Angel on my Shoulder (1946)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Angel on my Shoulder (1946) – A. Mayo

Paul Muni mugs a lot as the gangster sent to hell but then returned to the land of mortals by Mephistopheles (Claude Rains) who wants to ruin the career of do-gooder (and gubernatorial candidate) Judge Parker by inserting rough-edged Eddie Kagle into his body.  Of course, it’s a comedy, as Muni gets to perform a bull-in-the-china-shop routine as others act shocked at the noble judge’s transformation.  Rains is sly and arch as the Devil (with a few tossed off one-liners) but his schemes do not play out as planned when Kagle accidentally improves the judge’s popularity. Naturally, with the help of love interest Barbara (Anne Baxter), Eddie begins to see the error of his ways and turn from bad to good.  That’s how it goes in movies like this (especially with the Hays Code in effect).  As directed by Archie Mayo, it's a trifle, never laugh-out-loud funny, but pleasant enough – and who doesn’t love a movie that takes a trip down to Hell (fire and brimstone included)?

 

The Last Adventure (1967)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

 The Last Adventure (1967) – R. Enrico

Wim Wenders listed this on Letterboxd as one of his top ten movies of all time.  I had never heard of it so thought I should rectify the situation.  Pairing Lino Ventura and Alain Delon in 1967 certainly raised my hopes of a J-P Melville inspired film but instead this is a breezy (but sometimes jarringly brutal) bromance about a pilot and a mechanic/adventurer who together with a sculpture artist who works with found junk (Joanna Shimkus) seek sunken treasure in the Congo.  Although of normal length, the film seems to fall into three separate parts, each of which might be a film unto themselves.  First, we see how Shimkus becomes the third wheel to Ventura and Delon’s relationship, focused on their attempts to develop and test a fast engine for a plane or racecar.  Second, we’re off to the Congo (after a brief racist interlude not unlike the one in Antonioni’s Eclipse) where the trio meets Serge Reggiani and hunt for the treasure while being hunted by various mercenaries.  Third, we’re back to France with the denouement taking place at Fort Boyard (called “Fortress Island” here and that is exactly what it seems – incredibly scenic and well shot), for a more typical action movie ending. As directed by Robert Enrico (who filmed the wonderful An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, 1961, from Ambrose Bierce, used in the Twilight Zone), the widescreen affair almost seems like a silent film at times – many montages and I guess no words needed to follow the action.  Combined with the “road movie” plot, I guess it is no surprise what Wenders saw in this.  But despite the best efforts of all concerned, the result still feels rather languid to me.