The Tarnished Angels

Although not as well-known as his Technicolor melodramas such as Magnificent Obsession (1954) and All That Heaven Allows (1955), filmmaker Douglas Sirk’s 1957 black-and-white film based on William Faulkner’s lesser novel Pylon (1935) still carries a decent dramatic punch and boasts fine performances from its star trio. Rock Hudson is Burke Devlin, an alcoholic journalist intent on covering former WWI hero turned barnstorming pilot Roger Shumann (Robert Stack), who has made an art out of flying such tight patterns that he clips the marker pylons during competitive races for money. But Devlin is as much interested in Roger’s neglected wife, LaVerne (Dorothy Malone), who performs daring parachute feats and becomes a tawdry pawn when Roger sends her to "ask" sleazy rival owner Matt Ord (Robert Middleton)—whose pilot died—whether Roger can fix up a broken-down Ord plane to use in a race. Jack Carson costars as Jiggs, Roger’s devoted comrade and mechanic extraordinaire, who also carries a torch for LaVerne (when LaVerne was in a family way, Roger and Jiggs flipped a coin to see who would marry her and Roger "lost"). The dynamics between the characters will, of course, shift over the course of this tale as the four men circle around the smoldering LaVerne in between exciting airplane races. Extras include audio commentary by film historian Imogen Sara Smith. Recommended. (R. Pitman)