Angel (1934) [VHS]

Angel (1934) [VHS]
by Ernst Lubitsch

Angel (1934) [VHS]
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Product details

Actor: Edward Everett Horton, Ernest Cossart, Herbert Marshall, Marlene Dietrich, Melvyn Douglas
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
Cinematographer: Charles Lang
Producer: Ernst Lubitsch
Writer: Frederick Lonsdale
Writer: Guy Bolton
Writer: Melchior Lengyel
Writer: Russell G. Medcraft
Writer: Samson Raphaelson
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog; French (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, HiFi Sound, NTSC
Running Time: 91 minutes
Release Date: 1998-01-01
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Universal Studios
Studio: Universal Studios

VHS Movie Reviews of Angel (1934) [VHS]

Movie Review: A LUBITCH MUSICAL WITHOUT MUSIC
Summary: 3 Stars

This is a Paramount film, credited with a release date of 1937, not 1934 as is given here at Amazon.com, Dietrich's daughter's biography of her shows a few pictures from the set, all dated 1937. That was she year she was called Boxoffice Poison, along with Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Greta Garbo and Katherine Hepburn. It was all nonsense; a pretense like the one used when Metro wanted to replace Lilian Gish with Greta Garbo. It only meant the studios wanted to get rid of their established and highly paid stars, and hire some new ones at cheper salaries. They pretended their films weren't doing well at the box office when in fact they'd amassed huge numbers of faithful fans.

Angel's costumes are by Travis Banton. It was to be their final collaboration, and he did very well indeed by Dietrich, adapting the latest Paisian looks -- Chanel, Sciaparelli, and others -- to the newer, sleeker and almost military Wallis Simpson look that swept the world after the American advenuress married the King of England. The Herbert Marshall, Marlene Dietrich, Melvin Douglas fictional menage a trois captured the essence of the international situation at that time as England and the United States confronted the collapse of the European economy that happened largely because of the American financial diaster of 1929. The Depression hit bottom in 1933, so this escapist-romance movie took place only four years later, when things weren't really much better. The German hegemony wass going straight to hell.

Simple story: An expatriate Austrian woman is married to a noble British diplomat who frequently shuttles back and forth bettween London and the other European capitals. Though she lives in the lap of luxury, surrounded with every conceivable convenience, his loving wife becomes discontent. Her husband regularly neglects her, and although she cannot but appreciate her husband's work, she resents the time away from her it calls for. One day, in a fit of ennui, she decides to take the plane her husband often uses, to fly the channel and week-end in Paris. There, she visits one of her friends from her unmarried days in Vienna, a Russian noblewoman and expatriate who fled her country after the Revolution and now lives in Paris. This older, well-fed and extremely elegant woman has set up a kind of Salon for herself where for cash the tout Paris as well as visiting foreigners with lots of money, can recreate themselves in privacy, with people of their own class. They can drink, gamble, and form alliances with members of both sexes. It is only reasonable that the diplomat's wife should meet the beautifully dressed and charming Douglas there. And, mutually attracted, they establish a kind of emotional rappoort. This intimacy is characterized by a scene of the two of them sitting on a bench in wht looks like a garden or park, having a chat. I's late, and they are both formally dressed; he in a Tux, and she in an elaborate, gauzzy gown. Obviously they've just come from an evening of dancing at some ultra-posh nightclub or hotel ballroom. He wants her. She's interested in him, but she' a married woman and she leaves Paris immediately, without identifying herself. She's known to this circle only as Angel.

She returns home to her husband, and reumes her beautiful life. Then, abruptly, her American suitor arrives to visit one of his old friends, her husband, played by Herbert Marshall. They do not reveal their secret, but the suspense of the comedy is heightene by it. Eventually, the story comes out. The husband feels betrayed by both of them, and his wife, Dietrich, must make a choice between her husband and her lover. Finally, she does, and the movie ends with Angel's wings only slightly singed by the fires of illegitimate desire.

Its all typical Lubitch, and we've seen in since he began in Silents with -- what else? -- comedies of manners and morals. And, as his reputation grew, Lubitch the European, went on to direct a number of successful b/w musicals in the United States, some of which starred Maurice Chevalier. Almost all of them had what was called "The Lubitch Touch," which meant an amusing way of teasing the audience with contretemps between his -- usually bourgeois characters -- as they negotiated the complexities of adulterous or at least potentially adulterous romance. In many ways these comedies of Lubitch's remind one of the novels of Collette, as the musical film based on one of her novels GIGL does, featuring as it does, an older but still debonnaire boulevardier, Maurice Chevalier.

And so, although probably nobody in living memory has read or seen Melchior Lengel's play upon which this movie is based, we recognize that it so eminently recommends itself ot the musical stage, it seems remarkable that the material hasn't already been so transformed. But, its delicious as it is. Very handsomely mounted. Stylish. And funny in lots of charming ways.

Movie Review: "Stylish" is the word...
Summary: 4 Stars

Some other reviewers are a bit harsh. The storyline is pure romance, and the setting is the rarefied salon society of the art deco period. Herbert Marshall is his most suave, and Melvyn Douglas his most charming. Dietrich is here the most beautifully portrayed among all of her films. Films of the period were not action adventures. For instance, another film made about this time, If I Were Free with Irene Dunn and Clive Brook, is similarly enchanting, but some other reviewers here would no doubt find it as "boring." But these were essentially period pieces depicting the grandly leisured society, and they do it very well indeed. These were quite interesting to audiences at the time, and, frankly, I find them engaging today. By the way, this was my introduction to Dietrich, too, and I was stung forever.

Movie Review: Not One of Lubitsch's Best!
Summary: 2 Stars

It would seem that this movie had a sure recipe for a great movie: some talented actors including Marlene Dietrich with her incredible screen presence, a pinch of the famous Lubitsch touch... Unfortunately, the result is surprisingly bland and uninspiring. It's as if the actors and the director were involved in the project that did not interest them at all. There is not a spark of humor, wit, or enjoyment. Simply boring. This is the first Lubitsch's movie that I truly did not enjoy.

Movie Review: SUPERB MARLENE !!!
Summary: 3 Stars

I found this movie very underrated. I discovered Marlene thanks to this movie (and BORZAGE's "Desire"), and only after that, I saw the STERNBERG movies. For me, Marlene gave her finest performance thanks to LUBITSCH (and Billy WILDER's "A foreign affair"). I found her very touching and sensitive in "Angel". Of course, the story seems ordinary, but under Lubitsch's fine direction, it is not boring at all. And remember, BUNUEL's classic "Belle de jour" (with Catherine DENEUVE) is a remake of LUBITSCH's "Angel" !!! 3 1/3 stars !

Movie Review: STYLISH FARCE
Summary: 4 Stars

I do not agree either with Maltin, nor with the other reviewer. OK it is no masterpiece, but this movie has the typical Lubitsch touch, and it's not boring at all. Lavish sets and costumes, Marshall in the typical boring-husband role, Marlene stunning, a delight from start to finish. Then try "Blonde Venus" and "Desire" (both with Marlene).
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