Angels Over Broadway

Charles Engle, a small businessman, has embezzled three thousand dollars for his spendthrift wife and is about to be found out. He decides to end his life, writes a note, puts it in his pocket and goes out for one last night in the city. Bill O'Brien, a con man, and Nina, a singer, pull him into a poker game. Then they find the note Engle has dropped. Ben Hecht both wrote the film and directed it together with the cinematographer Lee Garmes, and he was nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay. The story takes place in a single night and is built like theatre, with fast, showy dialogue. Rita Hayworth has a leading role in a major production for the first time. Thomas Mitchell plays the drunken playwright. The telling promises to save nobody, but it takes the attempt itself seriously.