The Tarnished Angels

source: The Tarnished Angels

This black and white film is surprising. The action takes place in the early 1930s, prohibition still going on, but even so the film is strangely nostalgic of a time that has fully disappeared at the time the film was made. What makes Douglas Sirk so nostalgic about that past he was so fascinated by? Of course it is planes, and flying, and doing all kinds of silly things with these flying machines to dare the devil and to challenge death as if it were possible to challenge that devilish reaper. The second thing that attracts Sirk is the hero this pilot is, a war hero who has reformed himself and retrained himself into being a pilot for fun, a pilot to entertain crowds by taking risks and flying them in mid air, till one day the plane breaks down and the choice is between a simple crash on the funfair next door and a crash into the sea. That's the kind if choice that only dying people, people doomed to die can face and a hero is the one … but you know the answer to that, and rare are those who can do the right thing at such a moment. The third thing that attracts Sirk is the little boy who follows his father the daredevil that flies planes for the fun of others and his mother, the flying acrobat in the air with no net, no string to catch her, just her know how and courage to do what is to be done not to crash on the ground when she loses – on purpose of course – her parachute. The next thing that attracts Sirk is that immeasurable love between these two persons and the devotion a third person, an outsider, a man from the side feels and makes him play the gallant man not to break that couple but to serve the woman in that final drama of hers and to help the child cope with death and death and death again. A beautiful film with the end of a woman who finds the proper footing she needs to be up to raising her son in a treacherous world but in the memory of his father the flying hero. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

(WARNING - CONTAINS MILD SPOILER) The pylons are pretty striking phallic symbols - which would be a trite observation if not that the movie's highly-strung expressionism encourages it (one admires Sirk not for his subtlety but for his anguished commitment). The overwrought actors - with Stack and Malone almost bursting from their inner tensions and even Hudson transformed into a barely restrained mass of thwarted desire - move among a strangely troubling landscape that contrasts the dusty open spaces of the airfield with a recurrent, psychologically charged use of masks and mirrors and cramped poses in overwhelming settings. When a reveller in a death mask bursts in as Hudson and Malone kiss, it's like their subconscious guilt bursting horribly into the open. Once again, Sirk expertly taps the neuroses of the period, with Stack the ex-war hero neutered and adrift at home: in the opening scene the mechanics torment Stack's son about his supposedly disputed parentage - even though Stack actually is the father; he's so insecure about his love for Malone that he masquerades a swaggering disaffection, even willing to have her prostitute herself: when he goes down, it's like an implosion caused by the sheer weight of it all. A fairly amazing use of melodramatic material, tense with pain and confusion.

While most critics rate "All That Heaven Allows" and "Written On The Wind" as Sirk's best, I found myself most drawn to this film, and I can't wait to see it again. Sirk filmed this drama in black and white Cinemascope as he couldn't get backing for his trademark lush colour as Universal bosses hated the original source material, William Faulkner's novel "Pylon". Black and white 'Scope actually benefits "Tarnished Angels" because it captures the bleakness of both the 30's setting (although the costumes are all 50's) and the character's circumstances. And, as all film noir fans know, an emotionally charged night scene always looks best in shadowy black and white. I found this film the most thematically interesting of all Sirk's, and the characters the most captivating. Dorothy Malone is even better here than in "Written On The Wind", as the ignored wife of Robert Stack's flier, who is king of the skies yet seemingly emotionally barren when he hits the earth. The Shuman's might be one of the most tragic couples in movie history, both desperately in love with each other at cross purposes. Rock Hudson gives perhaps his best performance as alcoholic reporter Devlin, who forges a connection with the sad Malone borne out of mutual loneliness. The direction by Sirk is terrific and he makes the flying scenes thrilling and the emotional scenes breathtaking.

Douglas Sirk, a master director, again teamed that fabulous trio from "Written on the Wind," Dorothy Malone, Robert Stack and Rock Hudson. The film was "The Tarnished Angels," which deals with a barnstorming airplane-acrobatic team of the depression era. The film is shot in black and white to convey the mood of the period. That is one of the many flaws in this film. Hudson portrays a newspaper reporter who meets the married couple of Malone and Stack. Along the way, there is an affair between the two. It is Hudson who defines the film. Stack's character is not fully developed. Malone tries hard but the script is basically against her and all others in this film. Hudson's performance is good though very preachy towards the end. Stack and Malone were forced to marry when she becomes pregnant. They have a child who eats constantly but is nice and thin. I'd like to know personally how he accomplishes this. While the ending is tragic, it is cliché ridden. Sirk should have taken this film and put it out on the wind. After the wonderful "Written on the Wind," this film is a major disappointment. It takes place during the depression so while the coloring is of a depression-like atmosphere, the supporting characters need to convey that feeling as well. Hudson's clothing needs to be criticized as well. That hat he wore was ridiculous. It wasn't for him.

