The Tarnished Angels (1958)

Director:

Douglas Sirk

Writers:

William Faulkner (novel)
George Zuckerman (writer)

Release Date:

11 January 1958 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Story of a friendship between an eccentric journalist and a daredevil barnstorming pilot.

Plot Keywords:

Pilot | Reporter | 1930s | Airplane | Barnstorming

Cast

Rock Hudson	...	Burke Devlin
Robert Stack	...	Roger Shumann
Dorothy Malone	...	LaVerne Shumann
Jack Carson	...	Jiggs
Robert Middleton	...	Matt Ord
Alan Reed	...	Colonel T. J. Fineman
Alexander Lockwood	...	Sam Hagood
Christopher Olsen	...	Jack Shumann (as Chris Olsen)
Robert J. Wilke	...	Hank
Troy Donahue	...	Frank Burnham
William Schallert	...	Ted Baker
Betty Utey	...	Dancing girl
Phil Harvey	...	Telegraph editor
Steve Drexel	...	Young Man
Eugene Borden	...	Claude Mollet

Also Known As:

Pylon (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

San Diego, California, USA

Company:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Trivia:

Rock Hudson insisted that Troy Donohue should be cast in the movie.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Despite the fact that the story is taking place in the early 1930s, all of Dorothy Malone's clothing, hairstyles and make-up are strictly 1957, the year the picture was filmed.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Rock Hudson's Home Movies (1992)

Those magnificent men in their flying machines

Rock Hudson gave some very good performances in Douglas Sirk-directed movies. "The Tarnished Angels" is no exception, but the movie is heavy going. The "Written on the Wind" crowd is back - Robert Stack, Rock Hudson, and Dorothy Malone. This time, Stack and Malone, who plays his gorgeous wife, are barnstormers - she does exhibition jumps and he, an ex-World War I hero pilot, flies in races around pylons. Everyone is in love with Malone, except, it seems, her husband. I say seems because what is she supposed to think - he married her after throwing a high roll of the dice (she was pregnant with his child at the time, but Jack Carson offered to marry her), and then he pimps her out so that a businessman will let him fly his plane in a race. Hudson, a reporter, falls for Malone along with all the other men. She's miserable enough to let him make out with her.

There are some wonderful flight sequences that are very exciting. On the ground, though, the actors get weighted down with lots of dialogue, most of it melodramatic.