Fallen Angel (1945)

A slick con man arrives in a small town looking to make some money, but soon gets more than he bargained for.

Director:

Otto Preminger

Writers:

Harry Kleiner (screen play), Marty Holland (novel)

Stars:

Alice Faye, Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Alice Faye	...	June Mills
Dana Andrews	...	Eric Stanton
Linda Darnell	...	Stella
Charles Bickford	...	Mark Judd
Anne Revere	...	Clara Mills
Bruce Cabot	...	Dave Atkins
John Carradine	...	Professor Madley
Percy Kilbride	...	Pop

Storyline

Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews), thrown off a bus for not having the fare, begins to frequent a diner called "Pop's Eats" , whose main attraction is a beautiful waitress by the name of Stella seems disinterested in Eric, he decides if he had money she would pay attention to his advances. He marries June Mills ( Alice Faye ) for her money, and stella is mysteriously murdered. Even though June Learns of Eric's dishonest plans, she still loves him. It is with her support that he investigates the killing on his own, eventually discovering the shocking identity of the real killer.

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Plot Keywords:

waitress | drifter | diner | love | coffee shop | 

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Taglines:

Entertainment that all but explodes with dramatic tension!

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Genres:

Crime | Film-Noir | Mystery | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 December 1945 (USA)

Also Known As:

¿Ángel o diablo?

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Alice Faye, married to Phil Harris and raising two young daughters, then tiring after nearly a dozen years of hectic moving-making, and disappointed with the outcome of this release, chose to leave Twentieth Century-Fox before her contract expired. Eventually, she would return to work at the studio once, playing the mother role in a bland filming of Rodgers and Hammerstein's State Fair. Originally, Miss Faye had turned down the band-singer part in the more satisfying 1945 version.

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Goofs

Among the works listed on the church reader board for June Mills's upcoming organ recital are a Stabat Mater by Beethoven and a Requiem by Brahms. Beethoven never wrote a Stabat Mater, and the only Requiem by Brahms is a massive choral work, highly unlikely to be played as an organ solo.

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Quotes

June Mills: [last lines, June is sitting in a car outside the diner] Eric.
[Eric looks over to June, she motions him to get into the car, he does]
June Mills: Where to?
Eric Stanton: [Eric nestles up to his wife] Home.
[They drive off into the night]

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Connections

Featured in Biography: Linda Darnell: Hollywood's Fallen Angel (1999)

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Soundtracks

"Paducah"
(uncredited)
Music by Harry Warren
Played during the scene in the San Francisco hotel bar

User Reviews

Preminger's follow-up to Laura quite interesting if flawed

Otto Preminger rarely gets credit for being one of the founding fathers of film noir; in addition to this film, there's of course Laura, and Angel Face, Where the Sidewalk Ends, the Thirteenth Letter, and other films with a heavy noir influence (Man with the Golden Arm). Fallen Angel's least interesting aspect (interestingly) is its murder plot. The tainted, ambiguous relationships that Dana Andrews forges when he drifts into a California coastal village make this film a dark study in romantic pathology. It also features Linda Darnell at her most sultry and mercenary; Alice Faye (her only appearance, I think, in the noir cycle); John Carradine; Charles Bickford (as a policeman with a past); Ann Revere (whom most of us think of as a tenement mom to John Garfield); and even Percy Kilbride before his Pa Kettle days. Andrews' very layered tension between rich good gal Faye and gold-digging bad girl Darnell keeps the viewer off balance all the way through.