L'infernale avventura

Paul Muni is a dead convict brought back to earth by the devil in "Angel on my Shoulder," a 1946 film also starring Claude Rains and Anne Baxter. Muni is Eddie, a convict fresh out of jail who is killed by his partner Smiley and goes straight to you know where. Let's just say it's hot. The devil, played by Claude Rains, needs help himself. A Judge Parker is keeping too many candidates out of hell, and he sees that Eddie is a ringer for the Judge. So he arranges for Eddie to get into the judge's body as he sleeps so that he can ruin the judge's reputation and Eddie can get revenge on Smiley. But even the best-laid plans of the Devil can go astray.

During and after World War II, films dealt with psychiatry, with angels, with death, and with people returning from the dead. All of this had to do with the emotional and adjustment problems that returning soldiers had and with the loss of loved ones in countless families. "Angel on My Shoulder" is along the same idea as "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" and "A Guy Named Joe," and a close brother of "Heaven Can Wait" and the later "The Bishop's Wife." This is an excellent example of the genre, with top acting by Paul Muni, Anne Baxter, and Claude Rains. Muni is great in a Bogart type of role - he gives a performance imbued with toughness and humor as a bad guy who begins to see the other side of evil. Anne Baxter is very good as his patient but suffering fiancée, endeavoring to understand the difference in the judge's personality. As the Devil, Claude Rains is inspired casting. He's elegant, charming and manipulative, and gets plenty nervous when he sees things aren't working out as he planned.

Wonderful film, and a good chance to see the fine actor Paul Muni in a lighter role than he usually played.

I admit I'm a sucker for both postwar noir and movies about heaven, hell, the Devil et al, from "Dante's Inferno" through "Petey Wheatstraw," so maybe I like this one more than you would. But I do like it a lot. Paul Muni is hilarious, mugging outrageously when he's not leaping through the air to rumble with devils or thugs.

Never been the biggest Claude Rains fan--his prissiness wears on me midway through any film he's in--but he makes a good, nasty Satan. The scenes in Hell, which looks like the boiler room on the Titanic, are priceless. Lots of good character actors playing brawny devils, lunkheaded mooks, tough dames, flustered Man Fridays and such. The plots a little more clever than you'd expect from this kind of film, with a very nice twist at the end. Definitely worth seeing if you're a fan of the oldies.

Angel on My Shoulder (1946)

It's great to see Paul Muni in another role--he's a great actor who did too few films--and it's never bad to see Claude Rains. In this case Muni plays a con who has gone to hell, and Rains is the devil himself. They have an arrangement to go up to the surface of the earth and some trickiness ensues. It's fun, deceptive, sometimes humorous, sometimes romantically serious.

Because the plot is a clear contrivance, the movie does have a slightly illustrative sense, the way "Harvey" does with James Stewart. But sometimes you forget about the devil and the deals he's made, and you just watch, and the best parts of the movie rise above the cleverness. This is director Archie Mayo's last film, and though he no Hollywood legend, he was a serious, consistent director, and this proves it.

It's the film everyone remembers from those Saturday afternoon TV film matinees. The producer, Charles R. Rogers, had a pretty bleak record when it came to producing films on his own (he was once a V.P. at Universal before going solo). But with "Angel" he knocked it out of the park. He inserted age-old movie favorties and combined them into one story. Gangsters, fights, comedy, drama, fantasy... what's not to love?

"Angel on My Shoulder" (1946) offers up classic performances by such legendary stars as Paul Muni, Anne Baxter, and Claude Rains. All cast to type, they give performances that are timeless. When you think of any of these stars, think of them in this film and it will give you a pretty good idea as to what each was known for.

Although this film was put together during the tail end of World War II and was designed as escapist fun, it holds up today. In fact, it begs for a good re-make. One was done for TV back in 1980, but fell flat. So bad was that version, that they should pay you to watch it. Yet if someone was to do it correctly today, they would have a real gem on their hands.

If you haven't seen the original 1946 version, catch it on TV. It belongs in everybody's movie-watching repertoire.

In HERE COMES MR. JORDAN, Claude Rains played an angel. Here he gets to play the opposite end of the game -- the role every actor loves to play, Satan. He is wry, menacing, and delicious as the master of evil who has met his match in a hood played wonderfully by Paul Muni. The story is interesting and the acting is first rate. See this one if you get the chance.