Black Angel

Irish-born director Roy William Neill might have become a prolific noir master had he not died right after making Black Angel, a lively and stylish mystery that builds on the mountainous talent of noir fixture Dan Duryea who plays alcoholic pianist Martin Blair. June Vincent plays Catherine Bennett, who teams up with Blair to exonerate her husband who’s been falsely accused of murdering Blair’s ex-wife, and Peter Lorre plays sleazy nightclub owner Mr. Marko who just might be connected to the murder. Tension builds throughout the film, including a particularly suspenseful scene when Marko enters his night club unexpectedly just as Catherine is searching his office upstairs. From the stunning opening shot — the camera zooms up the side of a building and through window blinds to a resplendent chandelier — to the shadowed crisscrosses on Blair’s frightened face when he wakes up from a nightmare, Neill and cinematographer Paul Ivano give the film plenty of innovative shots and expressionistic flourishes. The generous use of mirrors, the slanted camera angles after the guilty verdict, the antiseptic yet stylized hospital set:  all these elements are fused into a mini-symphony of noir.