Why… because I had a wife who needed killing and you had a husband who took care of it?
Hello to all of the classic people that are returning. I am glad you are back. I want to welcome any new visitors. As a technical note, references and citations are listed for each show on the site at classicmovierev.com. Today on the Classic Movie Reviews Podcast, we are taking on Black Angel (1946).
I was cruising through my list of 919 Film-Noirs looking for something off the beaten track. I wanted a film that was not on every top 25 list. I stumbled onto Black Angel (1946). By the title, I expected a top-flight Femme Fatale. When I checked the actor’s list, and it said Dan Duryea, Peter Lorre, and Wallace Ford, I knew I was onto something. I was not familiar with the female actors, June Vincent, and Constance Dowling. Noting that Broderick Crawford was playing a police Captain, I expected the best.
Well, not so much. Constance Dowling, Broderick Crawford, and Wallace Ford are barely in the movie. At 67 minutes, this plot would have really moved along. However, the film ran 81 minutes and dragged. June Vincent and Peter Lorre were good in their supporting roles.
The movie is rated 6.9 on iMDB.com[1]. This film has a 60 percent audience approval on rottentomatoes.com[2]. Quite frankly, I’m surprised it is that high.
New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther said in a September 26, 1946 review:
And “Black Angel,” which opened yesterday at Loew’s Criterion, is another shoddy example of hackneyed mystery writing. If the picture appears somewhat above average run of the mill whodunit fare, this is a tribute to the versatile performance of Dan Duryea in the central role and to the fancy window dressing provided by the set makers. For the script is a ragged and jumbled affair which no self respecting armchair sleuth would put up with for long. And, even as it is acted out on the screen, the plot lacks drive and suspense because it is so easy to see through the author’s strenuous efforts to conceal the identity of the killer.”[3]
So, let’s get going on this and see if we can find a few noir nuggets.
Actors – Black Angel (1946)
Returning
Film-Noir master actor Dan Duryea played the piano playing drunk, Martin Blair. Duryea was first covered in the World War II drama, Sahara (1943), alongside Humphrey Bogart.
A master of both Film-Noir and suspense Peter Lorre played Marko, a mysterious bar owner. Lorre was first covered in The Maltese Falcon (1941).
Wallace Ford was the hotel clerk Joe. Ford was first covered in the western Warlock (1959).
New
June Vincent played Catherine Bennett, the wife of a man falsely convicted of murder. Vincent was born in Ohio in 1920. Her father was a pastor. At age 17, she became a model. In 1943 she began acting in films.
She had a pretty undistinguished film career. Some of her films include Can’t Help Singing (1944), Film-Noir Black Angel (1946), Shed No Tears (1948), The Creeper (1948), an uncredited bit in Film-Noir In a Lonely Place (1950), and Film-Noir City of Shadows (1955).
She has an excellent career on television beginning in 1951 and ending with “Kung Fu” 1974 and “Maude” 1976. Vincent died in 2008.
Story – Black Angel (1946)
In Los Angeles, a bus passes a high rise. Outside, looking up is Martin Blair (Dan Duryea).
Mavis Marlowe (Constance Dowling) is getting dressed in her fancy high rise apartment. She is really mean to her maid (Mary Field). The maid is getting ready to go out for the evening when a package arrives. Mavis gets a small pistol out of her dresser. In the package is a heart-shaped pin with rubies. Mavis rages on the maid for putting on a record of her singing.
Mavis calls the doorman and says if Martin Blair (Dan Duryea) she does not want to see him. Right on cue, Martin tries to enter the building. The doorman stops him, and miraculously Martin takes the rejection and doesn’t hit the doorman. Martin says Mavis is his wife, and it is their anniversary. Martin leaves the building as instructed.
Before Martin is out of earshot, a shadowy figure, Marko (Peter Lorre), is admitted to see Mavis. As Martin walks away, Police Captain Flood (Broderick Crawford) and another detective are surveilling the building.
The manager of the Palace Hotel, Joe (Wallace Ford) heads across the street to a bar. Martin is giving the piano a workout. The bartender has called Joe to come and get Martin as he is heading for a bender.
Joe takes Martin to the hotel, where Joe locks Martin in one of the rooms to sleep it off. The janitor, Jake (Hobart Cavanaugh), is skulking around.
Around 10:15 pm Kirk Bennett (John Phillips) enters Mavis’ apartment. The record from earlier is playing on the stereo. He makes himself at home in the outer room. He finds the number Crestview 2111 inside a matchbook cover. He hears a noise and finally goes into the bedroom to check on Mavis.
