Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

PlatinumRead Just so...so bad

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

jimbo-53-186511 Joseph (Humphrey Bogart), Jules (Peter Ustinov) and Albert (Aldo Ray) are 3 convicts who have escaped from Devil's Island to a French coastal town. Upon arrival in the town, they intend on robbing a shop and fleeing by ship before the authorities are able to catch up with them. However, when they start to get to know the put upon shopkeeper Felix Ducotel (Leo G Carroll) and learn of the various problems that he is experiencing with his family the three escaped convicts have a change of heart.We're no angels is a mostly enjoyable comedy which unfortunately suffers from rather uneven pacing. I found the first half of the story to be a little slow and found that the laughs in the first half were fewer and farther between; the first half was still amusing, but there were no big laughs to be found. In part this is probably due to the fact that not much really happens in the early stages aside from the three convicts scurrying across the roof listening in to their intended victim's conversations. There are some funny moments to be found in the first half such as Joseph and his uncanny knack of being able to convince customers to buy absolute rubbish that they originally had no intention of buying - he actually reminded me of a slightly more slick 'Arkwright' from 'Open All Hours' minus the brown jacket and stutter.The picture does pick up when cousin Andre shows up; Basil Rathbone gives an acting master class here and is easily the best actor in this film. Rathbone is actually the glue that holds this story together and its success actually hinges mostly on his character and performance. If you think about it before he arrives we see the convicts as being the bad ones, but our perception shifts when Andre arrives and we then see that our convicts aren't quite as bad as we initially believed. The introduction of Andre and the way that the convicts have been developed means that shifts in character perceptions felt more natural and believable.Another thing I liked about this film is that the script did allow for some character development and I could see that some of the characters had more than one dimension. For example, Albert is initially portrayed as a philanderer with a wondering eye, but later in the film we can also see that he does have some understanding of the female mind and he does young Isabelle (Gloria Talbott) some good advice which is great as he probably would have got on my nerves if he'd have remained as merely a lecherous pervert. Joseph also uses his 'skills' to try and help Felix out of a tight spot and again I appreciated the extra dimension that was afforded to his character. Unfortunately, this leaves us with Peter Ustinov whose acting cannot be faulted, but he never really feels that important to the story and his skill set as a karate-chopping safe-cracker is a little too silly to be taken seriously. Like I say though once Andre arrives on the scene the picture is incredibly funny and the way that the 3 convicts help the family and ultimately deal with Andre is a joy to behold - the convicts aren't able to do this alone though and call upon Albert's little friend Adolf to help.The film does have a couple of problems such as a far-fetched scenario involving the shopkeeper willing to accept help from a group of convicts in the first place. Another issue I had with this film is that our trio come across as being a bit too nice making it hard to believe that they were capable of committing the crimes that led to their original imprisonment.We're no angels is imperfect and suffers from both uneven pacing and uneven direction, but once it hits the hour mark it very rarely lets up and this is mainly due to the wonderful camaraderie between the 3 leads (whose performances were all excellent). Basil Rathbone's performance as Andre was wonderful and when all is said and done you're left with a film that is likable and funny with a fairly high hit-to-miss ratio.

JLRMovieReviews Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov and Aldo Ray star in this film about three escapees from Devil's Island and how they affix themselves in the lives of Leo G. Carroll and wife Joan Bennett as Christmas approaches. By way of assuming the roles of handymen and salesmen, they start to help around the house and the store that Leo manages. In fact, their assistance turns out to be invaluable, as they interject themselves in a personal family squabble between Leo and cousin Basil Rathbone who comes to inspect the shop and the accounts, as he is the owner of the shop. I found the film to be very charming and enjoyable, and it has some very funny and clever moments. If I had to be nit-picky about it, I could say it does reflect the original play's pace and is somewhat too passive and slow in parts and is a bit too long. Also, it does have a rather unorthodox and irreverent feel to it due to a hardened criminal's point of view of things, from which is the root of a lot of the humor. But, it also has a very loose biblical feel to it, very loose. All in all, I liked its charming feel and the talented actors are good in the leads. If you're looking for a fresh and original film this December, "We're No Angels" should make for a different kind of family viewing come Christmastime.

irishm I had high hopes for this one… I guess they were TOO high. First of all, I've often had trouble with the concept of obviously filmed plays… "Noises Off" and "The Man Who Came to Dinner" were two of the worst offenders in my opinion. Static, motionless, tons of expositional dialogue crammed in as fast as they possibly could. And that was my experience with "We're No Angels". (I should note that I was unaware it had originally been a play when I started it… but I figured it out in about five minutes. How did "Arsenic and Old Lace" manage to be so entertaining, since it basically had the same limitations? I don't know, but 'static' is not a word I would apply to that film.) The first fifteen or twenty minutes of this one are basically filled with Bogart, Ustinov and Ray up on the roof watching and listening as the Ducotel family rolls out their long list of woes. How long can you watch someone looking in a window? What worked on the stage doesn't necessarily translate well to the screen. There was no action that I needed to see in order to follow the film, so about the time the daughter fainted for the second time, I went to work on a project in the kitchen and finished the film by listening only. It was so incessantly talky that it was like listening to a radio dramatization… perfect background for a little DIY puttering; not enough to keep me sitting and staring at the screen for the entire running time. I certainly had no trouble following it from the next room.That said, I thought Peter Ustinov and Aldo Ray were both excellent; they both presented well-drawn characters and delivered their lines (including some real zingers) with appropriate gusto. Bogart was all right, but I've been much more impressed with him in other pictures. He didn't seem to be working as hard as the other two were.Dull, predictable, nothing special. Wanted to like it more; wish I had.

Danusha_Goska Save Send Delete "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.