The Dark Angel (1935)

Despite having quite a solid cast, I found this wartime drama drifted just once too often into the realms of sentimentality and I found it quiet heavy going at times. It's all about a love triangle. "Kitty" (Merle Oberon) has long since been friends with "Alan" (Fredric March) and "Gerald" (Herbert Marshall) and everyone knows it's from this pair that she shall pick her husband. With the Great War looming, she alights on "Alan" and their friend accepts her decision and off they go to fight. This is where we discover that all is not quite as civil as outwardly appears as "Gerald" sends his friend on a perilous mission that could change the dynamic of the three - permanently! The story is a bit thin and slightly predictable, but Oberon turns in an engaging effort as the never entirely content "Kitty". Herbert Marshall could always be relied upon to deliver a solid if never especially characterful role, and again he does that competently enough here - especially as the film develops towards it's denouement, and though March features a bit less frequently, he has a presence on screen that helps create quite an effective atmosphere when his character, indeed all of their characters, find they are treading on egg shells. Alfred Newman, again another safe pair of hands, has scored this nicely and the film has a gentle nostalgic value to it that's worth watching, it's just not great.