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Scarlet Angel

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1952 film by Sidney Salkow
Scarlet Angel
Film poster by Reynold Brown
Directed bySidney Salkow
Screenplay byOscar Brodney
Produced byLeonard Goldstein
Ross Hunter
StarringYvonne De Carlo
Rock Hudson
Richard Denning
CinematographyRussell Metty
Edited byTed J. Kent
Music byJoseph Gershenson
Production
company		Universal Pictures
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • June 15, 1952 (1952-06-15) (Los Angeles)
Running time81 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1.5 million (US rentals)

Scarlet Angel is a 1952 American Technicolor historical adventure film directed by Sidney Salkow and starring Yvonne De Carlo, Rock Hudson and Richard Denning. It was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures. The two leads appeared together again in Sea Devils the following year.

Plot

New Orleans, 1865: In a disreputable saloon, the Scarlet Angel, sea captain Frank Truscott observes as scheming, gold-digging saloon girl Roxy McClanahan steals one customer's wallet and then sets her sights on him.

Discovering a sick woman with a baby, Roxy volunteers to spend the night. She comes up with an idea after the mother dies, stealing her identity and heading to San Francisco to find the woman's wealthy relatives, hoping to bring the baby back and receive an award. The dead woman's cousins are there, Susan Bradley not trusting Roxy while brother Malcolm Bradley develops both a romantic and economic interest in her.

Roxy plays a pair of suitors against each other until Frank suddenly returns to complicate her ambitions and to demand the money she stole. She becomes pressured to reveal her true identity and the child's. By the time she does, Roxy and Frank find themselves back in another saloon, bickering and fighting.

Cast

Production

The film was based on an original screenplay by Oscar Brodney, however a New York Times review said it bore a strong resemblance to The Flame of New Orleans (1941).

Yvonne De Carlo agreed to make it under a new contract she had signed with Universal to make one film a year. Rock Hudson was cast opposite her and received his first star billing for the role.

Filming began in November 1951.

Reception

The New York Times said "as a fetching Technicolor showcase for a lady who decidedly rates framing" the film "has its points. For some time Yvonne De Carlo has been flouncing through a series of routine costume adventures as a tough but good-natured minx from across the tracks who wades into society and inevitably backtracks with a bloke of her own caliber. This new one... is the mixture as before, nicely tinted, harmless and predictable from the word De Carlo.... The ornamental Miss De Carlo, who also has the makings of a fine, brassy comedienne, is still marking time on a stereotyped leash."

References

  1. 'Top Box-Office Hits of 1952', Variety, January 7, 1953
  2. H. H. T. (June 21, 1952). "Yvonne de Carlo in Technicolor Feature". New York Times. p. 12.
  3. ^ H. H. T. (June 21, 1952). "Yvonne de Carlo in Technicolor Feature". New York Times.
  4. "Drama: Faith Domergue Set for Lead With Murphy". Los Angeles Times. Nov 7, 1951. p. B6.
  5. "MARTIN AND LEWIS IN MOVIE COMEDY: Zany Due to Enact Night Club Team Turned Paratroopers in Paramount 'Jumping Jacks' Life of Patton" a Possibility". THE NEW YORK TIMES. Nov 1, 1951. p. 35.

External links

Films directed by Sidney Salkow
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