We’re No Angels *** (1955, Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, Aldo Ray, Leo G Carroll, Joan Bennett, Basil Rathbone) – Classic Movie Review 3362

Director Michael Curtiz’s likeable but insubstantial 1955 Technicolor comedy, crime, romance movie We’re No Angels is cosy, kind-hearted, larkish entertainment, motoring almost entirely on its considerable star appeal. Humphrey Bogart plays Joseph, a prisoner who escapes at Christmas from Devil’s Island, along with two fellow convicts Jules and Albert (Peter Ustinov and Aldo Ray).

Joseph, Albert and Jules flee to a French small coastal town and find refuge hiding out in the home of a kindly French store keeper Felix Ducotel (Leo G Carroll) and his wife Amélie (Joan Bennett). They decide to rob the store, to get some money and clothes and buy a passage to escape by ship.

But the convicts’ thieving, perhaps murderous plans change when wicked André Trochard (Basil Rathbone), the selfish and mean owner of the store, arrives to marry his son Paul (John Baer) to the couple’s daughter Isabelle (Gloria Talbott). Instead, the convicts spend Christmas night with the Ducotels and repay their kindness by helping them out of various crises.

Director Curtiz relies heavily on his stars’ charm and sense of humour to compensate for the staginess of screen-writer Ranald MacDougall’s adaptation of the French play La Cuisine des Anges by Albert Husson. But, with these stars, that proves good enough.

Also in the cast are John Smith, Lea Penman, Louis Mercier, George Dee, and Torben Meyer.

It was filmed at Paramount Studios, 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, in mid-1954, with a 1954 copyright, but not released until 7 July 1955.

Talented Irish director Neil Jordan’s 1989 feature We’re No Angels is a re-imagined remake of director Curtiz’s 1954 movie, with the films sharing only common themes, situations, mood and characters. They are distant, but recognisable cousins.

Curtiz and Bogart are reunited after Casablanca (1942).

We’re No Angels is directed by Michael Curtiz, runs 106 minutes, is made and released  by Paramount Pictures, is written by Ranald MacDougall, based on the play La Cuisine des Anges by Albert Husson, is shot in Technicolor by Loyal Griggs, is produced by Pat Duggan and is scored by Frederick Hollander [Friedrich Hollaender], with Art Direction by Roland Anderson and Hal Pereira.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3362

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