Why three escaped murderers became the unlikely guardian angels of a struggling French shop
In short: In the 1955 comedy We're No Angels, three convicts flee Devil's Island only to find themselves playing saintly benefactors to a bankrupt family. While their original plan was to rob the store, they end up cooking Christmas dinner, falsifying records, and using a pet viper to settle scores.
Directed by Michael Curtiz and released by Paramount Pictures in 1955, the film stars Humphrey Bogart, Peter Ustinov, and Aldo Ray as a trio of fugitives who land in Cayenne, French Guiana, on Christmas Eve, 1895. The screenplay, written by Ranald MacDougall, was officially based on Albert Husson's French play, La Cuisine Des Anges. However, the production faced legal trouble when Samuel and Bella Spewack, authors of the successful Broadway adaptation My Three Angels, sued Paramount four months after the film's release, alleging the movie mirrored their work scene by scene.
The plot follows the convicts as they infiltrate the shop of Felix Ducotel. Initially intending to wait until nightfall to steal supplies and escape, the men undergo a change of heart. They fix the shop's leaking roof, boost sales, and protect the family from the predatory store owner, Andre Trochard, and his nephew, Paul. The resolution involves a pet viper named Adolphe, who accidentally kills both Trochards, allowing the family to find happiness while the convicts, feeling the outside world is worse than prison, return to their cells with halos appearing over their heads.
Critical reception was polarized. The New York Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer found the film shrill and criticized Bogart’s performance, noting that the script lacked the charm of the Broadway version. Conversely, The Hollywood Reporter and Picturegoer praised the performances and the film's sardonic, ghoulish humor. Despite the mixed reviews, the film grossed $3 million, ranking as the 34th highest-grossing film in the U.S. and Canada in 1955. Its legacy persists in unexpected ways: the melody of its opening song, Ma France Bien-Aimée, later became the basis for Elvis Presley's 1961 hit Can't Help Falling in Love, and the film was remade in 1989 by Neil Jordan.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: We're No Angels (1955 film)
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