The Tarnished Angels

Last updated
The Tarnished Angels
The Tarnished Angels (1958 poster).jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Douglas Sirk
Screenplay by George Zuckerman
Based onthe novel Pylon
by William Faulkner
Produced by Albert Zugsmith
Starring Rock Hudson
Robert Stack
Dorothy Malone
Jack Carson
Cinematography Irving Glassberg
Edited byRussell F. Schoengarth
Music by Frank Skinner
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal-International
Release dates
  • November 21, 1957 (1957-11-21)(London)
  • December 25, 1957 (1957-12-25)(Charlotte, North Carolina)
[1] [2] [3]
Running time
91 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office$1.5 million [4]

The Tarnished Angels is a 1957 black-and-white American CinemaScope drama film directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Rock Hudson, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, Jack Carson, and Robert Middleton. [5] [6] The screenplay by George Zuckerman is based on the 1935 novel Pylon by William Faulkner.

Contents

Plot

Disillusioned World War I flying ace Roger Shumann (Robert Stack) spends his days during the Great Depression making appearances as a barnstorming pilot at rural airshows with his parachutist wife LaVerne (Dorothy Malone), worshipful son Jack (Chris Olsen), and mechanic Jiggs (Jack Carson) in tow.

New Orleans reporter Burke Devlin (Rock Hudson) is intrigued by the gypsy-like lifestyle of the former war hero, but is dismayed by his cavalier treatment of his family and soon finds himself attracted to the neglected LaVerne. Meanwhile, Roger barters with aging business magnate Matt Ord (Robert Middleton) for a plane in exchange for a few hours with his wife. Tragedy ensues when Jiggs' anger about his employer's refusal to face family responsibilities causes him to make a rash and fatal decision. He manages, with some difficulty, to get Shumann's aircraft to start, but the plane crashes and Shumann is killed. After rejecting and then reconciling with Devlin, LaVerne returns to Iowa with Jack.

Cast

Jack Carson and Dorothy Malone The Tarnished Angels (1958) trailer 1.jpg
Jack Carson and Dorothy Malone

Production

This Universal-International film reunited director Douglas Sirk with Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, and Rock Hudson, with whom he had collaborated on Written on the Wind the previous year. In contrast to this film, in the earlier film Stack and Malone played brother and sister and Malone's character was infatuated with Hudson's character.

Sirk chose to shoot Angels in black-and-white to help capture the despondent mood of the era in which it is set. William Faulkner considered this film to be the best screen adaptation of his work. [7]

Release and reception

The Tarnished Angels premiered in London in November 1957 and got its first American booking on Christmas Day 1957 in Charlotte, North Carolina, before going into general release. [8] [9]

In his review in The New York Times , Bosley Crowther said the film "was badly, cheaply written by George Zuckerman and is abominably played by a hand-picked cast. The sentiments are inflated — blown out of all proportions to the values involved. And the acting, under Douglas Sirk's direction, is elaborate and absurd." [10] Variety called the film "a stumbling entry. Characters are mostly colorless, given static reading in drawn-out situations, and story line is lacking in punch." [11]

More recent reviews, penned after a resurgence of interest and respect for Sirk's directing, are almost uniformly positive. In 1998, Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader included the film in his unranked list of the best American films not included on the AFI Top 100. [12] Dave Kehr wrote in The New York Times : "The Tarnished Angels is among Sirk’s most self-conscious and artistically ambitious creations. ... This is bravura filmmaking in the service of a haunting vision. Yet there are moments of almost microscopic subtlety: the camera movement that expresses the moral reversal of the Hudson and Stack characters, one growing larger than the other; the infinite tenderness with which Hudson strokes Ms. Malone’s hair, helplessly trying to comfort her after a shock." [13]

TV Guide rated the film four out of a possible four stars and called it "the best-ever adaptation of a Faulkner novel for the screen, directed with passion and perception by Sirk ... The acting is first-rate here, and the script is outstanding, full of wit, black humor, and occasional fine poetic monologues." [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>All That Heaven Allows</i> 1955 film by Douglas Sirk

All That Heaven Allows is a 1955 American drama romance film directed by Douglas Sirk, produced by Ross Hunter, and adapted by Peg Fenwick from a novel by Edna L. Lee and Harry Lee. It stars Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson in a tale about the social complications that arise following the development of a romance between a well-to-do widow and a younger man, who owns a tree nursery. In 1995, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglas Sirk</span> German film director (1897–1987)

Douglas Sirk was a German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s. However, he also directed comedies, westerns, and war films. Sirk started his career in Germany as a stage and screen director, but he left for Hollywood in 1937 after his Jewish wife was persecuted by the Nazis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Stack</span> American actor (1919–2003)

Robert Stack was an American actor and television host. Known for his deep voice and commanding presence, he appeared in over forty feature films. He starred in the ABC television series The Untouchables (1959–1963), for which he won the 1960 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Series, and later hosted/narrated the true-crime series Unsolved Mysteries (1987–2002). He was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film Written on the Wind (1956). Later in his career, Stack was known for his deadpan comedy roles that lampooned his dramatic on-screen persona, most notably as Captain Rex Kramer in Airplane! (1980).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Malone</span> American actress (1924–2018)

Dorothy Malone was an American actress. Her film career began in 1943, and in her early years, she played small roles, mainly in B-movies, with the exception of a supporting role in The Big Sleep (1946). After a decade, she changed her image, particularly after her role in Written on the Wind (1956), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

<i>Written on the Wind</i> 1956 film by Douglas Sirk

Written on the Wind is a 1956 American Southern Gothic melodrama film directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack, and Dorothy Malone. It follows the complicated relationships among dysfunctional family members of a Texas oil dynasty: its alcoholic heir, his wife, his childhood best friend, and his ruthless, self-destructive sister.

