Fallen Angel

Year: 1945

Runtime: 98 mins

Language: English

Director: Otto Preminger

CrimeDramaMysteryRomance

Eric Stanton, an unemployed drifter, rolls into a sleepy California town and hangs out at the local diner. He becomes infatuated with the attractive waitress Stella, yet she only eyes men with cash, so he also courts the affluent June Mills. Eric’s scheme to use June to win Stella spirals into a deadly love triangle when murder strikes.

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Timeline & Setting – Fallen Angel (1945)

Explore the full timeline and setting of Fallen Angel (1945). Follow every major event in chronological order and see how the environment shapes the story, characters, and dramatic tension.

Location

Walton (California), Pop's Eats, Mills House (Clara Mills' residence), San Francisco

Walton is a small California hamlet that serves as the stage for a cautionary tale of con artists and local politics. Pop's Eats anchors the town's everyday life, a modest diner where people gather and secrets surface. The plot also moves to the Mills residence and to San Francisco, where a seedy hotel becomes a backdrop for crimes and pursuit, highlighting the contrast between intimate town life and the wider urban underworld.

🏘️ Small town 🪄 Spiritualist front 🏛️ Social power dynamics

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 16:45

Main Characters – Fallen Angel (1945)

Meet the key characters of Fallen Angel (1945), with detailed profiles, motivations, and roles in the plot. Understand their emotional journeys and what they reveal about the film’s deeper themes.

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 16:45

Major Themes – Fallen Angel (1945)

Explore the central themes of Fallen Angel (1945), from psychological, social, and emotional dimensions to philosophical messages. Understand what the film is really saying beneath the surface.

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 16:45

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Small Town Noir movies with fatalistic schemes like Fallen Angel

Con artists and schemers find themselves trapped by a sleepy town's secrets.Discover movies like Fallen Angel where cynical drifters and opportunists get entangled in the dark underbelly of a small town. These crime stories feature tense atmospheres, moral ambiguity, and a feeling that fate is closing in, perfect for fans of classic noir set in deceptively quiet locales.

noircynicalfatalisticgrittyclaustrophobicdeceitfulsmall town

Narrative Summary

These narratives typically follow a morally ambiguous protagonist who arrives in a placid town with a selfish agenda. Their scheme—often involving romance, money, or both—collides with the town's entrenched secrets, triggering a chain of events involving murder, investigation, and a downward spiral where no one escapes unscathed.

Why These Movies?

These films are grouped by their shared use of a small-town setting to create a claustrophobic, tense atmosphere where deception is paramount. They feature similar character archetypes—the drifter, the femme fatale, the hidden corruptor—and explore themes of opportunism, moral compromise, and the illusion of escape.

Movies where a con game spirals into murder like Fallen Angel

Where a simple hustle leads to a dark reckoning with no easy way out.If you liked the plot of Fallen Angel where a drifter's romantic deception leads to murder, you'll enjoy these films. They feature tense, morally ambiguous thrillers and crime dramas about hustles gone wrong, leading to fatal consequences and a bittersweet or bleak emotional reckoning for the characters involved.

anxiousdeceitfulmelancholicfatalistictenseopportunismmoral ambiguity

Narrative Summary

The narrative pattern involves a protagonist initiating a calculated deception, often targeting a specific person for personal gain. A single, unforeseen event—usually a murder—ruptures their plan, forcing them into a precarious double life of maintaining the con while evading suspicion, culminating in a resolution filled with loss and resigned acceptance.

Why These Movies?

This thread groups movies based on a specific plot mechanism: the dangerous escalation of a con. They share a tense tone, moderate narrative complexity with key twists, and a bittersweet emotional weight, as characters are ultimately punished by the consequences of their own opportunistic actions.

Unlock the Full Story of Fallen Angel

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Fallen Angel Summary

Read a complete plot summary of Fallen Angel, including all key story points, character arcs, and turning points. This in-depth recap is ideal for understanding the narrative structure or reviewing what happened in the movie.

Fallen Angel Timeline

Track the full timeline of Fallen Angel with every major event arranged chronologically. Perfect for decoding non-linear storytelling, flashbacks, or parallel narratives with a clear scene-by-scene breakdown.

Fallen Angel Spoiler-Free Summary

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More About Fallen Angel

Visit What's After the Movie to explore more about Fallen Angel: box office results, cast and crew info, production details, post-credit scenes, and external links — all in one place for movie fans and researchers.

Similar Movies to Fallen Angel

Discover movies like Fallen Angel that share similar genres, themes, and storytelling elements. Whether you’re drawn to the atmosphere, character arcs, or plot structure, these curated recommendations will help you explore more films you’ll love.