Hades Can Wait
Wow! Apparently I’m in the mood for a Paul Muni film festival this week. How else to explain the way I went from one movie in which Muni played a gangster (1932’s Scarface) to yet another movie in which he plays a gangster (1946’s Angel on My Shoulder).
The premise of Angel on My Shoulder seems at first glance so silly I am surprised it worked. Paul Muni plays a Scarface-like gangster -- surprise, surprise -- named Eddie Kagle who gets out of prison only to be murdered by his own henchman. He immediately goes to Hell where he proves remarkably short on the uptake for such a streetsmart guy. Although he is in a region full of fire and brimstone, it does not occur to him where he might be until after he talks to just not one but two fellow inmates -- a brash young woman who was run over by a car and a talkative old man who admits to having poisoned his young wife.
Kagle prides himself on being an expert on prison breaks and he immediately plots to break out of Hell despite facing formidable odds. Fortunately, he catches the eye of the Devil (played by Claude Rains in a bit of diabolically inspired casting). The Devil has a grudge against an American judge who is steadily reducing the number of potential candidates for Hell, and since Kagle is a physical match for said judge and since the Devil hates judicial do-gooders almost as much as he hates cold temperatures, he plots to use Kagle against the judge.
The Devil talks Kagle into volunteering to escape from Hell in return for agreeing to possess the judge’s body. Kagle goes along in the hope of getting a chance to avenge himself on his murderer only to find himself falling for the judge’s girlfriend Barbara Foster (played by Anne Baxter). Complications arise and Kagle not only ends up foiling the Devil’s best made plans, but gets persuaded to join the other team, so to speak.
Is there a happy ending? Not quite. But the ending is not quite sad either. Some bad people get their just desserts, the judge’s reputation avoids ruin and Kagle even manages to pull one over on the Prince of Lies.
Is his victory a permanent one? Well, no one involved with this film ever saw fit to make a sequel so I guess we will never find out. But it would be quite heavenly to think so.
Wow! Apparently I’m in the mood for a Paul Muni film festival this week. How else to explain the way I went from one movie in which Muni played a gangster (1932’s Scarface) to yet another movie in which he plays a gangster (1946’s Angel on My Shoulder).
The premise of Angel on My Shoulder seems at first glance so silly I am surprised it worked. Paul Muni plays a Scarface-like gangster -- surprise, surprise -- named Eddie Kagle who gets out of prison only to be murdered by his own henchman. He immediately goes to Hell where he proves remarkably short on the uptake for such a streetsmart guy. Although he is in a region full of fire and brimstone, it does not occur to him where he might be until after he talks to just not one but two fellow inmates -- a brash young woman who was run over by a car and a talkative old man who admits to having poisoned his young wife.
Kagle prides himself on being an expert on prison breaks and he immediately plots to break out of Hell despite facing formidable odds. Fortunately, he catches the eye of the Devil (played by Claude Rains in a bit of diabolically inspired casting). The Devil has a grudge against an American judge who is steadily reducing the number of potential candidates for Hell, and since Kagle is a physical match for said judge and since the Devil hates judicial do-gooders almost as much as he hates cold temperatures, he plots to use Kagle against the judge.
The Devil talks Kagle into volunteering to escape from Hell in return for agreeing to possess the judge’s body. Kagle goes along in the hope of getting a chance to avenge himself on his murderer only to find himself falling for the judge’s girlfriend Barbara Foster (played by Anne Baxter). Complications arise and Kagle not only ends up foiling the Devil’s best made plans, but gets persuaded to join the other team, so to speak.
Is there a happy ending? Not quite. But the ending is not quite sad either. Some bad people get their just desserts, the judge’s reputation avoids ruin and Kagle even manages to pull one over on the Prince of Lies.
Is his victory a permanent one? Well, no one involved with this film ever saw fit to make a sequel so I guess we will never find out. But it would be quite heavenly to think so.
Labels: Ángel a mi Espalda, Anne Baxter, Claude Rains, El Diablo, Infierno, Paul Muni, Películas Clásicas II, Películas de Halloween II
posted by Tonio Kruger at 12:16 PM
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