I Watch Films: Angel On My Shoulder

Angel On My Shoulder

Eddie Kagle (Paul Muni) is a gangster who is released from prison and is immediately murdered by his partner, Smiley Williams. Finding himself in hell, a trustee called Nick (Claude Rains) offers him the chance to get revenge if he does a job for him. Kagle looks just like judge Frederick Parker who is honest and good and causing Nick problems (not enough souls to keep the temperature up*) and if elected governor will cause him more.

Kagle makes a mess of this. About to give a speech where he tells voters what he thinks of them , some rivals arrive to throw fruit and he fights them making himself a hero. About to take a bribe he recognises one of them as a former lover and turns them in. By not doing bad, it becomes clear he’s out of Nick’s control. Kagle falls in love with the judge’s fiancée (Anne Baxter) and they go to a minister to get married, at which point he realises he’s stealing the judge’s life (bad) and there’s a bunch of generic Christian platitudes.

Watch This: A fun supernatural comedy with an excellent cast.
Don’t Watch This: It’s a slow black and white 40s comedy that tells us nothing very interesting about good and evil

* This is just some classic hell nonsense, but does raise a few questions