes with the two men seem to have no spark to them. In fact theending is a bit of a shock, personally I think she made the wrongchoice.Where Lubitsch did well in Angel was with the supporting players. LauraHope Crews is quite a bit different as the worldly countess than asthat pillar of southern society Aunt Pittypat Hamilton from Gone WithThe Wind. Some of the back and forth commentary between Marshall'sbutler Ernest Cossart and his valet Edward Everett Horton are alsoquite droll. What snobs those servants can be, much worse than thepeople who employ them.Sad to say Angel is a film with a lot of gloss, but no real substancebehind it.