Review: The Night Angel (1931) is a weird, moody mess that I kind of liked.

So, is The Night Angel worth your time today? Honestly, only if you are the kind of person who likes digging through the dusty corners of 1930s cinema. If you want a tight plot or something that moves fast, you are going to be very bored. But if you like moody lighting and actors looking intensely at nothing, give it a go.

People who love early Fredric March being all stiff and honorable will probably enjoy this one. People who hate stagey, slow movies where the camera barely moves will likely want to turn it off after ten minutes. It is a very specific vibe.

The Vibe and the Fog

The whole movie takes place in a version of Prague that looks like it was built entirely out of shadows and leftover sets. It has this weird, heavy atmosphere. It feels like a dream, but not necessarily a good one. More like the kind of dream you have when you have a slight fever.

The story is about a guy named Berel (Fredric March) who is a big-shot DA. He puts a woman in jail for running a shady cafe/brothel thing. Then, for some reason, he decides he needs to look after her daughter, Yula. Nancy Carroll plays Yula with this wild energy that doesn't always fit the scene.

One scene in the beer garden goes on way too long. You can see the extras in the background just sort of pretending to drink and talk. It starts to feel awkward. Like, you realize they are all waiting for the director to yell 'cut' so they can go home. 🍺

It reminded me a bit of the pacing in Let Us Be Gay, where the dialogue just keeps coming at you. But here, the silence is what gets you. There are these long gaps where nobody says anything. I think it’s supposed to be dramatic, but it just made me check my watch.

Nancy Carroll and the Acting

Nancy Carroll is interesting to watch. She has these massive eyes that the camera loves. In some shots, she looks like a silent film star who hasn't quite figured out that she can talk now. She does this thing where she leans against walls a lot. A lot.

Fredric March is... well, he is Fredric March. He is very handsome and has a great voice. But his character is kind of a jerk? He’s supposed to be the hero, but he’s basically just obsessed with this girl he rescued. It feels a bit creepy if you think about it too hard.

• The mom character, played by Alison Skipworth, is actually the best part.
• She’s loud and mean and feels like a real person.
• Every time she’s on screen, the movie actually wakes up.

I noticed this one shot where a shadow falls across March’s face and stays there for like three minutes. I don't know if it was intentional. It made him look like he had a very strange beard. It’s small things like that which make these old movies fun to pick apart.

Is it actually good?

The plot is kind of thin. It’s a lot of 'I love you, but I shouldn't.' We’ve seen this a million times. It’s not as gritty as something like Bad Sister, which came out the same year. That movie felt like it had more teeth.

The Night Angel feels like it’s trying to be poetic. Director Edmund Goulding clearly wanted this to be a 'big' artistic statement. Sometimes it works. The prison scenes have this stark, cold look that is genuinely impressive. But then we go back to the romance and it gets mushy and slow again.

There is a scene where Alan Hale shows up and he’s just being loud and boisterous. It’s such a contrast to the rest of the movie. It’s like he walked in from a completely different film set by accident. I kind of wished the whole movie was about his character instead.

"I'm not a bad girl, I'm just... around." - This isn't a real quote from the movie, but it basically sums up Yula's entire character arc.

The ending feels very rushed. Like they ran out of film or the actors had a bus to catch. One minute they are miserable, and the next, everything is supposedly fine. It didn't feel earned. It just... happened.

Still, I don't regret watching it. There is something about the way these early 30s movies were shot. They were still figuring out how to use sound. You can hear the hiss of the recording equipment in the quiet scenes. I like that. It makes it feel human and handmade. 🎥

If you're looking for a masterpiece, look elsewhere. If you want to see Fredric March looking troubled in a foggy room for ninety minutes, you've found your movie. It’s a bit of a mess, but it’s an interesting mess.