The Tarnished Angels

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.[4][5] The screenplay by George Zuckerman is based on the 1935 novel Pylon by William Faulkner.

For the 1938 film, see Tarnished Angel.
The Tarnished Angels
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDouglas Sirk
Produced byAlbert Zugsmith
Screenplay byGeorge Zuckerman
Based onThe novel "Pylon"
by William Faulkner
StarringRock Hudson
Robert Stack
Dorothy Malone
Jack Carson
Music byFrank Skinner
CinematographyIrving Glassberg, A.S.C.
Edited byRussell F. Schoengarth, A.C.E.
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal-International
Release date
  • November 21, 1957 (1957-11-21) (London)
  • December 25, 1957 (1957-12-25) (Charlotte, North Carolina)
[1][2][3]
Running time
91 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

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 wealthy and 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 to start Shumann's aircraft, with some difficulty, but the plane crashes and Shumann is killed. After rejecting and then reconciling with Devlin, LaVerne returns to Iowa with son Jack.

Cast
Jack Carson and Dorothy Malone

Production

The Universal-International film reunited director Sirk with Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, and Rock Hudson, with whom he had collaborated on Written on the Wind two years earlier. Stack and Malone played brother and sister in their previous appearance together, with Malone's character infatuated with Hudson's.

Sirk chose to shoot Angels in black-and-white to help capture the despondent mood of the era in which it is set. Faulkner considered the film to be the best screen adaptation of his work.[6]

Critical reception

The film premiered in London in November 1957 and got its first American date on Christmas Day 1957 in Charlotte, North Carolina, before going into general release in January.[7][8] 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."[9]

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."[10]

More recent reviews, penned after a resurgence of interest and respect for Sirk's directing, are 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.[11] Dave Kehr writes 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."[12]

TV Guide rates it four out of a possible four stars and calls 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."[13]

See also

References
  1. IMDb entry
  2. Motion Picture Daily
  3. British Newspaper Archive
  4. Variety film review; November 20, 1957, page 6.
  5. Harrison's Reports film review; November 16, 1957, page 184.
  6. William Faulkner at the Special Collections Library of the University of Michigan Archived February 12, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  7. IMDb entry
  8. Motion Picture Daily
  9. Crowther, Bosley (1958-01-07). "New York Times review". Movies.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
  10. "Variety review". Variety.com. 1956-12-31. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
  11. 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. "TV Guide review". Tvguide.com. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
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