Mavis is dead on the floor, having been strangled with one of her monogrammed scarfs. She is wearing the ruby broach. The small pistol is on the bed, and Kirk picks it up. He must have attended the “Perry Mason” 1957-1966 school for things not to do at a crime scene.
Kirk is confused about what to do. He finally decides to call the police when he hears another noise. Kirk heads back into the bedroom and sees that the Ruby pin is now gone. He goes out the second door in time to see the apartment door close as someone exits. Kirk runs to the elevator, but it begins to open. He heads for the stairs, and the maid, who is coming out of the elevator, recognizes him as Kirk Bennett.
Catherine Bennett (June Vincent) opens the door of her house where Captain Flood and another detective are waiting. They are looking for her husband, Kirk. Flood drops the bomb that Kirk was at the location where Mavis was killed, and he was a regular visitor. Kirk shows up, and they take a gun and a letter from him before taking him away.
At the police station, Kirk admits that Mavis was blackmailing him and the letter confirms that fact. Kirk denies killing Mavis. The fingerprints on the gun really make it look bad for Kirk.
A newspaper and facial montage takes us through the trial of Kirk. Catherine stands by her husband as he is convicted and sentenced to die in the gas chamber. Catherine goes to Captain Flood and begs him to help her husband.
At the Studio Drug Store, Catherine is making a phone call when she hears some extras talking about how bad Mavis treated Martin. One of the women says Martin was the killer. Catherine approaches them and asks about the murder. A man at the table tells her that she can find Martin at Al’s place.
The bartender at Al’s tells Catherine that Martin can be found across the street at the hotel. Catherine gives Joe some money for the location of Martin’s room. It is bolted shut from the outside. Catherine wakes the drunken Martin. He is very resistant until Catherine tells who she is.
Martin says he saw her husband go into the building the night Mavis was murdered. Martin is talking about Marko, who he thinks is Catherine’s husband. Catherine tells that “Heartbreak” the song he wrote was playing on the stereo. Joe comes in and tells Catherine that Martin was locked in the room at the time of the murder. Jack listens outside the room.
As Catherine leaves, she slips some money under the door for Martin.
Martin goes to Catherine’s house to return the money. He says he is doing alright because people still buy his songs. She invites him in. She has a piano, and she and Kirk used to sing and play. The paper music for “Heartbreak” is on the piano. Martin sees the picture of Kirk and realizes that it was not Catherine’s husband that he saw go into Mavis’ apartment building. She tells him about the missing ruby broach.
Catherine and Martin go to visit Kirk in the jail. Kirk confirms the design of broach, and Martin says he gave it to Mavis.
The date for Kirk’s execution is set.
Catherine and Martin meet and go over Kirk’s possessions that have been sent from the prison. They find the matchbook with the number Crestview 2111. Martin calls, and it is the Rio’s club. A palooka named Lucky (Freddie Steele) answers and is confused by the hang-up.
Catherine and Martin go to Rio’s for dancing and to see if Martin can id the man that went into Mavis’ building. Marko comes down the stairs, and Martin recognizes him. Marko notices the lovely Catherine. Martin gets info about talent auditions by tipping the bartender.
The next Monday, Catherine and Martin show up to audition. Martin’s piano playing and Catherine’s signing convince Marko to hire them. Lucky thinks he recognizes Catherine. They go to Marko’s office, and Martin right off finds an envelope with Mavis’ initials on it that has fallen out of the safe.
Catherine and Martin play the club for three weeks. One day Martin shows up at Catherine’s with flowers and whistling a happy toon. He finds a bottle in the cabinet and almost breaks. Martin plays her his new song, and it is a love song dedicated to her. He makes a pitch to get all cozy, but she decides to stay loyal to her husband.
Catherine is trying to find a way to get into Marko’s safe. She is called up to Marko’s office because of a review she had placed in the paper. He opens the safe, and she watches the numbers. Marko gives her a gift of a different broach. He pulls out a bottle of champagne, and we are left to wonder where the night went.
One evening, a newspaperman comes in and tips off Marko to Catherine’s true identity. Marko leaves with the newspaperman. Catherine figures that it is her chance to break into the safe. Martin picks a song to play if Marko or someone is coming to the office.
Catherine goes upstairs and opens the safe. She can’t get the lockbox that is inside, open. Catherine calls Captain Flood to see the evidence that she plans on finding. The first thing she finds is a blackmail note from Mavis saying she will reveal to the “ritzy husband” that the woman he married is actually the daughter of Marko, a convicted felon.
