Angels Over Broadway

Amazon.com

Sardonic newsman turned razor-wit screenwriter Ben Hecht softens his hard-boiled style for a rare directorial outing in Angels over Broadway. Set in the world he knew and loved so well--Broadway's nightlife of hustlers and suckers and high-society swells--Hecht's tale of tarnished angels stars Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as a street hustler cajoled into fronting a flimsy scheme to heist a gambling hoodlum and save a suicidal stranger. Pre-sex bomb Rita Hayworth is awkward but sweet as a breathy ingénue, and Thomas Mitchell gets all the best lines as a boozy playwright whose chivalrous streak grows with each drink ("Eugene, you're drunk." "My dear, you understate the case by three bottles and a thousand tears."). Hecht has been sharper and wittier but rarely so sentimental. Under his snappy patter is the heart of a jaded romantic taking one more chance. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Angels and Hustlers; a wonderful story starring Douglas Fairbanks and Rita Hayworth.......2007-09-12

This is a good comedy drama about a suicidal man named Charles Engle ((John Qualen) gets involved with a small-time hustler named Bill O'Brian (Douglas Fairbanks) who mistakenly thinks that Engle is a wealthy man. He hatches a scheme to get Engle into a poker game with his gangster friends, and persuades Nina Barone (Rita Hayworth), an out of work dancer in his scheme. Meanwhile, a perpetually lush playwright, Gene Gibbons (Thomas Mitchell), finds the suicide note left by Engle, and he comes up with his own scheme to save the suicidal man. O'Brien reluctantly agrees to become an angel in this little scheme that interests Nina. She agrees to offer her help to get enough money ($3,000) Engle needs to pay back his employer and save his life. The plan goes awry, and finally all ends well. Douglas Fairbanks offers a good performance as a hustler, and Rita Hayworth looks beautiful, but comes short of dazzling. Ben Hecht wrote and directed this movie about a group of hustlers turning themselves into angels.

UNDERRATED.......2000-05-20

Ben Hecht wrote, produced and with the excellent cinematographer Lee Garmes, directed this night-life story about a poor clerk (John Qualen) who is going to kill himself if he can't get $3,000, and and a drunken playwright (Thomas Mitchell) who takes him in charge. The playwright thinks that since sharp gamblers always let you win at poker before they trim you & the trick is to leave the game early............ Two young lovers complicated the playwright's plan. Offbeat and ahead of its time, this Hecht production is surely one of the most unheralded fine films ever to come out of Hollywood (I suspect because 1939 was THE greatest year the movies ever knew and there was too much compitition). Columbia mogul Harry Cohn hand-picked the lovely Hayworth (as a call girl!) and the performances by Mitchell (as a marvelous lush) and Fairbanks are captivating ; Hecht's dialogue sparkles with poetic irony. It's an unpredictable Broadway saga on the screen, filmed with a fast pace and panache. Hecht's character's talk too much, but Hecht was a compulsive gambler himself, and there's a genial, original spirit to this movie.

DVD:

DVD

DVD