Fallen Angel (1945)

I just watched Otto Preminger's Fallen Angel again and really enjoyed it again. Preminger had also done two others of my favorite film noirs, Angel Face and Laura. 

This movie starred Alice Faye, Dana Andrews and Linda Darnell. The back story is sometimes just as interesting and the movie plot itself. Alice Faye was one of the biggest box office attractions in musicals in the late 30's and early 40's. After having a baby in 1943 Alice decided she wanted to try something different. Alice decided to star in Fallen Angel, a dark film noir. She was given top billing and was very optimistic about the film.

When Faye saw a screening of the final film, she saw that produce Darryl Zanuck, who was anxious to promote his new protege Linda Darnell, had cut many of Faye's scenes and switched the focus to Darnell. Faye wrote Zanuck a not and didn't make another movie for seventeen years.

The movie itself was a really good noir. Andrews fell for femme fatale Darnell and decided to marry heiress Faye and then kill he to get her money, so he could marry Darnell. Andrews can't go through with it, but Darnell ends up dead anyways.

The movie is flawed, because in the end good girl Faye ends up with Andrews the creep. But it was still a really good film with Darnell shining in her role and stealing the show.

My favorite film noirs:
1. Double Indemnity (1944)
2. Out of the Past (1947)
3.  The Woman in the Window (1944)
4. Scarlet Street (1945)
5. Laura (1944)
6. Angel Face (1953)