We're No Angels (1955)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Michael Curtiz

Writers:

Albert Husson (play)
Ranald MacDougall (writer)

Release Date:

23 September 1955 (Japan)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

In Christmas, three prisoners - Joseph, Albert and Jules - escape from the Devil Island to a French small coastal town...

Plot Keywords:

Christmas | Snake | Escaped Convict | Penal Colony | Unlikely Hero

Cast

Humphrey Bogart	...	Joseph
Aldo Ray	...	Albert
Peter Ustinov	...	Jules
Joan Bennett	...	Amelie Ducotel
Basil Rathbone	...	Andre Trochard
Leo G. Carroll	...	Felix Ducotel
John Baer	...	Paul Trochard
Gloria Talbott	...	Isabelle Ducotel
Lea Penman	...	Mme. Parole
John Smith	...	Medical Officer Arnaud

Also Known As:

Angels' Cooking (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

106 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

UK:U | Finland:S | Sweden:15

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Goofs:

Continuity: When Albert carries the tar paper out on the roof he is seen putting it down twice.

Quotes:

Albert: What if she knows his handwriting?
Joseph: If you got a beautiful note like this, would you bother comparing signatures?
Albert: No. It'd have to be signed by a girl, though.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Hibana (1956)

Soundtrack:

Ma France Bien-Aimee

Intelligent, Hilarious, Charming.

Back when I was in college a friend of mine, the only other person I knew who had seen this film, used to recite lines to each other on appropriate occasions. He was a rugby player, a real rough and tumbly sort of guy, and I was a fairly gentle, studious type; we were two, very different types of people. The point behind this is that, while we were both very different, we both found "We're No Angels" to be a superbly executed film.

I recently had a chance to see the film again and it's just as enjoyable as ever. This light-hearted, if somewhat criminal, comedy is warming, family film with an evil streak. It's absolutely fascinating to watch Bogart in a light comedy role, and to see a young(er) Peter Ustinov as a wife-murdering safe-cracker with a heart. And throw in great (if typical) performances by Basil Rathbone and Leo G. Carroll to boot.

But in my mind, the three biggest stars in this film are playwright Albert Hussens, screenwriter Ranald MacDougall, and above all, a surprisingly masterful performance by Aldo Ray. Ray treads the line between being dumb, lovable, trite thug and being a brutal, sociopathic criminal with great resolve. In the end it is his smoothly delivered lines that one remembers above all else.

As for the dialogue, it too treads lines. This is a film for the entire family, yes. But it does have it's randier moments, and all of them are done in such a way that children will not understand the full implications of them (if they do you have no one to blame but yourself). This translates into a "something for everyone" type of film.

Check it out.