Angels Over Broadway

I hadn't thought there would be a post today for the "Winter of Fairbanks Jr." with Lisa from Boondock Ramblings because I had decided to skip the chosen movie when I saw that Douglas Fairbanks jr. was actually just the narrator.
However, Lisa has changed the movie for today, so I'm here after all.

Today's movie is Angels Over Broadway from 1940.

Fair use via Wikipedia

Charles Engle has embezzled $3,000 to give to his wife, but she has passed them on to the man she really loves. Now his partner wants the money back the next morning, but Charles has already decided to kill himself.
He goes to a nightclub and his generous spending makes everyone think he's a rich man. He also catches the eye of Bill O'Brien who thinks he's the perfect victim to take to a gangster's poker game for a cut. Bill enlists showgirl Nina to help him with luring Charles there.
By now disillusioned and drunk playwright Gene Gibbons has made it to Charles' table after being giving the wrong coat and finding the suicide letter in it.

He persuades Bill to change the plan by taking Charles to the game, but as soon as the gangsters have let him win enough to make him keep playing, Charles is supposed to escape with the money. Bill isn't enthusiastic about the plan, but finally accepts it, with one little addition. If Charles wins more than the needed money, he's supposed to give that surplus to Bill.

Things don't go quite according to plan as Gene, drunk as he is, forgets everything and leaves for home and one of the gangsters discovers the escape plan.
In the end, however, everything works out.
Charles escapes by being arrested, but is set free and can give back the money. Gene goes back home to his wife who has forgiven him. Bill - although beat up by the gangster - and Nina escape as well and find they are in love.

Let's start with my opinion about that plan.
Trust a drunk, no matter how witty, to come up with such a plan.
Did they really think a bunch of gangsters - who don't pull something like this for the first time - would just let an intended mark walk off with thousands of dollars trusting him to "just look in on his drunk friend" and then run down the stairs and disappear?
Did they really expect there to be no consequences at all for the people bringing Charles to the game if he disappeared?
That part of the story is simply too weak for me and I think they all were very lucky to survive this. Also, if I were Bill and Nina, I'd get out of there quickly and not sit down for some coffee. Gangsters have their methods to find people and they are not very forgiving, right?

There's quite a lot of talking in the movie, people persuading one another to do stuff, people talking about the plan, people talking about why people do something.
Four strangers meeting and being teamed up for a little while until they get scattered again in the big city.
I liked the performances of Charles' angels (please note that I didn't succumb to the pun "Charlie's Angels"). Gene was witty, Nina beautiful and emphatic, and Bill showed the right amount of cynicism before showing some heart himself.
I found Charles a bit one-dimensional in his depression, though.
Maybe I'm too much of a cynic myself, but although they all got their happy ending, I'm not sure I would expect that ending to stay that happy. Actually I immediately imagined what would happen to them afterwards.
It is possible, though, that my pessimism was enhanced by being sick when watching the movie and writing this. On the other hand, it shows you that it's not a difficult movie to follow if I could do it with my eyes half shut 😉

Will this movie have a huge impact on your life? I doubt it.
Was it still entertaining, though? Yes, I think so.