Angel (1937)

Director:

Ernst Lubitsch

Writers:

Melchior Lengyel (play)
Guy Bolton (adaptation) ...

Release Date:

29 October 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

I want love - and I'm going to get it!

Plot:

Woman and her husband take separate vacations, and she falls in love with another man. |

Plot Keywords:

Comedy Of Manners | Arc De Triomphe | Adultery | Diplomat | Gambling

Cast

Marlene Dietrich	...	Maria 'Angel' Barker, aka Mrs. Brown
Herbert Marshall	...	Sir Frederick Barker
Melvyn Douglas	...	Anthony 'Tony' Halton
Edward Everett Horton	...	Graham
Ernest Cossart	...	Christopher 'Chris' Wilton
Laura Hope Crews	...	Grand Duchess Anna Dmitrievna
Herbert Mundin	...	Mr. Greenwood
Dennie Moore	...	Emma MacGillicuddy Wilton
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ivan Lebedeff	...	Prince Vladimir Gregorovitch (scenes deleted)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | UK:U (re-rating) (2006) | Finland:K-16 | Portugal:M/12 | USA:Approved (PCA #3399)

Filming Locations:

Santa Anita Park - 285 West Huntington Drive, Arcadia, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

Quotes:

Maria: What's the matter, darling? Is it France?
Sir Frederick: No, no. It's Yugoslavia.
Maria: Oh, I see.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Cinéma passe à table, Le (2005) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Angel

Hardly Heavenly, and better in legend

Given the talent involved -- Dietrich at the height of her allure, Melvyn Douglas (who proved such a wonderful foil to Garbo just two years later in "Ninotchka"), support from such able troupers as Edward Everett Horton and Laura Hope Crews, and above all the famed "touch" of Lubitsch -- "Angel" should be a sparkling romp, a melancholy romance of renunuciation, a worldly social comedy, or better yet, all three.

Instead it's a mostly tiresome slog through familiar territory, as if all involved were inspired not by Dietrich or Lubitsch but by the stolid Herbert Marshall as Marlene's aristo-Brit husband.

While several recent writers on both Dietrich and Lubitsch have tried to tout this as an undeservingly overlooked film, it's really most worth watching for Crew's pre-Pittypat turn as a Russian emigre-turned-nightclub-hostess, and her few brief scenes can hardly save the picture.

Dietrich fans are better off hunting up stills -- she does look terrific in the wardrobe of English Gentlewoman tweeds and furs, and her legendary collection of emeralds were rarely shown to better advantage.