Black Angel 1946

DURYEA! ...that fascinating tough-guy of "Scarlet Street"!

6.0 / 10   49 vote(s)
NR
Mystery Crime Thriller Drama

A falsely convicted man's wife, Catherine, and an alcoholic composer and pianist, Martin team up in an attempt to clear her husband of the murder of a blonde singer, who is Martin's wife.

Release Date 1946-08-02
Runtime 1h 21m
Directors Roy William Neill, Paul Ivano, Charles S. Gould, Bernard B. Brown
Producers Tom McKnight, Roy William Neill
Writers Roy Chanslor, Cornell Woolrich

When a blackmailing singer is found dead, poor old "Kirk Bennett" (John Phillips) is convicted of her murder. His wife, June Vincent ("Catherine") enlists the help of bar-fly "Blair" (Dan Duryea) who happens to be the ex-husband of the murdered woman and, posing as a pianist and singer, they start to investigate, ending up playing quite a complex game of cat and mouse with the excellently sleazy nightclub owner/petty criminal "Marko" (Peter Lorre). Duryea raises his game with his performance here and the safe pair of hands at the tiller from Roy William Neill keeps this well constructed, if occasionally soggy, crime noir moving along quite well with quite a few interesting twists and trust to keep it unpredictable.

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