TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

cricket crockett " . . . you meet a better class of people there," notes master forger Joseph (Humphrey Bogart) at the close of WE'RE NO ANGELS. The purpose of this 1955 flick is to use Christmas as a backdrop to explain how the world works to young people. ANGELS exposes rich people (represented here by Andre and Paul) as society's biggest thieves, out to cheat their "inferiors" at every turn. Andre short-changes his taxi wagon driver 56%. Paul burns an unfavorable will. Both threaten to ruin their Middle Class relatives Felix, Amelie, and Isabel if it will add as much as a nickel to their own hoards of wealth. "Civilization" is depicted here as a legal system with one goal: to let the Rich (that is, the Master Thieves) get richer. As the Kangaroo Court convened by "angels" Joseph, Jules, and Albert rules, there can be just one fit sentence for the Rich: Death! Adolphe, their pet, is a viper or snake--the universal symbol of Evil. Since Evil got Andre and Paul into their riches, it is up to Evil to get them out, and Adolphe makes quick work of this pair of Rich Bozos. Though there are fewer jingling bells in WE'RE NO ANGELS than in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, even Adolphe winds up with a halo at the end.

irishm I had high hopes for this one… I guess they were TOO high. First of all, I've often had trouble with the concept of obviously filmed plays… "Noises Off" and "The Man Who Came to Dinner" were two of the worst offenders in my opinion. Static, motionless, tons of expositional dialogue crammed in as fast as they possibly could. And that was my experience with "We're No Angels". (I should note that I was unaware it had originally been a play when I started it… but I figured it out in about five minutes. How did "Arsenic and Old Lace" manage to be so entertaining, since it basically had the same limitations? I don't know, but 'static' is not a word I would apply to that film.) The first fifteen or twenty minutes of this one are basically filled with Bogart, Ustinov and Ray up on the roof watching and listening as the Ducotel family rolls out their long list of woes. How long can you watch someone looking in a window? What worked on the stage doesn't necessarily translate well to the screen. There was no action that I needed to see in order to follow the film, so about the time the daughter fainted for the second time, I went to work on a project in the kitchen and finished the film by listening only. It was so incessantly talky that it was like listening to a radio dramatization… perfect background for a little DIY puttering; not enough to keep me sitting and staring at the screen for the entire running time. I certainly had no trouble following it from the next room.That said, I thought Peter Ustinov and Aldo Ray were both excellent; they both presented well-drawn characters and delivered their lines (including some real zingers) with appropriate gusto. Bogart was all right, but I've been much more impressed with him in other pictures. He didn't seem to be working as hard as the other two were.Dull, predictable, nothing special. Wanted to like it more; wish I had.

budmassey Beautifully adapted from a French play La Cuisine de Anges, fresh off its brilliant success on Broadway, We're No Angels is one of my favorite "overlooked" films of all time. Villainously remade in 1989, the original "We're no Angels" is a lyrically beautiful tale of the most unlikely sort.Three escaped convicts on Devil's Island plan to rob and murder an innocent family until they become absorbed in their comically desperate lives. Maintaining a light comedy throughout, without once devolving into farce, "We're no Angels" is wickedly charming and deviously funny, owing in no small part to the epic talent of its all-star cast."We're no Angels" stars Aldo Ray, Peter Ustinov, and Humphrey Bogart, all marvelous and at the peak of their prowess, and is directed by Michael Curtiz, whose most notable efforts include not only Academy Award winning "Mildred Pierce", Joan Crawford's triumphant comeback film, but also another Humphrey Bogart masterpiece, "Casablanca." There is a heartwarming Christmas theme throughout the film, but it never gets overly saccharine. To the contrary, the convicts remain unrepentant and incorrigible to the end, despite their dubious good deeds. In a nutshell, the Ducatel family runs a shop for their absent relative, who shows up unexpectedly to audit the books and, most likely, discharge the hapless shopkeeper family. But things begin to go seriously awry, thanks to a reptilian interloper, Adolph, with a ruthless ability to do what is unthinkable to the rest of the cast. Adolph is never seen, nor is any violence or menace, and the film ends up being perfect for family viewing, despite its dark themes. In fact, I include the charming gem in my Christmas traditions, and I highly recommend it for yours.The supporting cast is almost too good to be true. Leo G. Carroll is the shopkeeper, delightfully muddled and well intentioned. Joan Bennett, whom most will remember as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard on television's "Dark Shadows", is his slightly put-upon wife. Basil Rathbone plays the evil cousin from France with villainous aplomb.Why this film is not better known escapes me. It is utterly delightful, astonishingly well-acted, and beautifully directed. It leaves me with a warm feeling worth its weight in gold, and certainly worth a watch if you've never seen it.

Andy Howlett Despite being fans of 1950's films, we hadn't seen this until we bought it recently on DVD. What a lovely film it turned out to be, with Bogey leading an excellent cast in a charming story with great heart. As we have grown older, we have started to appreciate Humphrey Bogart more and more, and as has been noted, he has a very good touch with light, understated comedy. Leo G Carroll takes it easy as the store manager, and he and Joan Bennett as his wife have several very nice scenes together, especially the one around the piano which reminded me of a similar one in 'Meet me in St Louis'. All in all, a beautifully-crafted film with just the right amount of corn and sentimentality, ideal for those quiet Sunday afternoons. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying 'they don't make them like this anymore' - and isn't that a shame?