Johnny Angel **** (1945, George Raft, Claire Trevor, Signe Hasso) – Classic Movie Review 5,255

The excellent 1945 film noir crime thriller Johnny Angel stars George Raft as a sea captain who solves his father’s murder, saves a damsel in distress (Signe Hasso), toys with a femme fatale (Claire Trevor) and cleans up New Orleans.

‘A New Orleans woman plots murder and mutiny for love!’

Director Edwin L Marin’s excellent 1945 American film noir crime thriller Johnny Angel stars George Raft as Johnny Angel, a merchant ship sea captain who solves his father’s murder, finds who hijacked and stole his dad’s boat cargo of secret gold bullion, saves damsel in distress Paulette Girard (Signe Hasso), toys with the affections of a hard cookie of a broad (Claire Trevor) and cleans up New Orleans.

Johnny Angel finds his father’s ship derelict at sea with no crew aboard. But it turns out there was one unlisted passenger survivor, frightened young French woman Paulette Girard, who tells him of the hijacking of the ship, of the secret gold, and of the man who killed all aboard, including his father. Paulette hoves up in New Orleans and Johnny Angel scours the town for answers.

With Steve Fisher and Frank Gruber’s screenplay based on Charles Gordon Booth’s 1944 novel Mr Angel Comes Aboard, this is a tough, well-plotted mystery. The script gets moody, suspenseful direction by Marin, with expert acting all round and Claire Trevor makes an ideal femme fatale as ‘Lily’ Gustafson. Lily is married to Angel’s boss Gusty Gustafson (Marvin Miller), the owner of the shipping company, a pathetic, rather ugly looking sort of man, dangerously besotted with her, who would do anything for her. Lily prefers the look of Johnny Angel and plans to make off with him, oh and the secret gold too, if she can. An attractive package, the femme fatale and the gold, eh?

This is a small, medium budget RKO Radio Pictures movie that was a surprise hit, but a deserved one, making a profit of $1,192,000 for RKO. Bewilderingly, the skill and allure of its three stars Raft, Trevor and Hasso are totally undervalued, but can be readily appreciated. Raft is basically playing one of his gangster characters in a ship captain uniform, and that’s probably why he is so effective. The alluring Ms Trevor vamps hotly, and blatantly, so the moths are attracted to the flame. No one in their right mind would believe a word she says, except all the men she lures to their doom.

Hoagy Carmichael appears in a showy, relatively small star support role as canny cabbie Celestial O’Brien and sings ‘Memphis in June’ (music by Hoagy Carmichael, lyrics by Paul Francis Webster), adding allure and authentic Forties atmosphere. He is slyly humorous and very good value, and so is Margaret Wycherly as the steely-eyed ship company manager Miss Drumm.

Cinematographer Harry J Wild shoots is stark images, flooding the screen with light or covering it dark shadows. The whole thing has a wonderfully artificial, other-worldly look, everything conjured up in the RKO studio, imaginatively too. It plays like a dream.

Maybe it is slightly talky and slow moving in a couple of places, but otherwise it is an outstanding noir movie, a feather in the cap of everyone involved.

Also in the cast are Lowell Gilmore, Marvin Miller, Margaret Wycherly, J Farrell MacDonald, Mack Gray, Ernie Adams, Leyland Hodgson, Don Brodie, Ann Codee, Virginia Belmont, Marc Cramer, Wade Crosby, James Flavin, Russell Hopton, Carl Kent, Eddie Hart, Eddie Lewis, Jason Robards Sr, Charles Sullivan, Bryant Washburn, Bill Williams, Chili Williams, Theodore Rand, Al Murphy and Kernan Cripps.

Release date: October 25, 1945 (LA).

George Raft and Edwin L Marin re-convened in 1946 at RKO for another excellent film noir crime thriller, Nocturne.

Johnny Angel is directed by Edwin L Marin, runs 79 minutes, is made and released by RKO Radio Pictures, is written by Steve Fisher and Frank Gruber (adaptation), is shot in black and white by Harry J Wild, is produced by Jack J Gross (executive producer) and William L Pereira, is scored by Leigh Harline, and designed by Albert S D’Agostino and Jack Okey.

The cast

The cast are George Raft as Johnny Angel Claire Trevor as Lily Gustafson, Signe Hasso as Paulette Girard, Lowell Gilmore as Sam Jewell, Hoagy Carmichael as Celestial O’Brien, Marvin Miller as Gusty Gustafson, Margaret Wycherly as Miss Drumm, J Farrell MacDonald as Captain Angel, Mack Gray as bartender Mack, Ernie Adams, Leyland Hodgson, Don Brodie, Ann Codee, Virginia Belmont, Marc Cramer, Wade Crosby, James Flavin, Russell Hopton, Carl Kent, Eddie Hart, Eddie Lewis, Jason Robards Sr, Charles Sullivan, Bryant Washburn, Bill Williams, Chili Williams, Theodore Rand, Al Murphy and Kernan Cripps.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5,255

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