Treat yourself to a festive film night as Tuesday Nights at the Movies presents its final 2024 screening, “We’re No Angels.”
It’s Christmas Eve 1895, and three inmates – Joseph (Humphrey Bogart in a rare comedy performance), Jules (Peter Ustinov), and Albert (Aldo Ray) – have escaped the infamous Devil’s Island penal colony along with Albert’s pet viper, Adolphe. Having made their way to a nearby French colonial town, they plan to pass themselves off as parolees (who are employed by townspeople to do odd jobs) until they can stow away on the next ship leaving port.
Everything goes to plan at first, and they’re hired by the kindly but bumbling shopkeeper Felix Ducotel (Leo G. Carroll) to repair his leaky roof. But this is a comedy, however black, and the mad antics soon begin. The trio comes to the rescue of Felix’s daughter Isabelle (Gloria Talbott), who has fainted after reading a letter from her father’s Scrooge-y cousin, Andre Trochard, played by Basil Rathbone with mustache-twirling gusto. It seems Trochard’s nephew – and Isabelle’s secret amour – Paul (John Baer) is to enter into an advantageous marriage for the sake of the family business. Even worse, Andre and Paul are about to arrive for an impromptu Christmas Day audit of the failing store (which Andre owns).
Soon, the cons are folded into the family – which includes Felix’s wife Amelie (Joan Bennett) – and playing unconventional guardian – and avenging – angels to the very people they originally planned to rob.
The joy of the film is in its good-natured absurdity. To sum up the rest of the plot with “hijinks ensued” would not be far off the mark.
There are also, surprisingly, many tender moments as Joseph, Albert, and Jules realize how much they like this family. “It isn't fair,” Jules complains. “Here we are, three desperate criminals who'll stop at nothing to escape from Devil's Island, and we have to fall in with nice people.” While the Ducotels have led largely sheltered lives and view the world with innocence and naivete, the trio’s harder life experience has given them wisdom of a sort. When Isabelle observes they don’t look like criminals, Albert responds, “If crime showed on a man's face, there wouldn't be any mirrors.”
There is also a particularly poignant scene with the family gathered around the piano and Bennett singing “Sentimental Moments” as the “angels” look on, clearly imagining what their lives might have been if they had made different choices. The song, by Friedrich Hollaender and Ralph Freed, is longing and wistful, and amazingly recorded for the first time only in 2018 when Eric Clapton included it on his Christmas album, "Happy Xmas."
The film’s quirky casting somehow works. Our familiarity with Bogie’s gangster persona makes his deadpan delivery of lines like, “We came here to rob them and that's what we're gonna do – beat their heads in, gouge their eyes out, cut their throats. Soon as we wash the dishes” even funnier. Ustinov’s comic timing is perfect. But it’s Ray who’s the real surprise. A B-movie actor best known for playing soldiers and cowboys, he delivers a sweet, unaffected performance that’s especially winning in his scenes with Talbott.
“We’re No Angels” was directed by Michael Curtiz (“Casablanca”) and marked his fourth collaboration with Bogart. Like the director’s more familiar holiday movie, “White Christmas,” released the previous year, “We’re No Angels” was shot in VistaVision and Technicolor and really pops on the big screen. Having begun life as a play (“La Cuisine Des Anges” by Albert Husson, later adapted by Samuel and Bella Spewack as “My Three Angels”), it wears its stage-bound roots unapologetically, with a talky script that arguably churns more quotable bon mots than any other Christmas film.
With its blend of witty dialogue, offbeat humor, and heartfelt emotion, “We’re No Angels’” is the feel-good seasonal classic you didn’t know you needed.
Tuesday Nights at the Movies is a partnership between The Chestnut Hill Film Group and Woodmere. To join the CHFG mailing list, email lwilliams@woodmereartmuseum.org.
“We’re No Angels,” (1955, 106 minutes) will be presented on Tuesday, December 10, 2024, at 7 pm (doors open at 6:30) at Woodmere, 9201 Germantown Avenue. Light refreshments will be served. Films are free to attend, but contributions are gratefully accepted.
Lily Williams is President of The Chestnut Hill Film Group and Woodmere’s Director of Development.
