Entertaining Angels

The Green Pastures (1929)
Angels:

Gabriel and Archangel lead a band of angels--actually the Hall Johnson gospel choir--in a telling of Old Testament tales from a decidedly Southern rural perspective.

Wings and Things:

Gowns and feathers, but less hi-tech than Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

Powers:

Gabriel plays a mean horn.

Memorable Line:

"Even bein’ God ain't no bed of roses,"

Legacy:

The movie version of this controversial Pulitzer prize-winning 1929 play was one of the first movies with an all-black cast. It sold nearly 6,000 tickets every hour at its debut at Radio City Music Hall.

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Angel:

Angel Second-Class Clarence Oddbody

Mission:

To show the suicidal George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart), who pleads, "Show me the way, oh God," why life is worth living.

Wings and Things:

First appears as a shooting star, later in long underwear--but Clarence only gets his wings if George sees the light.

Powers:

Can call up an alternate world in which George was never born, but otherwise depends on whimsical folksiness.

Memorable Line:

"One man's life touches so many others, when he's not there it leaves an awfully big hole."

Legacy:

Born of WWII, Clarence's angel-as-heavenly Kilroy on probation, and God as a stern four-star general, became the dominant gag for a generation.

The Bishop’s Wife (1947)
Angel:

Dudley (Cary Grant)

Mission:

To help Episcopal bishop David Niven remember the meaning of faith, and of his wife.

Wings and Things:

Like Clarence, Dudley looks like you or me, except of course, he’s Cary Grant.

Powers:

Mostly small-bore miracles; after all is well, no one remembers him, despite being imbued with happiness

Memorable Line:

"Sometimes angels rush in where fools fear to tread."

Legacy:

Angels, increasingly lovable, can also be sexy. Re-made as The Preacher’s Wife (1996), with Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston.

Angels in the Outfield (1951)
Angels:

Archangel Gabriel (voice of James Whitmore); the Heavenly Choir Nine

Mission:

To help the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team win a pennant, if their abusive manager can keep his tongue in check.

Wings and things:

None: only Bridget, an orphan, can see the heavenly helpers.

Powers:

An eye-popping curveball.

Memorable Tagline:

"The roughest guy you ever met... until an angel said 'Hello!'"

Legacy:

Disney's remake in 1994 sanitized the storyline and changed the team to the California Angels. Get it?

Barbarella (1968)
Angel:

Pygar the "Ornithothrope"

Mission:

To help Barbarella (Jane Fonda) save the harmony of the known universe.

Wings and Things:

Lives in a large nest. Talks without using contractions.

Powers:

After finding love with Fonda, he rediscovers the will to fly.

Memorable Line:

"An angel does not make love. An angel is love."

Legacy:

Angels with heavenly bodies

Angel Levine (1970)
Angel:

In the racially aware '70s, calypso great Harry Belafonte plays an updated Clarence--only Jewish and black.

Mission:

Levine, a former street hustler, has to convince a down-on-his-luck Jewish tailor (Zero Mostel) to believe in him

Wings and things:

A black leather jacket.

Powers:

Fast talking

Memorable Lines:

Tailor: "So if God sends me an angel, why a black?" Levine: "It was my turn to go next."

Legacy:

Not the first Jewish angel—that was Jack Benny in 1943's The Horn Blows at Midnight"—Belafonte along with Sidney Poitier, brought back the African-American angel in the '70s.

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