Critic Albert Johnson writes: Here, Raksin's score is less symphonic in structure than Laura's. Linda Darnell's role as a lowly waitress, rather than a sophisticated art director, placed the music much more in the blues idiom ("Slowly"). Raksin created a certain aura of menace by aligning a doomed heroine with a romantic melody that could be remembered by the public and assimilated into the realm of popular music. A follow-up to the successful Laura, Fallen Angel is Preminger's second remarkable contribution to the film noir genre. Lacking the bus fare to make it to San Francisco, down-and-out Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews) drifts into a small town in northern California where he falls for Stella (Linda Darnell), a waitress in a low-class cafe. Hoping to win Stella with cash, Stanton woos rich, respectable June Mills (Alice Faye)...but murder interrupts his romancing. "Fallen Angel is set in the lower rungs of the American milieu...evoking the contrast between suburban house and end-of-the road hotel, a fine Forties range of seedy rooms, neon flashing in the dark, doors opening from dark streets into the cozy vibrant warmth of a cafe or bar." (Charles Higham, "Hollywood in the Forties")