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:

Douglas Sirk reportedly stated in an interview this was the best film he directed.

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 Acting for Douglas Sirk: 'Written on the Wind' and 'The Tarnished Angels' Remembered (2008) (V)

THE TARNISHED ANGELS (Douglas Sirk, 1958) ***

Though exchanging his usual glossy urban surroundings for a rough open-air environment – dealing as it does with vagrant members of an air show/race (which is perhaps why it was shot in black-and-white) – this typical Sirk effort is particularly redolent of his Teutonic background: powerful (indeed often histrionic), moodily-lit and with performances to match (allowing Rock Hudson one of his finest dramatic showcases, most effective towards the end when he gives his newspaper editor boss a piece of his mind). Incidentally, its three stars – Hudson, Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone – had just come off the same director's WRITTEN ON THE WIND (1956); Malone is the woman admired by virtually the entire male cast including her egocentric spouse (ace flyer Stack), his long-suffering mechanic (Jack Carson), hated entrepreneur (Robert Middleton) and, the latest recruit, honest (read alcoholic) reporter Hudson. Also on hand is a young boy, picked on over his doubtful parentage, whom Hudson befriends and offers hospitality to his whole family (eventually tagging along himself after being fired from his job). Malone opens her heart to him one night and he decides to help when Stack has no qualms about his wife ingratiating herself with Middleton for his sake over the acquisition of a new plane (Stack's original vehicle had been destroyed in a crash which also killed Middleton's protégé, Troy Donahue!). After Stack himself perishes in another race and a gloomy luncheon is thrown in his honor, Hudson arranges for Malone and her son to start a new life elsewhere.