Angel on My Shoulder (1946)

Thanks for the memories!

Such a frustrating disappointment

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

A man undergoes a dramatic personality change for reasons known only to the audience. For this story to work, the audience must accept its premise: that there are things going on that can only be accepted as a matter of faith. The existence of spiritual forces beyond the five senses is an idea as old as civilization itself. It is a fundamental basis for religion. As regard to this movies, the intercession of these forces have both comical and serious consequences, comical in how people react to the judge's radically changed character and how the judge himself reacts to his new persona, and serious that the movie conveys the message that even within the nastiest persons there is a kernel of goodness. Paul Muni gives a great performance as Eddie Kagle, gangster turned good guy. Anne Baxter is wonderful as the judge's fiancé who stays loyal to the judge. This movie is worth watching.

Paul Mini is Eddie Kagel, a tough gangster who is just released from prison after a four-year stretch. He's picked up at the gate by his old friend Smiley, who greets him effusively, considering that he's another hood. The pair drive away, punching each other lovingly on the arms, friends since childhood. "Where's my rod?" asks Muni. "I got it right here," replies the smiling Smiley. "Give it to me," says Muni. Smiley pulls out the gun and shoots Muni dead.Muni finds himself in hell, which turns out to look a lot like Newark, New Jersey, all flames, furnaces, bubbling mud pots, and "hotter than Florida." The Devil is Claude Raines, who looks pretty Satanic with those kick lights always under his face. The suave Raines makes a deal. He'll take Muni back and plant him in the body of an honest judge. Muni will do his evil act and ruin the good judge's reputation. Then Raines will let Muni give Smiley what's coming to him.Well -- the best laid plans, you know? Enter the judge's sexy, good-looking girl friend, Anne Baxter. She's so disgustingly virtuous that she's at first shocked by the new judge's lack of social polish. He says things like, "Say, ain't no dame ever put nothing over on me." His manners are pustular. He gulps down double scotches and smokes cigars. And he doesn't know what the hell is going on. He talks to the now-invisible Raines, who is coaxing him on how to be bad, as if Muni needed lessons.I think the sophisticated viewer can take the plot from here. Baxter converts Muni into a man of the most pure moral thoughts. Muni now loves Baxter but he no longer gropes her at every opportunity. He refuses to kill the treacherous Smiley when he has the chance. The disgusted Raines gives up, returns the original judge, and takes Muni back to hell, where he will be a trustee instead of a stoker. I was a little mixed up about the whereabouts of the original judge, the one Muni, as Kagel, replaced.No matter. This is a fantasy, and an old one at that. Except for the personae and some plot details, you must have seen it before in one or another of its incarnations -- "Here Comes Mister Jordan," or "Heaven Can Wait," "A Guy Named Joe," "Always." Two of those are remakes of the other two.It's a pleasant enough diversion, although I wish the writers hadn't confused hydrogen sulfide with H2SO4. They could also have gotten the quote from Dante accurate. It's not "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here." It's "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." Heck, I had to look that up in Wikipedia. It only took a few minutes, and I don't see why the writers couldn't have taken the time.Muni is often accused of overacting and I guess he does overact, but I didn't mind much. His simian features were a little disturbing. It's difficult to understand how the cute, chubby, petite Anne Baxter could have fallen for a guy who looks like that -- but then he's a big-shot mayor and is headed for the governorship. Okay. I think I do understand.

Paul Muni is intense and dumb as the gangster Eddie Kagle. Claude Rains is gleeful and wicked as the Devil. They're the main reasons to watch this classic and enjoyable film. This was Archie Mayo's last film. He had directed some very good ones in the 1920's through the 1940's, including "the Petrified Forest." It is not a bad film to end a career on. Basically, this is a medieval morality tale brought up to date by putting it squarely in the Gangster Film genre of the golden age of Hollywood. For the most part evil/sin/hell is equated with gangster/violence/ignorance. The post theological, scientific view that crime is a function of social and economic conditions in a society is abandoned for the more primitive religious view that evil souls are placed in material bodies at birth. Salvation comes through love, sacrifice and the good fortune of hearing religious anti-devil preaching. While communist/socialist writers and actors did influence many movies of the period, we should remember that the rigid Catholic Morality Hays code was king at this time, and quasi religious films involving angels and devils were quite common. In one way these films are so absurd they subvert the conceptual paradigm of angels and devils. On the other hand, they lend support to and reinforce this type of primitive thinking. Anne Baxter (All About Eve) is delightful in the small role of Muni's fiancé. The sets, cinematography and sound are all top notch for the period. This is a good companion film to "Here Comes Mr. Jordan."

"Angel on my Shoulder" isn't a great movie; it's a B movie, with low production values and muddled logic and theology. But it's great fun to watch. I laughed out loud and did cry.Paul Muni plays Eddie Kagel, a crime boss, who is exceptionally troublesome once he arrives in Hell. Satan, aka Claude Rains, decides that he can use Kagel to cause trouble for a judge on earth. For some reason the movie never explains, Satan has been waiting for a damned soul who looks exactly like the judge on earth, even though, as the movie explains, no one in hell has a body. Given that no one in hell has a body, why did Satan have to wait for a body double for Judge Parker? Well, as I said, this is a B movie, and its logic and its theology are kind of muddled. That doesn't mean you "shouldn't think too much." Au contraire. This is the kind of movie that makes you think, because it addresses issues like Heaven and Hell and the afterlife and what constitutes virtue and what constitutes vice. So, even though the theology is muddled, it still manages to be provocative. As you're watching this B movie Hell set, you're wondering how this Hell differs from what you think of as Hell."Angel's" Hell is one of the most interesting afterlife sets I've seen in any movie. It's very low budget, and yet I found it convincing and creepy.Paul Muni is incredible fun to watch. Some call his acting "stagey" or "over the top," but neither word really works for me. I think he's just incredibly expressive. For example, in the first scene, after Kagel is released from prison, Kagel / Muni gestures toward the prison house and his gesture tells you everything you need to know about his experience in prison.It's too bad that Muni gets so little attention these days. I wonder how many people realize that Al Pacino's "Scarface" was inspired by Muni? On earth, in the judge's body, Kagel has an epiphany or two, and ... well, I don't want to tell you the end, but I wish the movie hadn't ended that way.In any case, this movie is a lot of fun, and I recommend it for some Halloween night when you want a little bit of Satan but not too much, and just enough Muni.