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USA 1955
Directed by
Michael Curtiz
106 minutes
Rated G

Reviewed by
Bernard Hemingway
2 stars

We're No Angels

Apparently the source material for this film, a 1953 Broadway show ‘My Three Angels’, itself based on a French play, was a charming romp and one can sort of imagine why from this screen adaptation which doesn’t stray far from a stage setting. But imagine is all you can do as the visible results of Michael Curtiz’s asleep-at-the-wheel direction is as laborious an example of mid-‘50s Hollywood on its faux naif druthers as you are likely to see.

Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray and Peter Ustinov play three escaped Devil’s island convicts who hideout in the general store of a nice but unworldy owner (Leo G. Carroll) and his wife (Joan Bennett) and their 18 year old daughter (Gloria Talbott, an actress who did a lot of TV work during the '50s and '60s) and decide to use their criminal skills to help the family, principally against a villainous rich relative (Basil Rathbone).

Bogart, Ray and Ustinov are never remotely credible as Parisian rogues even though the script belabours their criminal ways and the quaint story of good triumphing over evil is largely deficient of wit or surprise with only Rathbone giving proceedings a bit of much-needed kick as the callously arrogant uncle.   

FYI: The film was remade in 1989 with Robert DeNIro, Sean Penn in the leads and a strong support cast.  Executive produced by De Niro, directed by Neil Jordan and scripted by David Mamet, it bears only a remote resemblance to the original and is with its big budget production values arguably an even less appealing film.

 

 

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