Product Details

• Actors: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Rita Hayworth, Thomas Mitchell, John Qualen, George Watts
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: Portuguese (Unknown), English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: August 20, 2002
• Run Time: 79 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000069HYC
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #174,502 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Angels over Broadway" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars UNDERRATED, May 19, 2000

By 

"scotsladdie" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Angels Over Broadway [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Ben Hecht wrote, produced and with the excellent cinematographer Lee Garmes, directed this night-life story about a poor clerk (John Qualen) who is going to kill himself if he can't get $3,000, and and a drunken playwright (Thomas Mitchell) who takes him in charge. The playwright thinks that since sharp gamblers always let you win at poker before they trim you & the trick is to leave the game early............ Two young lovers complicated the playwright's plan. Offbeat and ahead of its time, this Hecht production is surely one of the most unheralded fine films ever to come out of Hollywood (I suspect because 1939 was THE greatest year the movies ever knew and there was too much compitition). Columbia mogul Harry Cohn hand-picked the lovely Hayworth (as a call girl!) and the performances by Mitchell (as a marvelous lush) and Fairbanks are captivating ; Hecht's dialogue sparkles with poetic irony. It's an unpredictable Broadway saga on the screen, filmed with a fast pace and panache. Hecht's character's talk too much, but Hecht was a compulsive gambler himself, and there's a genial, original spirit to this movie.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Angels and Hustlers; a wonderful story starring Douglas Fairbanks and Rita Hayworth, September 12, 2007

By 

Rama Rao "Rama" (Annandale, VA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Angels over Broadway (DVD)

This is a good comedy drama about a suicidal man named Charles Engle ((John Qualen) gets involved with a small-time hustler named Bill O'Brian (Douglas Fairbanks) who mistakenly thinks that Engle is a wealthy man. He hatches a scheme to get Engle into a poker game with his gangster friends, and persuades Nina Barone (Rita Hayworth), an out of work dancer in his scheme. Meanwhile, a perpetually lush playwright, Gene Gibbons (Thomas Mitchell), finds the suicide note left by Engle, and he comes up with his own scheme to save the suicidal man. O'Brien reluctantly agrees to become an angel in this little scheme that interests Nina. She agrees to offer her help to get enough money ($3,000) Engle needs to pay back his employer and save his life. The plan goes awry, and finally all ends well. Douglas Fairbanks offers a good performance as a hustler, and Rita Hayworth looks beautiful, but comes short of dazzling. Ben Hecht wrote and directed this movie about a group of hustlers turning themselves into angels.

3.0 out of 5 stars Before Rita's Femme Fatale-dom, January 2, 2011

By 

Alfred Johnson (boston, ma) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Angels over Broadway (DVD)

The first paragraph below is taken from other reviews about Rita Hayworth although the male stars playing against her are different here. Except they all have a similar feature; they all are smitten very smitten by Ms. Hayworth's charms. Join the line, boys:

"Okay, let me bring you up to speed on the obscure meaning of the headline. See, a while back I was smitten by a film star, an old time black and white film star from the 1940s, Rita Hayworth. The film that sent me into a tailspin: the black and white <em>noir</em> classic Gilda where she played a "good" femme fatale who gets in a jam with a no good monomaniacal crook. But that part is not important femme fatales, good or bad, get mixed up with wrong gees all the time. It's an occupational hazard. What is important though is that I got all swoony over lovely, alluring Rita. And as happens when I get my periodic "bugs" I had to go out and see what else she performed in. Of course Lady From Shang-hai came next. There she plays a "bad" blondish femme fatale (against a smitten Orson Welles). And then a couple of song and dance films partnered with Fred Astaire." And now this film under review, Angels Over Broadway. We are caught up.

After watching Ms. Hayworth going through her paces as a femme fatale and as a song and dance partner in other reviewed films it was somewhat surprising to see her play a "hayseed" (Brooklyn-born "hayseed", okay) trying to get her big break on Broadway, one way or another. Old Rita had been around but had not lost faith in humanity, or what passed for humanity in her circles. Now this Ben Hecht vehicle is very much in the old Damon Runyon Broadway gamblers, con men, criminals, drifters, grifters and midnight sifters tradition with a full compliment of failed characters, a drunken playwright (naturally, its Broadway) played here by Thomas Mitchell, a fast-talking wanna-be con man who knows all the angles, and all the angels (played by Douglas Fairbanks, Junior), the wanna-be gold digger with the heart of gold (Rita) and a suicidal embezzler.

Said embezzler and his problem are the focus of the film as the playwright makes one last bid at humanity and attempts to come out of the alcoholic haze by helping the embezzler make restitution, the con man makes his big bid to play with the real hard guys (and to play, fitfully, with Rita) setting up the embezzler for a fall, and the failed gold-digger (Rita) gets "religion" and tries to bring that wisdom to Mr. Con Man. Needless to say this plot is thin, thin if you have been immersed in the serious Broadway shenanigans of one Damon Runyon, and the dialogue leaves a lot to be desired.

I would put it this way for those of you who, like me, sometimes go off the deep end and need to see or read everything about something or some one that has stuck your fancy lately. Take this as case study in artistic development; as a first, halting, unsuccessful step by Rita in femme fatale-ism. That makes Gilda just that much better. Still even here Rita has her charms.