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A great take on the "Three Kings" aspect of Christmas...with a Devil's Island twist. Peter Ustinov, Humphrey Bogart, Basil Rathbone, Joan Bennett and Aldo Ray leading a stellar supporting cast made this a special treat when it was first released just before Christmas in 1955. Three convicts escape from the penal colony on Devil's Island just before Christmas...Joseph, Albert and Jules (a forger, a rapist who carries a deadly viper in a small cage as a pet, and a murderer) are eager to rob some greedy, rich merchant and make clean their getaway by boat with new clothes and loads of cash. Unfortunately, the merchant they plan to rob is neither rich nor greedy. Leo G. Carroll plays the impoverished and hapless merchant, Felix Ducotel, who offers the three men a meal and a job despite his lack of funds to buy Christmas for his own family. Trusting and generous, he and his family give them food and work, and something they have not been given in a very long time...trust and friendship. Monsieur Ducotel and his lovely wife (played by Joan Bennett), have a sweetly innocent 18-year-old daughter (Gloria Talbot) who befriends the three criminals and confides that she is in love with her cousin, Paul, whose father Andre Trochard (Basil Rathbone) owns the store her father manages. The Ducotels fear Trochard, who cares only for money, and is coming to throw them out if they have not turned a profit over the past year. Unfortunately, Monsieur Ducotel is too kind to be a good businessman, and he is in the red. With the highly questionable and hilariously illegal assistance of the three escapees, the Ducotels unknowingly begin to realize a "profit" (Joseph (the forger) doctors the books and the other two force non-paying customers to cough up the cash) and when the Trochard's arrive, they masquerade as employees and try to make the Ducotel family look affluent. Calling the three convicts her "Christmas Angels", young Isabel Ducotel kisses them and bids them goodnight on Christmas Eve, and then all hell breaks loose as Trochard realizes he's been scammed and threatens to have them all thrown in prison and his cousin's whole family arrested. In his self-righteous rage, Trochard takes the cage containing the pet snake into his room with the doctored books, stating that they have probably stolen some treasure from the store, and he will "check it out" later. They warn him that there is nothing in the wicker cage but a deadly venomous snake, which he does not believe. As he is "checking it out" in his room, Joseph forges a last will and testament that leaves all his worldly goods to the Ducotel family, including the store and his properties in France. In the morning, the three are gone (they decide that the world is far too wicked and they want to be safe inside Devil's Island again), and Trochard and his greedy son have gotten their just desserts, leaving all their worldly goods to the Ducotels. Well-acted and directed, this one is a real treasure of a collectible for any true classic film lover. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves witty, wonderful humor and wants a refreshing gem of a film to watch on Christmas Eve.Read full review
This is a fast moving movie of three criminals escaping on Devils Island. They take refruge in a store in which they meet a family: father (somewhat of a failure at business), mother(lovely women who loves her family dearly), daughter (love struck over a man she left in Paris). The setting is just before Christmas Eve and the convicts learn a great deal about love, compassion and caring for others. The give the family, who has nothing, a wonderful Christmas eve and the family learns that the stores owner, Cousin Andre (Basil Rathbone) is showing up with Paul (the daughter's true love). The daughter finds he has been engaged to a shipping magnets daughter and is heartbroken. Cousin Andre is more of a crook than the three that have escaped prison and is terrible to the three people the convicts have come to love. One of the convicts has a pet snake, who happens to be poisonous. When cousin Andre goes to bed, he takes the little house from the convict which happens to house the snake and takes it too his room, stating that convicts are "not allowed personal property". They protest, but Cousin Andre insists. You can guess the outcome of that misadventure. This show is funny, sad, touching and romantic all at the same time. I would never have thought that Bogart could do so well at comedy, but he does. The rest of the cast is magnificent. It far outways the other movie by the same name and the two have no comparison. There story lines are not the same at all. The acting is great and the tempo lively. I would highly recommend this if you are lucky enough to find one.Read full review
An amusing, charming, feel-good movie about three escaped convicts who start out using a family-run store to hide from the authorities over the Christmas holiday and end up putting their criminal abilities to good use to improve the lives of their hosts.
An essential part of any Christmas Movie collection. Bogart and crew are very funny in this warm hearted Christmas movie about three convicts who escape from prison and spend Christmas with a sweet family.
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