"Angel", Lubitsch (1937, Paramount)

[Belle]

An excellent restoration of this classic Lubitsch film made two years before "Ninotchka", and set - just as that film - in Paris.

Samson Raphaelson and Frederick Lonsdale wrote the screenplay from a work by Guy Bolton, based on another play by (Hungarian) Melchior Lengyel. This film is one of only a handful to have "Written by... Screenplay by.... Based on..." in its credits. The cryptic eponymous character is also encumbered with three identities. Which one of them is real? The film poses this essentially post-modern conundrum.

The dialogue of "Angel" is witty, sophisticated and artful. Though the plot can appear cliched and trite, viewers need to pay close attention to the script. Dietrich is superb and it's clear that she had fluent English before making her way to the USA. Herbert Marshall is suitably deft in his role as the husband who takes for granted the stability of his marriage. Melvyn Douglas was type-cast in this role all through the 1930s - as the elegant playboy - and he's the lesser performer in this film. Two years later his performance in "Ninotchka" was strictly a cut and paste affair. (Douglas ultimately revealed his considerable acting prowess for Martin Ritt's "Hud" in 1963!)

I've always admired most of Lubitsch's films ("Cluny Brown" was an oddity - a dull and tedious yarn) and they often warrant repeated viewings to understand all the subtleties. "Angel" is such a film; one cannot understand all the complexities without repeated viewings. Lubitsch had a talent for conveying subtlety in his narratives through minor characters as, in this case, the household staff attending to Sir Frederick and Lady Barker's dinner. We see nothing of the actual dinner, only the un-eaten portions on two plates and the empty third one collected by wait staff - signalling the psychological state of two of the characters (unsatisfied desires). Very clever indeed and a central ingredient (pun intended) which contributed to "the Lubitsch touch" - leaving an audience to form its own opinion. Who can ever forget the cigarette girls entering the room of the three Russian envoys in "Ninotchka" when audiences were regaled with raucous laughter, seeing nothing inside that room, after which the girls leave straightening their short skirts. Later Ninotchka would observe, "gentlemen, you must have been smoking a lot!"

Ernst Lubitsch brought European wit, flair and sophistication to US cinema but the box office results were occasionally very mixed, as with this film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3cXP32_Pvk

An excellent appraisal from Senses of Cinema follows:

https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2020/cteq/angel-1937/