ORIGINAL TITLEWe're No Angels
GENREComedy · Crime · Holiday
ABOUT THIS FILM
RUNTIME
106 min
FAMOUS QUOTE
“If crime showed on a man's face, there wouldn't be any mirrors.”
Vibe
tropical-Christmascrime-comedyBogartmischievousclassic-Hollywoodwarmstageymorally-invertedensemblelight
Three escaped convicts hide with a struggling family on Devil's Island at Christmas and gradually use dubious criminal talents to solve the household's financial and romantic problems. Tropical christmas moral inversion; criminals act with more practical generosity than respectable businessmen.
MOVIE NIGHT RANK
#74 of 100
Watch for
- Watch how the three escaped convicts gradually take over domestic labor—roof repair, cooking, bookkeeping and matchmaking—so criminal competence is redirected into family caretaking.
- Humor depends on the gap between the convicts’ matter-of-fact attitude toward wrongdoing and the household’s increasingly sincere trust in them.
- The pet snake Adolphe functions as a comic threat the film can deploy without changing its relaxed chamber-comedy tone.
- Notice how the tropical setting makes Christmas feel socially familiar but visually displaced, reinforcing the movie’s odd mixture of domestic warmth and criminal farce.
Production notes
Paramount lists Curtiz, Pat Duggan, Ranald MacDougall adapting Albert Husson, Bogart/Aldo Ray/Peter Ustinov and 106 minutes.
Trivia
- Curtiz directed
- Paramount lists 106 minutes
- Bogart/Ustinov/Ray play convicts
- based on Husson play
- VistaVision/Technicolor
Legacy
minor but durable holiday comedy; rare comic Bogart role and unusual tropical seasonal setting distinguish it from Curtiz's White Christmas.