ANGEL IN EXILE (1948)

Charlie Dakin is released from prison after serving five years for a gold dust heist he was part of. His buddy Ernie, who has hidden the gold, picks him up, and the two are followed by Giorgio and Spitz, two other heist men who want to claim their part of the treasure. In the Arizona mountains, near the village of San Gabriel, Charlie files a land claim for an abandoned gold mine where the stash is hidden. The plan is to pretend to find the gold dust and sell it to the government, but the land clerk, Higgins, figures out their plan, wants to be cut in, and advises them to slowly "mine" the gold over several months to make the mining seem legitimate, and offers to handle their claims so no one gets suspicious. Eventually, Giorgio and Spitz muscle in as well. Meanwhile, Charlie establishes relationships with the villagers, some of whom he hires as workers. The village is in bad shape and needs a new health clinic and a new water source. There are rumors of a 300-year-old ghostly angel named the Blue Lady who can work miracles, and when Charlie's mine starts producing gold, the villagers think it's the work of the angel. Charlie grows especially close to Dr. Chavez and his daughter Raquel, who begins to fall for Charlie. When a typhus outbreak threatens the village, Charlie accompanies the doctor on calls and tells stories of the Blue Lady performing miracles; these stories offer the patients hope and help them get better faster, leading to Charlie being seen as something of an angel himself. Soon Charlie wants to give the ill-gotten gold dust money to the village, but, of course, his cohorts don't agree.

In addition to the word "angel" in the title, we are told at the beginning that this is "the story of a miracle," so we're prepped for a supernatural agency that never materializes. Still, this B-movie does work up a nice gentle folktale feel despite its gunplay climax. Some viewers make a claim for this as a film noir, and I guess in the sense that the hero is actually something of an anti-hero—he's not evil but he is a criminal and at the end, he still, thanks to the Production Code, has to pay for his actions. Otherwise, the tone and look of the movie aren't particularly noirish. I've noticed that John Carroll (Charlie, pictured) is not an admired actor among many classic movie fans (at least the ones who write blogs), maybe because he was pushed early in his career as a Clark Gable type, maybe because he doesn't have a wide range, but he's one of my favorite B-leads and he's fine here, though he was aging out of the hearty young buck image he had earlier in the decade. Thomas Gomez (the doctor), Baton MacLane (Giorgio), and Adele Mara (Raquel) are all fine. Howland Chamberlain, a new name to me, does a nice job as the passive but slimy nerd Higgins. The finale, with good use of guns and fists, is satisfying. A must for John Carroll fans, if there are any others out there. [YouTube]