The Dark Angel (1935)
(On Cable TV, October 2022) As far as big fat melodramatic weepers go, The Dark Angel is quite an example of the form. Featuring Fredric March (great!), Merle Oberon (disappointing) and Herbert Marshall (bland) in a romantic triangle fated by World War I, it has the female lead trying to romantically decide between two mutual friends, a choice initially simplified by the disappearance of one of them during the war, then complicated by his return as a blind man. Well-executed, it’s about as slick as MGM costume dramas of the mid-1930s ever got: Director Sidney A. Franklin directs everything as a high-end stage play and never spares a musical chord to tell audiences when to weep openly. Modern tolerances for this material will vary widely, from unabashed sentimentalism to a prolonged bore.