- Fallen Angel is a fairly average offering from director Otto Preminger and the Fox film noir machine. It stars Dana Andrews as Eric Stanton, a con operator who finds himself stranded and broke in a small town. After he manages to convince everyone in town to attend a sham psychic demonstration led by the itinerant Professor Madley (John Carradine), Stanton discovers that there is more money to be made in even less honest ways. He therefore sets out to relieve the respectable Mills sisters of their family fortune by romancing June (Alice Faye) under the skeptical gaze of her homely sister Clara (Anne Revere). Simultaneously, Stanton finds himself falling in love with sultry waitress Stella (Linda Darnell), who is easily the most popular girl in town. Or rather, she was the most popular girl in town before getting murdered.
- Fallen Angel probably could have been an interesting movie if it had focused on the strange psychic scam and the always excellent John Carradine. Instead, we get a rather dull love triangle that turns into an even more routine murder investigation. It turns out that the sadistic cop (Charles Bickford) did it, but I found it difficult to care. The acting, directing, and characters were decent enough that a strong plot could have saved the film, but that never actually happened.
