Hollywood didn’t boast many writer/directors at the time when the brilliant Ben Hecht (The Front Page) got the chance to write, produce, AND direct (co-direct, actually, with cinematographer Lee Garmes) the unique Angels Over Broadway.
Over a rainy night in art deco Manhattan, four lost souls find each other and work together to save one of them from suicide. Little wimpy Mr. Engle (John Qualen) embezzled $3,000 from his employer and has a day to either return the money or go to jail. He blew all that cash feeding a parasitic relationship with a woman who doesn’t really love him and he can’t pay it back so he decides to kill himself. A talkative, alcoholic playwright (Thomas Mitchell) reeling from bankruptcy and a failed marriage finds Engle’s suicide note and makes it his mission to save the man. He does it with the help of a bottom-feeding criminal (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) and a sensitive young woman trying unsuccessfully to get a break as a showgirl (a gorgeous, pre-fame Rita Hayworth).
Engle really is a embezzler, but in Hecht’s world, he’s not judged for it. Engle didn’t steal out of ambition or malice. He stole because he wanted to be loved and this was the only way he knew how. Hecht doesn’t care about any of these characters’ crimes or mistakes, all of which are forgiven. He cares about their redemption, or just their escape. Few films sympathize with total outsiders as sincerely as this does.