I have a lot of Mexican friends named Angel, but this is the first
"Black Angel" I ever met, and if you like an excellent film noir with great music, then do yourself a favour, and track yourself down a copy of this film! I give you my written guarantee that the only regret you'll have, is not having seen it sooner!!
If you live on a steady diet of monster movies, there's a good chance that some excellent actors are going to get missed out on! I don't know, Dan Duryea was never a character who stood out in my mind, but after watching this film, he'll never be anonymous in my brain again! This guy can act! He did have the main role as Al Denton on the "Twilight Zone" episode "Mr. Denton on Doomsday," besides 114 other roles that included 59 episodes on one of the first nightime soap operas "Peyton Place" as Eddie Jacks! In "Black Angel" his character is drunken but very talented songwriter Martin Blair!
June Vincent was the actual reason I searched out "Black Angel" after I watched her killer performance as Marcellina in the recently reviewed "The Climax," and the neat thing is, what a great idea that was! Born Dorthy June Smith, this gal is a keeper!! Her character in this film is Catherine Bennett!
Then when I found out that Peter Lorre was also in "Black Angel," that's when it became a complete no brainer!!! Has Peter Lorre ever been in a bad movie? I sincerely doubt it! And as PC as it isn't, Peter literally smokes his way through this whole movie!
I try to keep this down to about 30 pictures or less, but for this movie I had at least 50 I wanted to use! Is this not beautiful or what?
Martin's ex old lady is Constance Dowling as singer Mavis Marlowe! The only horror film Constance was ever in was "Gog!" Mavis is one of those kinds of people who has her own portrait on her dresser! Mavis is also murdered this night in time!!
Two of the guys that would be seen at the scene that night were Mavis's ex, Martin, and creepy club owner Marko!
Classic "Highway Patrol" Broderick Crawford will be the guy investigating the whole mess! About this same era, my buddy Whitey Thomas and Broderick would go out drinking in Hollywood, and pretend to get into fights with each other just for fun! What a gas! Me and Tabonga did that same thing behind the teacher's desk in the 8th grade, and we got two week's detention for it, not to mention the extra week we got for talking in detention!
Martin was madly in love with Mavis, and had written hit songs for her, but that just wasn't good enough for a woman, who, in the vernacular, would be commonly referred to as a female dog, or a bitch!
Enter into the scene one of Mavis's dumbshit lovers that she was blackmailing, John Phillips as Kirk Bennett! John was on the set of a couple of cool films, as Matt in "Superman And The Mole Men," and as a detective in "Francis And The Haunted House," and "How To Make A Monster!" Murder Scene Rule Number One, if there's a gun,
DON'T TOUCH IT STUPID!! Too late!!
Well, you can see where this is going real fast! Kirk Bennet is on a fast track to the death chamber!
Catherine turns to Martin for help, and they conspire together to figure out who killed his ex-wife if it wasn't her husband!
Because Martin also saw Marko that night, and because Marko is a very shady character, they go to his club "Rio's" to check the whole scene out!
It just so happens that Marko is auditioning new acts for his club, so in an effort to get closer to the man, Martin cleverly whips out some new tunes, and lo and behold, Catherine is a great singer too! June didn't really sing in "The Climax," but here it's actually her voice singing the Edgar Fairchild/Jack Brooks piece titled, "I Want To Be Talked About!" Jeez, Edgar Fairchild wrote the classic "I Can't Get You Out Of My Mind," and Jack Brooks is responsible for Dino's classic "That's Amore!" Two songs I just have to think about, and it's just like dropping the needle on a platter!
Apologies to Steve Martin, but compared to the talents of this annoying banjo player, Martin and Catherine's act is an enormous breath of fresh air! The banjo player is Wally Webb in his only big screen appearance!
You almost forgot this was a murder mystery, didn't you? Martin and Catherine are an overnight sensation!!
Martin quit drinking ever since he met Catherine, and he's not feeling too bad about himself right at this moment! Suddenly he's at the top of the world again, liquor cabinet or not!
Reality check! And this is what's so great about this film! The new couple is successful and basically in love, but they cannot forget what the original purpose of their meeting was, to stop an innocent man from being executed!
Besides movies and music, one of the other favourite things we dig down here in The Dungeon is the sweet science known as boxing! And just to prove that tough guys need milk, here's former Middleweight Champion of the world Freddie Steele in the role of Lucky, the manager of Marko's club! I have this conversation every day, MMA fighters are a bunch of wussies compared to the real fighters of the past! Check it, Freddie's record was 125 wins with 60 KOs, 5 losses, 11 draws, and 1 No Contest! That's more grueling fights than 10 or 15 of your best MMA fighters combined! Talk about No Contest!!
Here's a Freddy Steele card from my personal collection!
As Robert Palmer would later say, "Lookin' For Clues," but unfortunately Catherine gets busted! Peter just keeps on smoking!
The Big Problem is Marko didn't commit the murder, so all this time and effort spent on trying to get information is for naught!
Such a shame, under different circumstances, it could have been so good!
Catherine remains true to her husband, and Martin returns to the bottle, it's probably one of the saddest love stories on record! Good thing it was only a movie!
Sorry, Time Won't Tell, and neither will I!!
Igor!.. How many times do I have to tell you!.. Push, don't pull!! 
Music credits go to Bobby Christian and Irving Robbin... Now that the formalities are out of the way, lettuce bring in our littlest Dungeon helper and button pusher, correctite, itz... Rufus The Gnat! Rufus just flew in from the other room and he sez heez redi to whip up our Eariffic Soundclip for yer listnin' pleazhur! Push the big red 'GO' button there at 4 o'clock, now, Rufus! Here's... THE FATAL FLOWER! 
Well, here we are in Brazil this week, thanks to the magic of modern television! 
Victor Jory plays Dr. Alden, he's discovered some very interesting plants in the deep jungles of Brazil, including this rare, giant flesh eating monstrosity. 
The doctor works with a guy named Merriman. Merriman, played by Don Hanmer, talks the doc out of one of the many letters he gets in the mail, Merriman has no friends and is starved for human interaction. To humor him, the doc lets him take one random letter for $10, damn, that'd be like $300 today! 
Merriman is pleased about being able to purchase the piece of precious parchment... for his pathetic, perverted pleasure! This photo bares an uncanny resemblance to one of our Dungeon pals, Rev. Spike! 
The doc thinks he sold Merriman an important letter, and wants it back. Merriman refuses and that sends the doctor's heart into a tizzy! 
When he falls back from almost fainting, the doc discovers that the thing has a taste for human beings! He notes it in his journal. 
And, that gives him an idea about getting the letter back... Cut to commercial! 
The doc pleads with Merriman to give back the letter, but, to no avail. In fact, Merriman's really starting to enjoy this little game of checkers... 
Here's what breakfast looked like in 1952! 
Nice close up of the doc's heart pills. 
One cool shot deserves another... Is he reading or peeking? 
Man, Merriman can be a real jerk at times! 
You can see that Merriman's holding the letter as the monster starts chomping on him, so, the doc runs over and grabs it out of the doomed sap's hand! 
Sorry, but, you'll have to watch this episode for yourself to find out what was in the letter... 
Here comes the big one... I'm comin' to join you, Elizabeth!!