Marko comes in, and Martin plays the signal song. Marko takes Lucky with him to the office. The catch Catherine red-handed, trying to put everything back in the safe. Marko says that he has known all along that Catherine is the wife of Kirk.
Lucky twists Catherine’s arms until she reveals that the lockbox is in the trash can. Martin comes in and demands that Marko open the box. Marko asks how much blackmail they want. Just then, Captain Flood comes in and says Marko has an alibi for the time of the murder.
Captain Flood illegally forces Marko to open the box. Inside is a picture of Marko’s daughter in a wedding dress and her birth certificate. They never tell who she married.
Captain Flood shames Catherine and Martin before sending them away. Catherine is shocked about what she did to get the useless info.
Later, Martin goes to Catherine’s house. He makes another pitch to be her boyfriend, but Catherine is sticking with her husband. Martin says Kirk killed Mavis and destroyed the broach. She stays devoted to her husband. Martin is crushed.
Martin, who has not been drinking the entire time he has been around Catherine, goes out for an epic bender. They show a montage of the bars as he makes the rounds. In a staggering stupor, Martin wanders around town. He hears on the radio that Catherine is making her final visit to her husband before his execution.
Martin staggers into a bar and sees Millie (Marion Martin) a platinum blonde. Millie is wearing the missing heart-shaped ruby broach. When Martin sees the broach, Millie tells that he gave her the broach. He rips it off her dress, and a big fight breaks out.
An ambulance picks up Martin, and he is taken to the detox ward. Martin starts replaying the events of the past in his mind. After Joe locked him in the room, Jack let him out for a 25-cent tip. Martin remembers going to Mavis’ apartment. After a confrontation, he pinned the broach on her and tried to kiss her. When she rebuffed him, he choked her to death with her monogrammed scarf.
Now knowing that he is the killer, he tries to convince the ward doctor to let him talk to Captain Flood before Kirk is executed in the morning. He confesses to killing Mavis and says he remembered everything. In the most counter-intuitive move for a movie doctor, he tries to call Captain Flood. Flood is not in the office. The detective in the office says Martin is a screwball and has already been checked.
Martin gets the jump on the doctor and the orderly. He escapes to Catherine’s house. She is on route back from the prison. Martin calls the police and leaves Catherine’s number Hollywood 71246 in a message for Captain Flood.
Martin them gets the bottle and gets stinko. He wrecks the house and passes out on the couch. He misses Captain Flood’s return call. In the morning, Catherine comes in and finds the ruby broach in the drunk man’s hand.
When he awakes, at first, he sees Mavis. His vision clears, and Captain Flood shows up. Martin has Captain Flood look at the inscription from Martin to Mavis on the broach. He then confesses to killing Mavis. Captain Flood call the governor’s office to stop the execution. Martin says he is happy because they were a good team for a while.
We never find out what Mavis was blackmailing Kirk about.
I’ll be right back with conclusions and the World-Famous Short Summary following a word from our sponsors.
Summary – Black Angel (1946)
If you are a Film-Noir fan, you have heard people leaving phone numbers, and it always sounds great like Klondike 7223 or Brunswick 1129. Have you ever wondered how these worked? I sure have.
The relays were housed at a central office or exchange. The limit for each exchange was 10,000 numbers. The exchange would have a name like Crescent. The first two letters in Crescent, CR map to the number on the phone dial equaling 27. Then there would be four more digits. So instead of keeping the entire six numbers in your head, like it was done at the time, you had to remember the exchange plus four numbers.
The alphabet was added to the rotary dial beginning in 1917 and was an AT&T invention. They are still mapped to modern cell phone touchpads as well.
Rio’s club had the number of Crestview 2111 or 27- 2111. Catherine’s phone number was different, having an extra digit. Her number was Hollywood 71246. This number translates to 467-1246. Most likely, this is because the Hollywood exchange had more than 10,000 phone numbers. They could then add a new exchange with a different sub prefix on another floor or in another building. So, in this case, there were over 60,000 phones on the Hollywood exchange sharing at least seven sub-prefixes[4].
In grade school, I was taken on a tour of the local exchange. As far as I knew, there was only one exchange, so I figure there were less than 10,000 phones in our town. It was a bunch of machines with clicking relays. The highlight of the tour was seeing the relay for the first number. This system began to change in the 1960s.
World-Famous Short Summary – Be careful how diligently you seek the guilty
Beware the moors
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038360/
[2] https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1080192_black_angel
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/1946/09/26/archives/the-screen-in-review-three-little-girls-in-blue-a-sprightly-musical.html
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_exchange_names
