Half Angel

I really like Loretta Young films. I think she was a great actress in her time. I would like to see more of her films such as Paula, Half Angel, etc. I really hope that some of her rarely seemed films such as Paula and Half Angel...is available on video tapes.

Loretta Young is a "Half Angel" in this 1951 comedy starring Joseph Cotten, Cecil Kellaway, Jim Backus and Irene Ryan.

The beautiful Miss Young plays Nora, who by day is a very professional-looking nurse and by night a glamorous seductress. Apparently she has a split personality, and when her conscious mind goes to sleep, Nora's other personality wakes up and drops in on an old school chum who is now an important attorney (Cotten).

Her mystique, her allure, her seductiveness make him crazy. Every time he spots the daytime starched nurse Nora, he happily approaches her and throws his arms around her - only to get slapped in the face. Nora is engaged to be married to someone else and besides, she has no memory of these nighttime escapades.

One of the reviewers on this site complained about the holes in the plot. This is the kind of film that doesn't hold up well under much - or any - scrutiny. It's a fantasy and has to be enjoyed as such.

Nitpicking about how fast a trial is docketed and why someone receives a subpoena is like saying that tapping red rhinestone shoes together will never take you back home.

At 38, Loretta Young is absolutely gorgeous, as she always was and remained for the rest of her life. Huge eyes, a face the shape of a cameo, beautiful hair, slim figure - as if any of it is really hidden by a nurse's cap and uniform.

For Nora the wild one, she wears her hair down and a flashy seafoam-colored dress. Which brings me to the film's color. It's very reminiscent of a Better Homes and Garden book from the '50s that I used to look at as a child - very bright colors and lots of them. I found the use of color in the film quite unusual.

A light comedy is strange casting for Joseph Cotten, but for my money, he pulls it off.

This isn't a wildly funny movie, but it is an amusing one, and the psychiatric plot is in line with the post-war interest in the subconscious so prevalent in films of that era.

This film takes the fluff approach, which movies like "The Snake Pit," "The Dark Past" and "Spellbound" did not. Loretta fans will love it.

Actor Joseph Cotton, a his 2nd surreal genre film following "Portrait of Jeanie" with another brunette beauty of an Actress. The surreal nature of this film comes from memory recollection scenes, sleep walking premise, extreme sensuality by Actress Loretta Young, and even several odd overdubbed songs that are similar to the 1951 famous hit 'How High the Moon' by Mary Ford and Les Paul. Great supporting acting from Jim Backus, "Mr. Howell". The viewer can only wonder if months after filming 'Key to the City' with her true love Clark Gable, Ms. Young insisted on continuing the feeling with another thoroughly romantic film. Indeed, Actor Joseph Cotton is hardly miscast but does very well, albeit he is among few actors who have filmed with the loveliest leading ladies of his era, like Jennifer Jones, Ms. Young, Ingrid Bergman, Ava Gardner, Jane Russell, and Rita Hayworth. Only Actor Michael Douglas has achieved such a similar feat in today's Hollywood. Lastly, the Long Beach Cyclone Roller coaster scenes are great historical footage and a pleasant surprise.

Half Angel (1951)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Incredibly charming and sweet romantic comedy about a shy and ordinary girl (Loretta Young) who doesn't know it but is in love with a lawyer (Joseph Cotten). She's about to be married to another man but she also sleepwalks and this is when she's able to confess her love for the lawyer. When she's awake, she hates him. This film doesn't have the best reputation but I loved nearly every second of it. You've certainly gotta wonder how Young can walk and talk while "sleepwalking" but that minor quibble aside, this is a great little gem. Young and Cotten have great chemistry together and both are very light on their feet and give terrific comedic performances. I've never seen Cotten so funny, although I haven't seen him in too many comedies. Young is a charming as ever and the supporting cast offers nice laughs as well. This Technicolor film is yet another Young film in the vaults of Fox.

The plot of the movie was imaginative- Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in reverse, gender as well as personality (Loretta is almost Mr Hyde while awake and Dr Jekyll in subconscious). Unlike what has been mentioned several times, (even by her screen father), it isn't sleep walking but schizophrenia and hence the plot is believable, including her failure to remember what her subconscious personality did, in detail. But she did remember, and tried to hint on screen, that she had been doing some thing naughty. The movie would have been excellent had a few gaps had been filled up and ironed out. She did knew her childhood sweetheart (John Raymond), but her reason of dislike isn't clear (which could have been clarified just in a few short dialogues, say with her colleague nurses). Quite a few other fillers would have made it into excellent movie. I give it above average in Plot, Loretta and Cotten - roles as well as execution, but that had been highly negated by the execution and also realization of both the doctor- who should have (and as it comes out did) guess but didn't take sufficient measures and more by her father, who obviously knew Raymond (he was the gardener of their family), as well as that the kids shared something sweet. He could have been a more pragmatic person say as the uncle in Katie Did It.