Angels over Broadway

Sardonic newsman turned razor-wit screenwriter Ben Hecht softens his hard-boiled style for a rare directorial outing in Angels over Broadway. Set in the world he knew and loved so well--Broadway's nightlife of hustlers and suckers and high-society swells--Hecht's tale of tarnished angels stars Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as a street hustler cajoled into fronting a flimsy scheme to heist a gambling hoodlum and save a suicidal stranger. Pre-sex bomb Rita Hayworth is awkward but sweet as a breathy ingénue, and Thomas Mitchell gets all the best lines as a boozy playwright whose chivalrous streak grows with each drink ("Eugene, you're drunk." "My dear, you understate the case by three bottles and a thousand tears."). Hecht has been sharper and wittier but rarely so sentimental. Under his snappy patter is the heart of a jaded romantic taking one more chance. --Sean Axmaker