Stella from FALLEN ANGEL (1945)
Film noir and its losers..
Linda Darnell’s tragic and untimely death in 1965 is one of Hollywood’s darkest tragedies. It breaks my heart every time I think about it, not least because it’s always a pleasure to see her in a movie. She was one of those people who made every movie better by being in it. Especially, the otherwise (kind of) forgettable Fallen Angel (1945).
Written by Harry Kleiner, based on Marty Holland’s novel of the same name, Fallen Angel (dir. Otto Preminger) tells the story of Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews), a drifter who wanders into the small village of Walton, after being kicked off the bus for not having the right fare to go all the way to San Francisco. He pops into Pop’s Eats, a diner where the locals are speculating about what might have happened to Stella (Linda Darnell), the waitress. Then, Stella comes in… and Eric becomes infatuated. While in town, he gets a job with fortune teller Professor Madley (John Carradine) and eventually befriends the Mills sisters in order to con them out of their money.
This relatively kooky noir isn’t necessarily one of the best in the genre. In fact, I don’t think it makes my top 20. It’s actually more of a small-town melodrama than a film noir. But there is something about it I absolutely love: Stella.
‘I knew you’d be back.’ Mark Judd (Charles Bickford)
‘OK… I’m back’ Stella
Her spectacular entrance tells us everything we need to know: she’s sassy, confident and takes no prisoners. She’s been away and now she’s back. Good. She doesn’t take to Eric immediately but he wins her over after a while and the two of them seem to be going somewhere… Until Eric starts courting June Mills (Alice Faye). This not only signifies a shift in the film’s dynamics, but it also flirts with one of film noir’s most treasured motifs: good vs bad.
Stella represents the ‘good’. Fallen Angel is full of con people conning each other and tricksters playing tricks. The good side of town, when June lives with her sister Clara (Anne Revere) might not be as good as it seems, and the working-class part of town, where Stella lives and works, has a little something to say for itself, actually.
Stella represents so many things that make film noir what it is. She’s an optimist who’s been kicked to the ground countless times. She knows what she wants and has no qualms about going after it. She wants to be happy, but life keeps getting in the way.
‘And do you see me with a ring on my finger, somebody to give me a home?’ Stella
Stella is a true film noir ‘loser’ if there ever was one. She keeps getting the wrong end of the stick, no matter how hard she tries to turn her life around. She, like so many characters on the streets of noir, just wants to make a better life for herself. Problem is, she gets caught up with the one man who literally lies to people for a living and, on top of that, ends up with a woman who, compared to Stella, already has everything.
I keep coming back to Fallen Angel because of Stella. I even named one of the characters on my TV show after her. She’s a delight and you just want to protect her. And that mischievous laugh (‘hmm-hmm!’) when Eric says they’re as good as married? Gets me every single time.
We bid farewell to Stella and Fallen Angel. Our next loser concocts a plan to ‘swap murders’ with a total stranger. The film is Strangers on a Train (1951), the actor is Robert Walker and the loser… is Bruno Antony.
See you on the sunny side of the street.
I love this film and I love that you wrote about it in this context with Stella as the Loser. I'd say she's maybe the biggest loser in a film full of losers, as she lost her very life. Stella means, approximately, that she's the "shining star" in this drippy hick town tucked into a dark corner of the Bay area. She's world-class gorgeous but can't be bothered to buy a bus ticket to Hollywood or to enter a beauty pageant to maybe win a trip to Hollywood. Join a modeling agency. Learn stenography or some other stereotypical, narrow skill that was open to women. Be a teacher, a nurse... Something. Instead, she's waiting for a meal ticket to come through Pop's Diner to wisk her away to a life of luxury. She's not even trying to get a job on the good side of town where some folks do have money and her odds would maybe be improved? For an ambitious gal she's not very motivated; or she's motivated but not very ambitious. She's slinging hash at Pop's and occasionally turning a trick for some extra dough or trinkets, and that's the unspoken subtext here given the constraints of the censorship code. And therein lies her "loserability factor". She trucked with losers and lost, instead of really doing a bit of work to rise up. Compare her to the ambitious and ever-scheming Amber. Now there's a girl who was constantly working the ropes in order to lay down in the most posh bed. Amber was a loser, too, in the end, but along the way she had some big wins because she worked at it. Stella just wants to rub her sore feet and be fawned over by losers. Yet, like you, I adore her; but I disagree that she's "good". I think she's flawed at best, but mostly kinda rotten. She's a user. She's using her looks to get ahead (which is OK) but she's not using them very effectively. Not like... Linda Darnell did! I think Darnell was a better actress than she got credit for, and that can be seen in films like No Way Out and... Dang it, a Western where she's trapped in an army fort under seige, I can' t recall the name. And the film with Rex Harrison, too. Darnell was a true star even if Stella wasn't.
Linda Darnell R.I.P.
Folks I found a site that has been helpful for my own interest in noir and organizing my thoughts about it, and helping me to de-tangle when plots or titles get mixed up. Here I can also cet down the names of great character actors too. Check it out: https://heartofnoir.com/