IMDb > Angels Over Broadway (1940)

Angels Over Broadway (1940) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
6.7/10   266 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 12% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Directors:
Ben Hecht
Lee Garmes (co-director)
Writer:
Ben Hecht (written by)
Contact:
View company contact information for Angels Over Broadway on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
2 October 1940 (USA) more
Genre:
Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Drama | Music more
Tagline:
A HECTIC ROMANCE TO BLOW THE FISES OUT ALONG MAZDA LANE (original poster - all caps) more
Plot:
A cuckolded embezzler on the verge of suicide is helped by a tout, an alcoholic playwright, and a pick-up girl to reimburse the money with a gambling sting. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
Nominated for Oscar. more
User Comments:
ANGELS OVER Broadway (Ben Hecht and Lee Garmes, 1940) *** more (9 total)

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. ... Bill O'Brien

Rita Hayworth ... Nina Barona
Thomas Mitchell ... Gene Gibbons
John Qualen ... Charles Engle
George Watts ... Joseph Hopper
Ralph Theodore ... Dutch Enright
Eddie Foster ... Louie Artino
Jack Roper ... Eddie Burns
Constance Worth ... Sylvia Marbe
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parents
Runtime:
79 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Black and White
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording) | Mono
Certification:
Argentina:Atp | USA:TV-PG | USA:Approved (PCA #6487) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Finland:S | Sweden:15
Company:
Columbia Pictures Corporation more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Walter Baldwin (Rennick) and Stanley Brown (Master of Ceremonies) are listed by a modern source as cast members for those roles, but they did not appear or were not identifiable in the movie. more
Goofs:
Continuity: When Gene goes over to his soon to be ex-wife in the club, the ashtray fills up between cuts. more
Quotes:
Nina Barone: Please beat it! I'm no gun moll!
Bill O'Brien: You ain't no buzzard's dish either - not when I'm around!
more
Soundtrack:
Mon Homme more

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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
12 out of 15 people found the following comment useful.
ANGELS OVER Broadway (Ben Hecht and Lee Garmes, 1940) ***, 18 September 2006
7/10
Author: MARIO GAUCI (marrod@melita.com) from Naxxar, Malta

For the most part this unusual, thought-provoking and character-driven moral fable is a fascinating affair but, in spite of the compact running-time, it becomes tiresomely talkative (especially given Hecht's overwritten script). Co-directed by a writer (Hecht made seven films in this multiple capacity, but this is the first one I've watched!) and a cinematographer that were second to none in their respective professions, it's small wonder that the film is brimming with sparkling dialogue (particularly as delivered by Thomas Mitchell, here in his trademark role of philosophical drunk) and inventive shadowy lighting.

The main roles, however, are equally well-filled: Mitchell, as I said, wasn't really stretching himself here but his three co-stars - Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Rita Hayworth and John Qualen - had rarely been offered such an opportunity to shine up to this point. Fairbanks' best-known role had been his 'smiling villain' Rupert of Hentzau in THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1937; where's that DVD, Warners?) but he had already made other impressive ensemble pieces, such as THE YOUNG IN HEART (1938; see my review elsewhere) and GUNGA DIN (1939); actually, his role here is sort of similar to that of the former - though he's a harder character, an utter heel, but whose scheme of 'taking' a man he believes to be a millionaire rebounds on himself and actually ends up involved in the 'taking' of his 'business partners' to the benefit of the latter (who's really an embezzler on the brink of suicide)! The unwilling crook is played by John Qualen, the great - if largely unsung - diminutive and mild-mannered character actor, whose other notable roles included the murderer in HIS GIRL Friday (1940), a victim of the Oklahoma Dustbowl in THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940) and "Miser" Stevens in THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER (1941). The film's feminine interest, then, is provided by a young Rita Hayworth who, again, exceeds all expectations with her role of a star-struck girl who forsakes her dreams of glory in order to do a good deed (even if she's initially drawn into the 'plot' purely on a whim by Fairbanks); indeed, the characters' individual reformation - more so than in THE YOUNG IN HEART, and done in a much less sentimental manner - adds an undercurrent of spirituality to the film's prominent sophistication and hard-boiled veneer, which is not so surprising coming from Hecht!

For its time, ANGELS OVER Broadway must have seemed like a B-movie with pretensions; while it falters here and there under the strain of its own self-indulgence, because it is unique, the film doesn't feel all that dated today and is bound to give detailed pleasure on every viewing.

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