We’re No Angels (1955)

(On Cable TV, September 2022) Humphrey Bogart doing comedy is already a tough sell, so it makes sense that that any comedy featuring him needed to be led by a director with a clear vision. I’m sure that the idea of Michael Curtiz reuniting with Bogart thirteen years after Casablanca must have had mid-1950s audiences interested. Alas, We’re No Angels shows little convincing demonstration of comic skills from anyone involved. Oh, sure, the script is light-hearted enough, with three escaped convicts trying to go straight but being tempted to use their very specific skills for the betterment of a small village. But the one laugh in the entire picture comes at the very last second, and is a visual gag that is in a markedly different tone than the rest of the film’s humour. The leading cast is good for a pause, what with Bogart, Aldo Ray and Peter Ustinov—but again not all of them are known for comedy and the film seems uninterested in going for big laughs anyway. It’s amiable, mind you… but slow-paced, a bit morally confused (even within the confines of having ex-convicts as heroes), too-theatrically staged (not a surprise, considering its origins) and not really compelling on a moment-to-moment basis. I was, however, a bit surprised in comparing it with the 1989 film of the same name: Aside from some quasi-tangential premises, the remake and the original are almost entirely different and discourage any kind of one-to-one comparison. I’m left unimpressed by We’re No Angels—not a bad movie per se, but nothing really worth remembering either.