Anjo da Fé

Sally Eilers is a tough girl, on her own since she was 15. Lee Bowman wants to marry her, but she's just gotten a check from his father, so she blows town with companions Edward Norris and Ann Miller before detective Jonathan Hale can arrest them. Looking for a free cup of coffee, they attend a tent revival meeting. Norris and Miss Miller are bored, but Miss Eilers sees a great new racket.

It's a tale of redemption, with Miss Eilers' character modeled on Aimee Semple MacPherson; her clothes are based on the televangelist's costumes. It's a tightly repressed movie, an attempt to recharge Miss EIlers' career with some interesting casting against type. Despite some interesting attitudes about redemption, however, the movie, while always watchable, doesn't quite work. Miss Eilers lacks the presence, and despite some concessions to the leads' specialties -- Miss Miller does a terrific tap number early on -- it never exceeds being a very watchable little programmer. I expect that at 67 minutes, editor Desmond Maruquette was ordered to trim tightly to bring it down to second feature length.

One didn't have to pay the admission price to this film in 1938 to know all about the plot, and if all of the posters were read before entering,there wasn't much chance of getting surprised i.e,; Sensational Expose of "Miracle Racket." Thrilling drama of show girl who turned "revivalist" for money gives inside stuff on phoneys. Fake evangelism exposed in a sensational story of Crime and Faith. She Lived A Scarlet Lie! Broadway show girl becomes revivalist..in a drama of night clubs and camp meetings that packs a mighty heart wallop. (and for those who couldn't guess the ending); She laughed at "suckers" who fell for her "line"...and fell herself for the oldest "line" of all. Monogram and PRC had better ideas regarding taglines on their posters; write something enticing that had nothing at all to do with the film being shown.

Sally Eilers proves genuinely convincing as a woman who poses as a Protestant faith healer in order to dupe a gullible public. To this end, she fills theaters with a ticket buying public by affecting Kathryn Kuhlman style robes and hieratic mannerisms, which reach their emotional pitch when her "stooge" rises up and walks.

Her plans go awry, however, when her better nature becomes emotionally involved in the life of a rich benefactress, and it is she herself, who is exposed. The film's most gripping moment comes when Miss Eilers desperately tries to actually make a crippled child walk.

Ann Miller, playing a nightclub chanteuse, (at age 15!), opens the film with a beautifully delivered swing song, "It's the Doctor's Orders" that demonstrates even at this young age, that she possessed oodles of showmanship and a fine singing voice. Her fans will not be disappointed in the one dance she is allotted either.

There's a context to "Tarnished Angel" that many folks today might miss. In the 1920s, the biggest traveling evangelist was Aimee Semple McPherson. She was HUGE but ultimately many folks came to doubt her sincerity and allegations of all sorts of naughty behaviors reduced much of her fame and public adoration. As a result, a few years later, Frank Capra and Barbara Stanwyck made "The Miracle Woman" (1931)...an exposee of a lady evangelist who was in reality a fake. It was obviously modeled after McPherson, but for legal reasons they denied it was a veiled biography of her and her work.

In addition to this influence, I think the early Claude Rains film, "The Clairvoyant" (1935) must have influenced the writing of "Tarnished Angel". Rains plays a fake mentalist who, inexplicably, develops the real ability to tell the future...which horrified him when he saw death in some of his patrons! This sort of revelation is important to "Tarnished Angel".

"Tarnished Angel" begins with a police raid on a gambling clip joint. Carol (Sally Eilers) manages to escape and the man behind the raid is intent on catching her one day, as she is a crook. Later, Carol attends an evangelistic meeting just for the free food. After all, she is really down and out. But the meeting gives her the idea to reinvent herself....posing as a fake miracle worker who can heal the sick. Not surprisingly, she pays shills to pretend to be disabled and in the meetings she 'heals' them! But 'Sister Connie' is no dummy and soon is able to gain respectability...and even admits in one of her meetings that she was once a 'bad girl' named Carol! This fake sincerity act works like a charm....and soon all sorts of people believe in her and her cause....except for that cop who knows what sort she really is. Where does all this go next? See the film.

While the film did pull its punches at the end, this is an excellent B-movie. While the budget was relatively low, the actors mostly second-tier and the running time just over an hour (all hallmarks of a B), it is far better than you'd expect. It also is rather timeless, as the story, sadly, isn't so unusual today with some very famous fake faith healers being exposed in recent years.

By the way, the word 'cripple' is used a lot. Of course it's not politically correct to say that...but crooks would use words like that, so it added to the realism.

This was clearly made on a fairly low budget. Its director was certainly competent but not a distinguished one. When one thinks dark and murky, do the words Ann Miller come to mind? When one thinks star of movie about bad girl who tries a sham evangelist routine does Sally Eilers appear anywhere in the top 25 choices for this time period? Yet, Eilers is convincing. Miller is fine. The male performers are forgettable but adequate. And the mood it creates is on-target and chilling.

Had this come out a few years later, it would qualify as a film noir. The characters are hard-boiled. Eilers tries to dupe kindhearted society matron Alma Kruger. The children's hospital founded and operated by Kruger, which touches Eilers, is a precursor to the plot of "The Naked Kiss," which came almost three decades later.

This dark little movie is well worth a look.