Depression-era newspaper reporter Rock Hudson (as Burke Devlin) rescues a boy from teasing, and returns him to his parents. As it turns out, nine-year-old Chris Olsen (as Jack) is the son of World War I hero Robert Stack (as Roger Shumann), who is using his piloting muscle in a New Orleans carnival act known as "The Flying Shumanns". Mr. Stack's wife, curvaceously beautiful blonde Dorothy Malone (as LaVerne), does a parachute stunt. And, the couple's mechanic, chubby Jack Carson (as Jiggs), keeps the plane's engine humming. The quartet appears hale and hearty, but are destitute when Mr. Carson spends their meager funds on a pair of boots. Instead of moving into a "Hooverville", they go to live in Mr. Hudson's small apartment. Hudson, who drinks and smokes like a reporter should, wants to do a story on "The Flying Shumanns" for the Picayune. In flashback, we learn Malone married Stack (whilst in the "family way") instead of Carson, who was the man teased for being young Olsen's real father in the opening segment. Carson is still in love with Malone, who seems to be torn between Hudson and Stack. But, that's not all. Stack's aviating rival, rotund Robert Middleton (as Matt Ord), is also in love with Malone. And, after a flying tragedy involving Stack and Middleton's pilot (Troy Donahue), Malone is sent to prostitute herself in exchange for a new plane (for Stack). This tests how much each of the men - Hudson, Stack, Carson, Middleton - love Malone. And, it may also reveal who Malone will take to the closing credits William Faulkner's "The Tarnished Angels" reunites director Douglas Sirk and Hudson with two of their "Written on the Wind" (1956) co-stars, Malone and Stack. They are certainly attractive, but seem more like they are posturing for a 1950s (where these folks should have been put) glamour magazine than starring as 1930s New Orleans depression-era denizens. The most ludicrous sequence involves Malone showing off her underwear during an impossible to imagine parachute and swing stunt - the arm muscles required for this feat would be considerable. The carnival backdrop is a highlight, it's used well in the opening and climax. ****** The Tarnished Angels (11/21/57) Douglas Sirk ~ Rock Hudson, Dorothy Malone, Robert Stack, Jack Carson

Terrific Douglas Sirk melodrama from the William Faulkner novel "Pylon." I have not read the Faulker book, but I'm guessing it was nowhere as soapy as the film, but as soapy melodrama's go, no one does them better than Douglas Sirk. Robert Stack plays a boozy disillusioned WWI flying ace who now spends his days as a barnstorming pilot at rural carnivals with his neglected parachutist wife, Dorothy Malone, who he only married as a result of a literal roll of the dice. Rock Hudson plays a reporter doing a story on this dysfunctional traveling family of flyers that also includes Jack Carson, Troy Donahue, and William Schallert. Sirk's perchance for over- the-top drama is probably not going to look great to modern viewers, but for fans of classic Hollywood and fans of Sirk in particular, this film is a must see!

Great for me to see this rarely-scheduled Douglas Sirk melodrama from his rich, late 50's period and it didn't disappoint. Taking as its subject the uncommon lifestyles of the participants in the popular flying-circus entertainments of the 20's and 30's, it's not long before the familiar Sirk themes of conflicting passions, human weakness and sacrifice raise their heads above the parapet. For some reason shot in black and white, perhaps to better enhance the period setting, I still firmly believe that all Sirk's work should be seen in glorious colour, no one filled these CinemaScope screens better than he in the affluent 50's. Only just lasting 90 minutes, it crams a lot into its time-frame, drawing convincing character-sketches of the lead parties, Rock Hudson's maverick journalist, generous of spirit and loquacious but seeking love in the person of the beautiful, sexy Dorothy Malone parachutist extraordinaire, she frustrated by the lack of attention she and her son get from her obsessive pilot husband Robert Stack, who'd rather fly above the clouds than engage with earth-dwellers. Throw in his grease-monkey Jack Carson who may have had a fling with Malone in the past and hangs around as much for the scraps she throws him as his duty to Stack and a Mr Big aircraft-owner with designs of his own on Malone and you have an eternal quadrangle ripe for tragedy. Sure enough, it happens along and spectacularly too, straightening out the lives of the survivors, even if not, I suspect for the better. The acting is first rate, Hudson again showing the depth that Sirk always seemed to draw out of him, handling long-speeches and a drunken scene with ease. Stack again displays his facility for acting against type, playing another emotionally stunted individual masquerading behind his good looks and bravura outlook. Malone however is the epicentre of the movie, the action revolves all around her and it's no wonder with her sexiness and sense of vulnerability, a killer combination for the menfolk here. Sirk's direction is excellent, juxtaposing thrilling action sequences in the air with oddly contrasting backgrounds - it's no coincidence that the drama is played out in New Orleans at Mardi-Gras time, with the use of masks often showing up in foreground and background as a metaphor for the concealed passions on display here. There are several memorable scenes, like when Hudson and Malone's first illicit kiss is disturbed jarringly by a masked party-goer and Stack's adoring son trapped on a fairground airplane-ride just as his father loses control of his real-life plane. So there you have it, another engrossing examination of fallible individuals, expertly purveyed by the best Hollywood director of drama in the 50's. Not as soap-sudsy as some of Sirk's other movies of the period, perhaps due to the literary source of the story, but engrossing from take-off to landing.

