We're No Angels (1955)

The Worst Film Ever

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

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

It's Hollywood's version of The Three Wise Men in this droll, slightly morbid comedy. Of course, the three escapees from Devil's Island prison don't start out as do-gooders. But once they encounter the struggling Ducotel family, their heartstrings are tugged. The chuckles come from how the three use their criminal skills to help the family's failing business, which is also about to be foreclosed by a hard-hearted cousin Andre (Rathbone) and his grasping son Paul (Baer).Now when thinking laughs, Bogart, Ray, and Ustinov don't come to mind. Wisely, each underplays his comedic role letting the unlikely situation they're in dominate; that way, none risk a broader type comedy that might burlesque their established personas. So Bogart's Joseph uses his shady leadership skills to benefit the family. Thus Bogart is still Bogart despite the droll format. At the same time, Ustinov's Jules cracks open about every lock in town, while Ray angles toward the fetching family daughter Isabelle (Talbot). All in all, It's a clever format for the three.Anyway, Talbott's charming, getting to wear about every colorful outfit in Paramount's wardrobe department. Carroll, on the other hand, looks unwell and too old to believably husband the lovely, much younger Bennett. On the other hand, I especially like the scenes where a fast-talking Bogart uses salesmanship on a reluctant over-weight woman (Penman), and an ill-fitting jacket on a paunchy man. As I recall, the movie got a lot of ballyhoo at the time, probably because of Bogart and this slight change of pace.Anyway, the 106-minutes may be a little overstretched for the material. But the results amount to an entertaining X-mas parable that was unfortunately Bogie's last film. But all in all, it's a pretty good one to go out on. One other thing, if someone offers you a little metal box with holes in it, don't take it. I repeat, don't take it.

" . . . you meet a better class of people there," notes master forger Joseph (Humphrey Bogart) at the close of WE'RE NO ANGELS. The purpose of this 1955 flick is to use Christmas as a backdrop to explain how the world works to young people. ANGELS exposes rich people (represented here by Andre and Paul) as society's biggest thieves, out to cheat their "inferiors" at every turn. Andre short-changes his taxi wagon driver 56%. Paul burns an unfavorable will. Both threaten to ruin their Middle Class relatives Felix, Amelie, and Isabel if it will add as much as a nickel to their own hoards of wealth. "Civilization" is depicted here as a legal system with one goal: to let the Rich (that is, the Master Thieves) get richer. As the Kangaroo Court convened by "angels" Joseph, Jules, and Albert rules, there can be just one fit sentence for the Rich: Death! Adolphe, their pet, is a viper or snake--the universal symbol of Evil. Since Evil got Andre and Paul into their riches, it is up to Evil to get them out, and Adolphe makes quick work of this pair of Rich Bozos. Though there are fewer jingling bells in WE'RE NO ANGELS than in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, even Adolphe winds up with a halo at the end.

A rare Humphrey Bogart comedy, and it works perfectly! Seeing Bogart in the lead role, and the movie being about a jailbreak, I was expecting an adventure-drama. Instead I got a comedy, and a very good one at that.Incredibly sharp dialogue and some devilishly clever and funny sub-plots make this an hilarious movie. Add in the fact that it is set at Christmas, and there is a great amount of Christmas sentimentality and fun involved too.The other things that carry the movie are the performances of Bogart and, especially, Peter Ustinov. Bogart delivers his lines well and cannot be faulted, but Ustinov has a perfect sense of comedic timing. Plus his Englishness makes him seem so much funnier.Aldo Ray is a bit hit-and-miss as the third non-angel. Sometimes you feel he is just reciting his lines without any sense of timing or tone, but others then hit the mark well.Good support from Joan Bennett, Basil Rathbone, Leo Carroll and Gloria Talbott.A must-see, especially at Christmas.

"We're No Angels" is a weirdly endearing, unique movie. It's really hard for a movie to be unique, given how many there are. What makes "We're No Angels" so special: the cast, the black humor, and the setting.For a Golden Age film fan, "We're No Angels" cast is reason enough to catch the film. Almost every member of the small cast is a screen icon, and from a completely different genre: Humphrey Bogart, the quintessential tough guy gangster, Peter Ustinov, famous for his decadent Nero, Aldo Ray, sunny, smiling, cracked-voice blonde athlete and hunk, Joan Bennett, a film noir femme fatale, Leo G. Carroll, famous for playing fastidious gentlemen, and Basil Rathbone, the evil antagonist in swashbuckler sword duels.Here, though, they are merely old pros, trading the film's stagey, black humor lines with calm aplomb. When hunky, escaped murderer Aldo Ray cracks to Basil Rathbone, playing a Snidely Whiplash style villain, "You frighten me," the line is funny enough to be worth seeing the film for.When not delivering their lines, the actors here seem almost to dance with each other; the film is like choreography. Each star has his or her own distinctive body language and it all comes together humorously.The film's very quiet, dark humor and literate script tell a fantastic tale: three convicts, escaped from Devil's Island, fall into a failing bourgeois merchant's household and manage to turn their Caribbean holiday into a real Christmas. The plot has just enough realism -- bad men converted by a young girl's faith, for example – to convince you to go along for the ride.