SCARLET ANGEL

US, 1952, 81 minutes, Colour.
Yvonne de Carlo, Rock Hudson, Richard Denning, Henry O'Neill, Amanda Blake.
Directed by Sidney Salkow.

Scarlet Angel is one of those many enjoyable romantic actioners from Universal Studios in the '50s. They used their up-and-coming stars as well as their veterans to provide an hour and a half of easy colourful entertainment.

This film has Yvonne de Carlo as the star. She appeared in many such actioners in the '40s and '50s - and is a reliable and attractive presence. She is always the goodtime girl - with the heart of gold. The male lead is Rock Hudson - very rocky in an early performance, not necessarily giving indications that he would be the success he was. Amanda Blake is strong in the supporting cast which includes Richard Denning.

There are colourful New Orleans and San Francisco settings and the direction is by Sidney Salkow, who directed a number of these films.

1. An entertaining B-budget actioner? Romance?

2. Universal Studios and production values: colour photography, 19th century atmosphere, lavish sets in San Francisco and New Orleans, saloons, ships, high society? Rousing score?

3. The film as a vehicle for Yvonne de Carlo and her attractive style? Launching Rock Hudson as a star?

4. The conventionality of the plot (used by such heroines as Mae West in Klondike Annie)? Of the goodtime girl taking the identity of a dead respectable woman? Roxy and her work at The Scarlet Angel, her fleecing the sailors, her brushes with the law, the fights, her escape, helping Linda and the baby, running away from Truscott? The chance to take a new identity, her loud style in San Francisco, her lessons in diction and manners? Her place in high society? Being courted? The arrival of Truscott? The payment? The danger from Susan? The proposal from Malcolm? The brawl? Her realising the truth - and the happy ending?

5. Rock Hudson as Truscott - his work as a skipper, his taking the money from the northerners? The encounter at the saloon with Roxy, his seeing through her, her tricking him? His arrival in San Francisco? The bargain? The dance, the meeting with Susan? The brawl - the happy ending?

6. The background of New Orleans at the end of the Civil War? Clashes between North and South? The saloons? The comparisons with San Francisco and the docks? The comparisons with elegant society in San Francisco - Malcolm and Susan and their suspicions, their hoping for the money?

7. Conventional material, heroes and heroines, class distinctions, dangers, sentiment, romance and raucous comedy? Perennially popular?