Technically this was two nights as coming down with a cold I found my late night energy flagging, sending me to bed early on Saturday and Sunday nights.

Fallen Angelis the story of a down on his luck con man, Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews) stranded in the California coastal town of Walton without even enough money to buy bus fare out. After helping a pair of fellow conmen running a traveling fake medium show Stanton becomes embroiled with two women, Stella (Linda Darnell) a fiery brunette, tough and no nonsense that nearly every man in town is pursuing, and June (Alice Faye) a sweet, sheltered, blonde who plays keyboard in the church with a large sum of money held by her suspicious guardian sister Clara. Intent on winning Stella with riches, Stanton begins a love affair/con with June. Things do not go as planned and Stanton finds himself on the run from a murder rap.

Spoilers from here on out.

I enjoyed this movie but it is not destined to become of my favorite noirs. My tastes in noir tends towards the darker films with fewer ‘happily ever after’ endings. Sam broken heart in The Maltese Falcon, or Walter Neff’s doomed end in Double Indemnity, these have more punch and more noir than the ones that work out in the end. Sadly, Fallen Angelis one of those with a happy ending. You can nearly hear the production crew flipping back and forth through the production code as the film progresses, shying away from anything that strayed too close to the line and thereby neutering the film.

When Stella turned up murdered I perked up. It was clear that Stanton wasn’t going to be the killer and at first I had pegged the guardian sister Clara. Later as June insisted with conviction that Stanton could not have killed Stella I really hoped that she turned out to be the killer. The sweet quite girl lashing out to keep what was her’s would have been verily cool. You could have still had the arc of Stanton growing as a character and learning to love, but losing it all as they took June off to prison. In the end it turned out to be one of Stella many thwarted admirers leaving Stanton and June to live happily ever after.

Of course, your mileage may vary.