The Angel Levine

Holds up well with time.

Jan Kadar's strange Jewish fable takes an interesting but flawed short story and makes a fascinating film of it. Zero Mostel gets a chance to show how good a dramatic actor he was (and how much of a ham he could be), while Harry Belafonte shines as the atypical angel, sent to help Mostel, a wretched New York tailor. A far more thoughtful and melancholy treatment of this well-worn premise than most; a bit self-consciously arty at times but fascinating and handsomely crafted.

A slightly muddled affair, but still a hidden gem. Co-written by Bill Gunn based on a novel by Malamud, it's half magical-realistic yiddish fairytale, half existential blaxploitation, with the title character a deceased hustler wondering what has he done with his life. The relationship he forms with the bitter jewish elder he's sent to save is fascinating. Kadar uses fluid, late 60's New-York camera movements, and the superb hallucinatory music that accompanies it make for a unique experience.