CHARLEY AND THE ANGEL

US, 1973, 93 minutes, Colour.
Fred Mac Murray, Cloris Leachman, Harry Morgan, Kurt Russell, Vincent van Patten.
Directed by Vincent Mc Eveety.

Pleasant minor Disney family material. Fred Mac Murray and Cloris Leachman are solid stars and carry the film. Harry Morgan (who had great success in TV’s M*A*S*H) is a most genial angel. The Depression period is re-created well and the atmosphere of the small farms. There are the usual tests and trials of a poor man and the Disney emphasis on children. Entertaining, if not memorable.

1. An enjoyable film? The most enjoyable features?

2.The Walt Disney mark? Adding or detracting from the film? How realistic? Sentiment? Just right?

3.The film as a fable, enjoyable, message, happy ending?

4.The settings: the 30s, the Depression, middle America, the town atmosphere, the shop, the gangsters? Would the film have been the same with a modern setting?

5.How did the film present Charley? As a man, father, preoccupied with himself, hard and selfish, faced with the prospect of death, the slow change, slowness in learning, his realisation of the value of time, making up for lost time, love for his wife, allowing his daughter to marry, helping the boys? How had he changed by the end of the film?

6.How attractively was the family presented? Life at home, the ordinary things, details of the phone, Fathers’ Day etc? The wife and her love for Charley? The daughter wanting to get married, her dates, the neighbours?

7.How interesting was the angel? How humorously presented? His name, background, memories, comparisons of the past with the present, the jokes? The jokes about angels? The picture of an American angel? His moralising and teaching Charley his lesson?

8.The subplot of Lenora and Ray, was their elopement convincing?

9.How humorous and dramatic was the climax? Prepared for by the boys driving the whiskey, Charley and his chasing Lenora at the dance, gangsters arriving, the chase? Charley as a hero? Being saved from death?

10.Was the ending too happy or should Charley have died? What was the main lesson of the film?