<i>Lux Video Theatre</i> American television anthology series (1950–1957)

Lux Video Theatre is an American television anthology series that was produced from 1950 until 1957. The series presented both comedy and drama in original teleplays, as well as abridged adaptations of films and plays.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Carson</span> Canadian-American actor (1910–1963)

John Elmer Carson, known as Jack Carson, was a Canadian-born American film actor. Carson often played the role of comedic friend in films of the 1940s and 1950s, including The Strawberry Blonde (1941) with James Cagney and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) with Cary Grant. He appeared in such dramas as Mildred Pierce (1945), A Star is Born (1954), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). He worked for RKO and MGM, but most of his notable work was for Warner Bros.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Rappaport</span> American film director

Mark Rappaport is an American independent/underground film director and film critic, who has been working since the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Middleton</span> American actor (1911–1977)

Robert Middleton was an American film and television actor known for his large size, beetle-like brows, and deep, booming voice, usually in the portrayal of ruthless villains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ross Hunter</span> American actor (1920–1996)

Ross Hunter was an American film and television producer and actor. He is best known for producing light comedies such as Pillow Talk (1959), and the glamorous melodramas Magnificent Obsession (1954), Imitation of Life (1959), and Back Street (1961).

<i>The Last Voyage</i> 1960 film by Andrew L. Stone

The Last Voyage is a 1960 Metrocolor American disaster film starring Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, George Sanders, and Edmond O'Brien.

<i>Magnificent Obsession</i> (1954 film) 1954 film by Douglas Sirk

Magnificent Obsession is a 1954 American romantic drama film directed by Douglas Sirk starring Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson. It is a remake of the 1935 film by the same name, starring Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor. Both are based on the 1929 novel Magnificent Obsession by Lloyd C. Douglas.

<i>Pylon</i> (novel) Novel by William Faulkner

Pylon is the eighth novel by the American author William Faulkner. Published in 1935, Pylon is set in New Valois, a fictionalized version of New Orleans. It is one of Faulkner's few novels set outside Yoknapatawpha County, his favorite fictional setting. Pylon is the story of a group of barnstormers whose lives are thoroughly unconventional. They live hand-to-mouth, always just a step or two ahead of destitution, and their interpersonal relationships are unorthodox and shocking by the standards of their society and times. They meet an overwrought and extremely emotional newspaperman in New Valois, who gets deeply involved with them, with tragic consequences.

Man of a Thousand Faces is a 1957 American dark dramatic film detailing the life of silent film actor Lon Chaney, played by James Cagney.

The 29th Academy Awards were held on March 27, 1957, to honor the films of 1956.

<i>Band of Angels</i> 1957 film by Raoul Walsh

Band of Angels is a 1957 American psychological drama film set in the American South before and during the American Civil War, based on the 1955 novel of the same title by Robert Penn Warren. It starred Clark Gable, Yvonne De Carlo and Sidney Poitier. The movie was directed by Raoul Walsh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Zugsmith</span> Director, producer and screenwriter (1910–1993)

Albert Zugsmith was an American film producer, film director and screenwriter who specialized in low-budget exploitation films through the 1950s and 1960s.

George Zuckerman was an American screenwriter and novelist.

<i>Theres Always Tomorrow</i> (1956 film) 1956 film by Douglas Sirk

There's Always Tomorrow is a 1956 American romantic melodrama film directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray and Joan Bennett. The screenplay by Bernard C. Schoenfeld was adapted from the novel of the same name by Ursula Parrott. The plot concerns a man's unhappiness with his domestic life and romantic relationship with a former employee. The film was produced by Ross Hunter for Universal Pictures, which had also produced the 1934 adaptation of Parrott's novel. It was released in the United States on January 8, 1956.

<i>At Gunpoint</i> 1955 film by Alfred L. Werker

At Gunpoint is a 1955 American CinemaScope Western film directed by Alfred L. Werker and starring Fred MacMurray, Dorothy Malone and Walter Brennan.

References

  1. ↑ IMDb entry
  2. ↑ Motion Picture Daily
  3. ↑ British Newspaper Archive
  4. ↑ "Top Grossers of 1958". Variety. 7 January 1959. p. 48. Please note figures are for US and Canada only and are domestic rentals accruing to distributors as opposed to theatre gross
  5. ↑ Variety film review; November 20, 1957, page 6.
  6. ↑ Harrison's Reports film review; November 16, 1957, page 184.
  7. ↑ William Faulkner at the Special Collections Library of the University of Michigan Archived February 12, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ↑ IMDb entry
  9. ↑ Motion Picture Daily
  10. ↑ Crowther, Bosley (1958-01-07). "New York Times review". Movies.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
  11. ↑ "Variety review". Variety.com. 1956-12-31. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
  12. ↑ Rosenbaum, Jonathan (June 25, 1998). "List-o-Mania: Or, How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love American Movies". Chicago Reader . Archived from the original on April 13, 2020.
  13. ↑ Kehr, Dave (13 October 2010). "Douglas Sirk Without Tears". The New York Times.
  14. ↑ "TV Guide review". Tvguide.com. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.