Event

WE'RE NO ANGELS

(1955) dir Michael Curtiz w/Bogart, Aldo Ray, Peter Ustinov, Joan Bennett, Basil Rathbone [106 min; 35mm]
Bogie takes a rare comic turn with this strangely frothy prison-break film. Three convicts (Bogart, the venerable character actor Ray, and the charming Ustinov) escape from Devil's Island and find themselves trying to catch a boat out of an isolated French colonial town. When they try to steal supplies from a local merchant (Rathbone) they instead become embroiled in the family's private life and decide to stick around a while to levy their unique skills against the family's problems. A wonderful film mainly for the carefree ease with which the cast takes on the material and for the chemistry between the three leads who play their supposedly hardened criminals more like three gossipy old ladies.