Angel (1937)

Director:

Ernst Lubitsch

Writers:

Melchior Lengyel (play)
Guy Bolton (adaptation) ...

Release Date:

29 October 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

I want love - and I'm going to get it!

Plot:

Woman and her husband take separate vacations, and she falls in love with another man. |

Plot Keywords:

Arc De Triomphe Paris | Racetrack | One Word Title | Horse Racing | Comedy Of Manners

Cast

Marlene Dietrich	...	Maria 'Angel' Barker, aka Mrs. Brown
Herbert Marshall	...	Sir Frederick Barker
Melvyn Douglas	...	Anthony 'Tony' Halton
Edward Everett Horton	...	Graham
Ernest Cossart	...	Christopher 'Chris' Wilton
Laura Hope Crews	...	Grand Duchess Anna Dmitrievna
Herbert Mundin	...	Mr. Greenwood
Dennie Moore	...	Emma MacGillicuddy Wilton
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ivan Lebedeff	...	Prince Vladimir Gregorovitch (scenes deleted)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | UK:U (re-rating) (2006) | UK:12 | France:U | Finland:K-16 | Portugal:M/12 | USA:Approved (PCA #3399)

Filming Locations:

Santa Anita Park - 285 West Huntington Drive, Arcadia, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

Quotes:

Maria: What's the matter, darling? Is it France?
Sir Frederick: No, no. It's Yugoslavia.
Maria: Oh, I see.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Pestañas postizas (1982)

Soundtrack:

Angel

Neglected gem, deserves reissuing.

The Lubitsch touch is omnipresent in this relatively unknown but extraordinary romantic comedy. The theme of a potential marital infidelity of a disaffected upper class wife (a gleaming Marlene Dietrich) is dealt with unusual sophistication and insight, building up slowly to a brilliant denouement, while the core dilemmas and the predicament of the main character are continuously and subtly underscored. The confrontations between the characters are a delight of restrained pathos, whereas Lubitsch, unsurprisingly, perfectly recreates a confined world of rigid social norms that suppresses any emotional profusion. All the performances are top notch, the secondary characters are equally memorable and the whole film is pervaded by the genius of one of cinemas most charismatic directors, Ernst Lubitsch. One wishes that modern romantic comedies had only maintained even a fraction of the wit and incisiveness that Lubitsch established as a norm in the 30s.