George Raft has his own style of doing things unique unto him which makes for memorable movie watching. Throw in a decent story, some dames and someone trying to kill someone and you have Hollywood doing what it did best in the 30's, 40's and 50's. Imagine you were out for the night and wanted to catch movie, this would be one of thousands that the studios would churn out. Here we have Raft playing a straight shooter and a mystery of mysteries just pops up right in front of him and becomes personal as it unravels. Ships at sea, fog, large amounts of money, women, bad guys, good guys and various sound affects soon weave a tale of entertainment. I recommend a sandwich with a tasty drink plus some delicious personal candy favorite for this little gem. By the way, it was always the custom for the good guy to get the girl in many movies of that time because that is what was going on more often than not. No exception here and the only thing is, which girl? Also, you had to be good with your fists and guns were last resorts or no fair. Enjoy

George Raft's performance is as starched as the sailor suit he strolls around in while Signe Hasso's anxiety seems to stem from her inability to understand or speak English rather than the mysterious woman with a past in the abysmal Johnny Angel. When Captain Angel's ( Raft ) father, also a sea captain, is murdered for a gold shipment on his boat he sets out to solve and settle score. During his investigation he gets involved with Paulette (Hasso) and Lily (Claire Trevor), married to a child hood friend, to get some answers and a little face time. As he gets closer threat and violence ratchet up while his uniform remains crisp.Raft's career had already self destructed by the time he took on the title role in this leaden clunker. Rejecting roles (High Sierra) that would make Bogart a star he had to settle for Ed Marin instead of Huston and Hawks but stylish and cool as he was in his Scarface days Raft was a flat and limited actor. He's no different in Angel but his performance has nothing on the clueless and stiff Ms.Hasso who looks like she could use a lot more rehearsing. Claire Trevor gives her usual solid greedy tart performance while Marvin Miller as her unctuous doughy husband and the always memorable Margaret Wycherly introduce an Oedipal angle to the mix. But with the lifeless leads and Marin's slapdash, mood less direction Johnny Angel does a terrible job of winging it.

Fine grabber opening—the ghost ship in the fog, but where's the crew? More importantly for Capt. Angel (Raft)— where's his dad and why is his dad's ship abandoned. The suspense mounts, as a mysterious woman (Hasso) turns up, apparently in the know, but too scared to talk. Now Angel's got a big complicated mystery to unravel and only 80 minutes to do it in.Fine noir visuals from RKO's crack production team. Director Marin too knows his way around a shadowy set. I really like his bar scenes; then too, who is that blonde bar babe who makes a pass at Angel who foolishly prefers business to a little recreation. But then Claire Trevor has the franchise on vamping and is really good at it, all dolled up like a blonde ice sculpture. However, the eccentric eye-catcher is Marvin Miller looking a little like the Pillsbury doughboy with a spine to match. It's almost as if surrogate mother Wycherly has yet to wean him. On the other hand, the best you can say about non-actor Raft is that he's really good at being driven. Wind him up and he walks through the sets like a mechanical man with an emotional make-up to match. To me that same unblinking stare for every occasion does get tiresome. Anyway, an over-age Raft made a number of these post-war noirs. In almost all, he rather oddly has a parent present, probably to make him seem younger than his 50 or so years. Most of the films are routine, except for the truly awful Whistle Stop (1946). Arguably, this is the best of the lot, thanks to a shrewd supporting cast, expert atmosphere, and a screenplay with a neat twist that I, for one, didn't see coming.

George Raft's acting in this movie is not very high-quality, despite his undeniable strong screen presence. Yes he reads his lines "George Raft" style, but is only reading his lines rather than acting. Its as if Raft is only here to contribute his notable presence, which he certainly does, but acting-wise he just isn't required to give much of an effort. Claire Trevor brings it as always, and her energetic effort to interpret her role is in sharp contrast to the merely line-reading Raft. This makes some of their scenes noticeably out of sync for me. The rest of the cast is OK and they all do a fine job.The basic story is good, and is really enhanced by atmospheric fog and lighting effects, and the shipboard scenes are well-done. However, despite the effective harbor/ship atmosphere in general, there is a strange lack of any specific sense of New Orleans, the South, or Louisiana, except for a fake scene with moss draped on some tree limbs.If this movie was a little shorter it would be better. At times it tends to bog down, with numerous scenes strung together that could have been trimmed or maybe cut out altogether.Many well-done noir elements are here but unfortunately Raft's tendency to just walk-through scenes, combined with some slow-moving results by the director, eventually sink this ship before the end credits roll on screen.