It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

This fabulous black comedy about three convicts who are planning steal and kill to escape of Devil's Island....but somehow they get involved with a good family and make everything to help them....fantastic christmas tale well adapted to the big screen,all casting is delightful colored,the three convicts are irretrievable from human nature,good when needs to be,and a little bad for a few seconds only,in every single scene is an exercise of full pleasure,a smart dialogues is like a flowers scent,funny jokes with a bit black irony...anyway a must to see...one the greatest and innovative comedy of all time!!!Great Boggie!!!!Resume:First watch: 1985 / How many: 4 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 9.25

I had high hopes for this one… I guess they were TOO high. First of all, I've often had trouble with the concept of obviously filmed plays… "Noises Off" and "The Man Who Came to Dinner" were two of the worst offenders in my opinion. Static, motionless, tons of expositional dialogue crammed in as fast as they possibly could. And that was my experience with "We're No Angels". (I should note that I was unaware it had originally been a play when I started it… but I figured it out in about five minutes. How did "Arsenic and Old Lace" manage to be so entertaining, since it basically had the same limitations? I don't know, but 'static' is not a word I would apply to that film.) The first fifteen or twenty minutes of this one are basically filled with Bogart, Ustinov and Ray up on the roof watching and listening as the Ducotel family rolls out their long list of woes. How long can you watch someone looking in a window? What worked on the stage doesn't necessarily translate well to the screen. There was no action that I needed to see in order to follow the film, so about the time the daughter fainted for the second time, I went to work on a project in the kitchen and finished the film by listening only. It was so incessantly talky that it was like listening to a radio dramatization… perfect background for a little DIY puttering; not enough to keep me sitting and staring at the screen for the entire running time. I certainly had no trouble following it from the next room.That said, I thought Peter Ustinov and Aldo Ray were both excellent; they both presented well-drawn characters and delivered their lines (including some real zingers) with appropriate gusto. Bogart was all right, but I've been much more impressed with him in other pictures. He didn't seem to be working as hard as the other two were.Dull, predictable, nothing special. Wanted to like it more; wish I had.

The setting for this movie is 1895, Devil's Island. The story unfolds around Christmas time and what a delightful tale it is to be seen. Michael Curtiz directs a cast that makes you feel like the characters in the story are family. I know a bit offbeat and with a bit of dark humor at times. The movie shines with real heartfelt emotion. It truly is one of my favorite movies, not just at Christmas time but anytime. If you are a Bogart or Ustinov fan you deserve to treat yourself to this little gem.Aldo Ray is simply wonderful as the muscular backup to our three angels. Basil Rathbone is perfect in his character. If you see the movie you will know what I mean. The song "Sentimental Moments" is such a sweet little song. I wish it this were in circulation on TCM or other channels.It is a Christmas classic in our house, maybe it will be yours too!

I wasn't alive back in 1955, but upon seeing this film at my birth, I might have re-entered the womb. I was hopelessly disappointed by this silly, asinine plot, which Humphrey Bogart seems to saunter through as if imitating a tipsy Frank Sinatra.The characters' actions are not realistic: not even in my wildest imagination could I have believed that these 3 lummoxes were even on "Devil's Island." This movie can't even copy the antics of the Marx Brothers or the classic slapstick of "the Three Stooges," so why it tried, I'll never know. The trio of actors lopes and shuffles through each turn of events as if they were all on their day off. I saw no drama, suspense or comedy.This dud of a movie should be erased from cinematic history. --A lifeless, boring, pale, pastel bore of a film. I give only one star to be shared by all the actors who got paid less than the three main principals.