If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Absolutely brilliant

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Within this movie, we see 50s film making, showing it has little concept of time and era. This is Universal International (at the time, big in television) trying to cash in on the popularity of its earlier hit 'Written on the Wind'. Same stars, same Director, same screen writer, same heavy handedness. The use of the wide CinemaScope screen makes this unconvincing soap opera look even emptier. Film makers needed more than wide screens to get people away from their 50s TVs ~ they needed quality screen writers, with believable stories to tell, not just shows that left you wondering why you took the trouble of going out. With so many movies made using stretched material like this during the 50s and on...it was little wonder theaters were closing in big numbers.The shades of morality are admirable, but even the stars tend to look uncomfortable with their unlikable and unconvincing characters. The end monologue needed a performer of deeper conviction than Hudson. Soap specialist Director Douglas Sirk, had a leaden, turgid script to work with, and fails to inject any pace into the overall slow structure. At least with 'Angels' he's free of the influences of 'Mr Gloss'... producer Ross Hunter, known for his glittery but superficial, chick flicks. Composer Frank Skiner tries hard with his score but he too seems uninspired by the situations (at least Universal gave him a credit on this film, for dozens of earlier works he was un-credited). This film also gives capable Director of Photography Irving Glassberg a chance to get away from talking mules and cowboys ~ here, he turns in some fine flying scenes, but even they fail to lift this one off the ground. This is a pity, because within a year he would be dead at only 54.Viewers who grew up with this style of film --or on 50s and 60s TV-- won't expect much more, and will probably be content with this interpretation of Willam Falkner's novel. Those looking for more, beware. The DVD release is however good quality, with a fine B/W transfer.

Robert Stack is a former war hero, a dedicated, cold-hearted airplane stunt pilot who enters races in 1932 but barely scratches out a living. Dorothy Malone is his wife. Her main job in the act is to parachute out of Stack's airplane, allow her filmy skirt to billow up, and show everyone her undies. Everyone lusts after her -- Jack Carson the pudgy mechanic, and Rock Hudson the reporter covering the family for his Louisiana newspaper. Malone yearns for Stack's love (sob), but begins to turn towards the behemoth Hudson. I can't reveal the end because I couldn't see through my tears.I know Douglas Sirk has an avid following. I just don't know why. "Written on the Wind" was a long, boring tale. "The Tarnished Angels" is executed in a most perfunctory manner.The four leads are stereotypical Hollywood stars. They're well known for their well-knownness. They can't be well known for their acting abilities because they're all mediocre in that department.The story is set in 1932 but you'd never know it. Except for the mean-looking little airplanes, it looks exactly like 1959 -- from Dorothy Malone's hair style and wardrobe to the source music, which is to the early 30s as your image in a carnival distorting mirror is to you. The signs on the cafe wall -- "Fries 15 cents", "Oysters on the half shell, 30 cents" -- appear to have been painted by some prop guy half an hour before the scene was shot.The story takes place in the Mississippi delta but was obviously filmed in semi-remote areas of California. Nobody sweats. It doesn't rain. There is no sense of place. The extras and bit parts are filled with people from Central Casting.I haven't read Faulkner's book so I can't comment on how closely the film follows his story, but I imagine that, as usual, much of the novel's enjoyment stems from Faulkner's style, which is impossible to capture in a movie. As it stands, the plot could have easily been bent to fit the format of an afternoon domestic drama.An exception to these negative comments: two very nicely staged airplane races that Stack participates in. For a few minutes, the film is lifted out of the sludge as the period airplanes buzz around the pylons in exhilarating contests, sometimes smoking and cracking up. During these scenes we can SEE the love of flight in whose thrall Stack manages to exist. The problem is that neither Stack the actor nor the writer, George Zuckerman, are able to communicate that devotion.

Though exchanging his usual glossy urban surroundings for a rough open-air environment – dealing as it does with vagrant members of an air show/race (which is perhaps why it was shot in black-and-white) – this typical Sirk effort is particularly redolent of his Teutonic background: powerful (indeed often histrionic), moodily-lit and with performances to match (allowing Rock Hudson one of his finest dramatic showcases, most effective towards the end when he gives his newspaper editor boss a piece of his mind). Incidentally, its three stars – Hudson, Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone – had just come off the same director's WRITTEN ON THE WIND (1956); Malone is the woman admired by virtually the entire male cast including her egocentric spouse (ace flyer Stack), his long-suffering mechanic (Jack Carson), hated entrepreneur (Robert Middleton) and, the latest recruit, honest (read alcoholic) reporter Hudson. Also on hand is a young boy, picked on over his doubtful parentage, whom Hudson befriends and offers hospitality to his whole family (eventually tagging along himself after being fired from his job). Malone opens her heart to him one night and he decides to help when Stack has no qualms about his wife ingratiating herself with Middleton for his sake over the acquisition of a new plane (Stack's original vehicle had been destroyed in a crash which also killed Middleton's protégé, Troy Donahue!). After Stack himself perishes in another race and a gloomy luncheon is thrown in his honor, Hudson arranges for Malone and her son to start a new life elsewhere.

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.