Starring Rock Hudson, Dorothy Malone, Robert Stack, Jack Carson and an uncredited offscreen violinist hired, apparently, to let us know when we're supposed to feel moved during certain scenes. Otherwise, without that violinist, who could tell? Douglas Sirk directed this in between (starring the same leads) "Written on the Wind" and (different leads) "Imitation of Life." For various reasons, those are two of the greatest and most entertaining melodramas ever filmed. On every level, "Tarnished Angels" was phoned in. George Zuckerman's script intermittently strives for Faulknerian something or other, particularly in Hudson's drunken newsroom monologue in the last reel. But nobody ever talked Faulknerian in real life so it sounds like pseudo-poetic "depth" when it's really just Woolworth pretension. Maybe better actors could have carried it off, but we'll never know because "Tarnished Angels" is the nadir of everybody's career. Hudson, thankfully, went on to find his true screen persona as a light comedian with Doris Day. Here, early on, he already looks slightly soft in the face, though still handsome. (But Robert Stack is handsomer, and strips to a t-shirt to boot.) Hudson just reads weak and incompetent as an actor here. One views "Tarnished Angels" from the retrospective of the present and thinks, "Damn, he's dull." Nice guy, but mediocre. Dorothy Malone? Same thing. You can't help liking her on screen, though her range consists of about three expressions, all phony. Offscreen, you intuit Malone was a great, down-to-earth, loving gal. Heaven knows she was pretty. But she's so busy "playing" sultry, seductive, sexy and sinful -- jutting her chin defiantly, lowering her eyes and generally imitating Lauren Bacall -- you just want her to retire and go back to Texas and find suburban love and happiness as somebody's wife and mother. Consistently miscast by Hollywood as a sex symbol, she's like watching the president of the PTA, or your Mom, bleached under contract to play "slutty." Her most (perhaps only) fully realized dynamic performance was in "Man of a Thousand Faces." She was memorable. Even the great Jack Carson comes off half-mast in "Tarnished Angels." If you pay attention, it's because of the lines. He's fine, except when the dialogue requires him to be "poignant." Robert Stack is Robert Stack is Robert Stack. But the shot compositions and lighting are terrific. Everybody except the violinist, including Douglas Sirk, phoned this one in. Before the days of 911.

This is the forgotten Douglas Sirk film from his golden period in the 1950's when he made such classic Baroque-style women's pictures as "Magnificent Obsession", "All That Heaven Allows", "Written on the Wind" and "Imitation of Life". The black-and-white 1958 film doesn't have the saturated color palette of Sirk's frequent cinematographer, Russell Metty (who did lens those other films), nor does the story, based on William Faulkner's novel "Pylon", have as strong an orientation toward a female protagonist as the others. Yet, the film has many of the filmmaker's trademark melodramatic flourishes and some superb shot compositions, this time photographed by Irving Glassberg. The result is quite worthwhile and sadly not available yet on DVD. Set in 1932 New Orleans (though you can hardly tell from the anachronistic 1950's-era wardrobe and sets), the plot focuses on Roger Shumann, a former WWI flying ace who has been relegated to racing around pylons in air shows for prize money. He's married to LaVerne, so in love with Roger that she became a parachute jumper to please him, while raising their son Jack, who worships the ground on which Roger walks. Speaking of hero worship, there is also the dim-witted Jiggs, Roger's loyal mechanic, who holds a torch for LaVerne. Into this dysfunctional band comes local newspaperman Burke Devlin, who smells a good story in reporting on this transient family living hand to mouth to fulfill Roger's intractable need to fly. A lot of emotional gut-punches are thrown among these characters, especially between Roger and LaVerne, until a late moment of clarity seems to arrive too late. The last fifteen minutes contain come far-fetched plot convolutions, but they are in the spirit of the piece. Sirk reunited three of his stars from 1956's "Written on the Wind" - Rock Hudson, Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone - to play the three principals, so they know how to maintain conviction with more than a touch of Sirk's often maddening soap opera excess. Hudson, in particular, really shines in this sort of material as Devlin, even in a hilariously conceived drunken speech at the end. Stack is his typical jaw-clenching self though with a morbid sense of self-loathing only Sirk could serve up, and Malone is surprisingly sensual as LaVerne, whether fighting off her impulses about Devlin or hanging on to a trapeze bar as she floats off her parachute with her skirt billowing up (a classic shot). Jack Carson plays Jiggs as the pathetically smitten man he is, while Christopher Olsen has a heartbreaking scene where he is stuck on an amusement park ride watching fate deal its hand (trivia - Olsen is Cindy Brady's real-life brother). This isn't an out-and-out great film but still a very watchable entry in the Sirk canon.