Black Angel (1946) is a Film Noir starring Dan Duryea, June Vincent, and Peter Lorre.
Famous torch singer Mavis Marlowe (Contance Dowling) has been allegedly murdered by her married lover, Kirk Bennett (John Phillips) who she was threatening to blackmail. Her estranged husband, Martin Blair (Duryea), has a clear alibi even with a motive for murdering her. Because of her penchant for blackmailing, Mavis also visited by nightclub owner, Marko (Lorre), during that fateful night.
Kirk, however, arrived after the crime scene and idiotically filled it with evidence against him. He pleads his innocence to no avail and is convicted of Mavis’ murder, sentenced to the gas chamber. Kirk’s wife, Catherine (June Vincent), believes his innocence and starts her own investigation with the at first reluctant help of Martin.
Their inquiries lead to Marko and his nightclub and they decide to pose undercover as a singer/songwriter duo for Marko's club, all the while trying to find out if Marko is the one who really killed Mavis.
This partnership leads to Martin falling in love with Catherine and them finding various red herrings.
Time is running out for Kirk as his execution is looming over Martin and Catherine's investigation and the search for a missing heart-shaped brooch owned by Mavis.
This film shows the following tropes:
- The Alcoholic: Martin goes on several benders because of Mavis’ rejection. Once he begins his nightclub career with Catherine, he stops drinking. He returns, however, when Catherine outright rejects him.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Martin when he writes “Time Will Tell” for Catherine.
- Bittersweet Ending: The killer is revealed. It turns out that it was Marvin all along. It just didn’t remember because he was drunk and blacked out.] He accepts his fate and turns himself in to save Kirk and return him to Catherine.
- The Chanteuse: Catherine becomes one when her and Martin’s act becomes highly celebrated in Marko’s nightclub. She’s not a Femme Fatale, however. Mavis definitely fit the bill more.
- Dramatic Irony: The audience knows from the start that Kirk is innocent.
- Drowning My Sorrows: When Mavis rejects Martin, he goes on several benders. Although it’s not clear if this happened a lot during their marriage, Martin’s friend says he always goes on a bender when his heart is broken.
- Drunken Montage: Catherine makes it clear to Martin that Kirk, either alive or dead, will be the only man for her. He goes into a weekend bender because of this and visits several bars until he finds the MacGuffin…
- Has a Type: Catherine is almost an exact copy of Mavis.
- Gift of Song: Martin composes and writes a love song for Mavis which she hated. When he falls for Catherine, he also writes one for her. She thinks it’s beautiful but ultimately rejects him. It later makes sense why that single was on loop after Mavis’ murder. Martin put it on when he entered and later murdered her in his drunken stupor.
- Grand Romantic Gesture: Given that Martin is a songwriter and composer, he writes Mavis (and later Catherine) a dedicated love song.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Martin is rough around the edges, but when he realizes Catherine is genuine about her search for truth, he goes on to help her and eventually falls in love with her.
- Idiot Ball: It seems that Catherine and Martin could’ve saved themselves a lot of time if they asked the police force if Marko had been cleared with them beforehand. But then again, the detectives were not forthcoming with the investigation in the first place and seemed to peg Kirk as guilty from the jump.
- MacGuffin: Catherine and Martin believe that the heart-shaped brooch he gifted Mavis that later disappeared is kept by Marko in his safe because he’s the real murderer. They later find out he does not in fact have the brooch.
- Red Herring: Marko. He was being blackmailed, but that was all.
- Race Against the Clock: Kirk is set to be killed in the gas chamber in 72 hours and Mavis and Martin are scrambling to find the heart-shaped brooch that went missing during the murder.
- The Reveal: The climactic twist: Martin was the murderer all along but couldn’t remember because it was during an alcoholic stupor.
