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We're No Angels (1955)
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List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $10.86
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Product Details
- Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, Aldo Ray, Joan Bennett, Basil Rathbone
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- Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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- Binding: VHS Tape
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- Director: Michael Curtiz
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- EAN: 9786300215559
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- Format: Black & White, Color, NTSC
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- ISBN: 6300215555
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- Label: Paramount
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- Manufacturer: Paramount
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- Number of Items: 1
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- Product Group: Video
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- Publisher: Paramount
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- Release Date: 1998-01-01
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- Studio: Paramount
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- Theatrical Release Date: 1955
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- Title: We're No Angels (1955)
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- UPC: 097360541434
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Avg Customer Rating: 
Product Description: Audiences have always loved the spectacle of tough guys going soft and gooey, and We're No Angels adds the extra sweetener of Yuletide to its mix. The action takes place on Devil's Island, the tropical backwater where the notorious French prison was located. Three convicts, played by Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray, and Peter Ustinov, have escaped, and wait only for a ship to leave the next day. In the meantime, they become involved in the financial woes of an island shopkeeper (Leo G. Carroll) and his wife (Joan Bennett) and daughter, whose business is in danger from a rich, nasty relative (Basil Rathbone). Despite the threat of black comedy, especially in the form of a poisonous viper (which Ray carries around in a demure bamboo case), broad cuteness tends to rule the day. While it's not on the list of essential Bogart performances, Bogie does seem to be enjoying himself, and the puckish Ustinov savors his lines like a cow chewing grass. The stage origins of the scenario are all too obvious, and probably contribute to the pokey pacing (Michael Curtiz, who guided Bogart in Casablanca, was perhaps not the ideal choice for this kind of winsome comedy). This 1955 film looks good in comparison to the loose, labored 1989 remake with Robert De Niro and Sean Penn. --Robert Horton
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Customer Reviews
The Devil's Island Comedy
This film begins in Devils's Island in 1895. Three prisoners have escaped. Are they hiding in plain sight? Can they escape on a boat back to France? Can they find passports and money? The convicts meet the shop owner, and we learn about them. Cayenne is hot and humid at Christmas, and the rest of the time. Will the daughter of the shopowner find true love and happiness? Will a letter bring shocking bad news? The story mixes comedy with drama. [Does this film seem dated?] Will unexpected visitors arrive to shake things up? Will the books be fixed for Christmas? Will the three convicts fix the problems for the family?
"Your opinion of me has no cash value." Will there be a disagreeable surprise for Uncle André? Would a new will solve the problems for the family? Will nephew Paul take advantage of the new situation? Will he too have a disagreeable surprise? Will there be a happy ending? Was this film worth watching? Was this light-weight story padded out?
This story and attitudes seem unusual for the 1950s. Was it a perverse parody of the "Three Wise Men"?
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Unique, Wonderful Christmas Fun
I agree with all the other folks who give "We're
No Angels" five stars. With top to bottom great
performances by a stellar cast and a script that
is chock-a-block with witty lines, WNA is a
winner all the way. I too had trouble locating
it for a number of years but now own it on both
VHS and DVD. We watch it every Christmas (some-
times a couple of times) and revel it. It's one
of those movies that reveals more pleasures with
each viewing. Felix: [re: evil Cousin Andre]:
"My family's as good as his [pause] it's the same
family now that I think of it." A real joy to
watch this movie every Christmas season!
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Bogart Does Comedy
Basil Rathbone: His life and his films
Shadow Watcher
Nobody Drowns in Mineral Lake
Humphrey Bogart made very few comedies during his long career, but those that he did appear in were quite entertaining.
WE'RE NO ANGELS (1955) is a delicious black comedy, adapted by Ranald MacDougall from MY THREE ANGELS, a popular French play by Albert Husson, and directed by Michael Curtiz (CASABLANCA).
In it, Bogart, Peter Ustinov and Aldo Ray play three convicts who have escaped from the prison on Devil's Island on Christmas Eve.
While planning their departure from the island itself, they take refuge in a store run by a kind couple (Leo G. Carroll and Joan Bennett), who are being terrorized by Carroll's nasty uncle (Basil Rathbone), the store's actual owner. Bogart and his two companions, with the help of their poisonous pet snake, decide to improve the couple's lives by seeing that ol' Basil and his equally villainous nephew don't bother them any longer.
No serious attempt has been made to disguise this very funny film's stage origins.
© Michael B. Druxman, author of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (available December 2008)
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We're no Angels
This is one of my favorite movies. It is a family movie, good to watch around christmas. In this movie Bogart is different from his usual tough guy movies. Peter Ustinov is wonderful as always, so are Aldo Ray and Joan Bennett.
All around a great movie, lots of fun!
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Bogart can be funny
This comedy is sentimental, sad and funny. Bogart expresses considerable ironic humor, attacking greed and commercialism while responding to people's warmth and kindness. The other characters performed quite well, including the hero of the story, a smnall snake. I enjoyed every minute of it.
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