The 1995 film We’re No Angels starring Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, and Peter Ustinov gave audiences the renowned spectacle most movies portray: tough-guys going soft and gooey. However, unlike other movies regarded with the same style, We’re No Angels mixed it up a bit by setting the movie during the loved season of Christmas. The three aforementioned actors play three convicts who have escaped from a notorious French prison in a tropical backwater island called Devil’s Island. While waiting for a ship to leave the island the following day, they become involved in the financial woes of a shopkeeper (Leo G. Carroll) and his wife (Joan Bennett) and daughter. They soon found themselves going against a rich and nasty relative who is endangering the shopkeeper’s business (Basil Rathbone). Although faced with the threat of Black comedy, specifically in the form of Ray carrying a poisonous viper around in a demure bamboo case, the film ruled the day by broad cuteness. While Bogart’s performance was not on his list of essential performances, he does seem to be enjoying himself and the ever so mischievous Ustinov goes through his lines with ease like a cow chewing grass. Although Director Micheal Curtiz guided Bogart in Casablanca, perhaps was not the ideal choice for this type of winsome comedy as the movie had a pokey pacing. The stage origins of the scenarios are very predictable. However, this version of the film is absolutely better than the 1989 remake starring Robert De Niro and Sean Penn which is deemed to be too loose and labored.
–Robert Horton
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