It's their anniversary, and alcoholic pianist and composer Martin "Marty" Blair (Dan Duryea) wants to see Mavis Marlowe (Constance Dowling) but she doesn't. The Doorman (Dick Wessel) at Mavis' swanky apartment gets the word, and gives Marty the bum's rush. Sulking on the sidewalk, Marty sees another man, obviously expected, ask to visit her and be welcomed up. Marty storms to his corner bar and drowns himself in booze.
Later that evening Kirk Bennett (John Phillips) also shows up to visit Mavis. He, too, is welcomed up by the doorman, only to find Mavis murdered. He hears a prowler in her apartment, searches for them, but they get away. Seen fleeing the scene, the married Bennett is soon picked up by Captain Flood (Broderick Crawford) of the Los Angeles Police Department. Bennett convicted of her murder and sentenced to death.
Through it all his wife Catherine Bennett (June Vincent) has remained steadfast. Now, while Kirk's days on Death Row tick away toward the gas chamber, she mounts her own vigorous but clumsy investigation of his claims. One of her first leads takes her to Marty, whom she is convinced was the murderer. But Marty, it seems, has an alibi for the time of the killing.
Marty is attracted to Catherine, and volunteers to help. He tells her that Bennett was not the man he saw whisked in to visit Mavis on the night of the murder. A chance clue leads them to a nightclub, then to its owner, Mr. Marko (Peter Lorre), whom Marty identifies as the mystery man.
Catherine and Marty become convinced Marko is hiding a dark secret. When Captain Flood arrives, Marko admits he had been being blackmailed by Mavis over his ex-con past, and he is cleared as a suspect.
Catherine and Marty's partnership blossoms. On the night before Kirk is due to be executed, Marty can't hold it in any more and declares his love for Catherine. In spite of having "sacrificed her virtue" in getting close enough to Mr. Marko to rifle his safe, she tells Marty that Kirk had always been the only man for her, and would remain so.
Devastated, Marty goes on a bender in a carousel of bars, and triggers a flashback. In his delirium, Marty realizes that it was actually he who had strangled Mavis, then buried the traumatic memory in a drunken stupor. Paying the usual quarter, he'd bribed his building's janitor to let him out of his room that night, and stumbled up the stairs to Mavis' apartment when the doorman was distracted.
He tries to contact Captain Flood to confess in time to save Kirk, but Flood is out on a case. After several failed efforts he leaves a message for Flood to call him at Catherine's home, but is passed out drunk when the phone rings.
Come daylight, Catherine finds and rouses Marty, who begins to reflexively confess. Flood glides into the room and hears it all. As fantastic as the story is, Marty seems sincere, and willing to accept the consequences. Flood gets on the phone to reach the governor for a stay of execution. Kirk will be saved. Catherine will go back to her unfaithful man.
A 1946 American Black & White film-noir directed by Roy William Neill, produced by Tom McKnight and Roy William Neill, screenplay by Roy Chanslor, adapted from Cornell Woolrich's novel "The Black Angel" (1943), cinematography by Paul Ivano, starring Dan Duryea, June Vincent, Peter Lorre, Broderick Crawford, Constance Dowling
Wallace Ford, Hobart Cavanaugh, Freddie Steele, John Phillips, Ben Bard, Junius Matthews, Marion Martin, Archie Twitchell, Maurice St. Clair, Vilova, and Robert Williams. Released by Universal Pictures.
Director Neill and cinematographer Paul Ivano invest every shot with a visual style which translates Woolrich as any novel needs to be translated: with total fidelity to its essence and little if any to its literal text.
Tragically, director Roy William Neill died of a heart attack, at age 59, just months after the release of this film. Neill had just produced and directed most of the Sherlock Holmes films starring Basil Rathbone. It was his last film but a fine conclusion to a career that boasted over 100 directing credits dating back to 1917.
John Ireland, Anne Bancroft and Murvyn Vye appeared on a Lux Video Theatre adaptation of the story, broadcast on March 28, 1957.
Soundtrack music:
"Heartbreak" - Music by Edgar Fairchild, Lyrics by Jack Brooks, Performed on record by Constance Dowling (dubbed)
"I Want to Be Talked About" - Written by Edgar Fairchild, Lyrics by Jack Brooks, Performed by June Vincent (dubbed) with Dan Duryea, and Wally Webb
"Tiger Rag" - Written by Edwin B. Edwards, Nick LaRocca, Tony Sbarbaro, Henry Ragas and Larry Shields, Lyrics by Harry DeCosta, Performed by Wally Webb
"Time Will Tell" Music by Edgar Fairchild, Lyrics by Jack Brooks, Performed by June Vincent (dubbed) with Dan Duryea
"Continental Gentleman" - Music by Edgar Fairchild, Lyrics by Jack Brooks
A solid top-notch film-noir featuring some 'lesser' stars with all that you could ask for, and an ending worth waiting for.