We're No Angels

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, Peter Ustinov, Joan Bennett, Basil Rathbone, Leo G. Carroll, John Baer, Gloria Talbott
Directed by: Michael Curtiz
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Comedy
1955

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Three men (Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, Peter Ustinov) break out of prison and hide in the home of a local merchant.

Review:

Tim: We're No Angels is unfortunately, a bit of an uneven movie. There are quite a few wonderful moments- just funny, entertaining sequences that were great entertainment to watch. There's quite a few other moments that feel slow, that drag on, that are too dull. For a movie that was only 1 hour, 46 minutes long, these unevenness felt extreme. As a whole, while I enjoyed many parts of this film, the movie as a whole didn't quite sit right with me. This is a decent movie, but not much more than that.

It felt like the movie took a long time to get started. We're introduced to these three fugitives. While they're all criminals, we learn to sympathize with them and we actually like them. They meet a family and start working for the father. We get introduced to this family and their circumstances. That's all well and good, but it simply felt it took far too long for this movie to get going. Once it hits its stride, it's really funny and really entertaining. It just took way too long to reach the point where I felt invested and truly interested. Plus, once the momentum is built, there's still quite a few moments where it felt like the film throttled down too far.

The greatest strength of the film are the three leads. I'm a huge Humphrey Bogart fan, so I loved seeing him in the lead role. His comedic timing is strong, although I wouldn't call this one of his better performances. He had a dark edge to his character, but it just felt like this was a second tier effort. Still, Bogart not at his best is still better than most actors having their greatest success. Aldo Ray was pretty good as well. He had some nice moments throughout the film, although I did think he was the weakest, least interesting of the three. Peter Ustinov was great. He was funny, charismatic, and entertaining. I really enjoyed his character and his performance. The joy of watching these three together was one of the film's biggest strengths.

The story was fine, but it felt too plodding. It was kind of humorous, how these three convicts routinely went out of their way to help the family supporting them. They certainly did it in unconventional ways (which was the source of much of the film's humor), but it was an interesting, odd story. You have these three men who truly aren't good people based on their previous actions. And yet, they act very benevolently towards this family. That was fun to watch. The problem is that nothing seems to happen for long stretches of the film. Scene after scene tends to drag on. That hurt the film immensely. Now, there were some great sequences. The funniest might be the scene towards the end about the poisonous snake in the box and the debate between the three men about who should deliver the news. It was absolutely hilarious and I loved that. The problem is that there weren't more of those memorable moments.

We're No Angels is a decent film, but it's hard not to feel some disappointment. It has its moments, but it's not a complete film. It's unevenness really hurts the viewing experience. While I liked aspects of this film, the movie as a whole didn't live up to expectations.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



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