Angel on My Shoulder (1946)
Directed by Archie Mayo, noted for several movies including "A Night in Casablanca" & "The Petrified Forest". He easily made the transition from silents to the talkies, but his reputation with many stars, & he worked with a lot of them, was very unfavourable. The music was created by Dimitri Tiomkin, so it's obvious this was very much a major production.
Starring the great Paul Muni, Claude Rains & Anne Baxter.
The story is familiar for today's audiences, but in 1946 ... I'm not so sure. A big time gangster Eddie Kagle (Muni) is collected from the state pen, once his time was served, by his best pal who was running thing while he was locked up. It seems though the pal liked running things, so the ride home really was one-way, the pal shot & killed the boss. This is the movies though, so Eddie is now seen on his way to hell, but he's not happy with that because there is so much he still wants to do in the land of the living.
The Devil, "Nick" (Claude Rains), is always up for a deal when he can see a profit by way of souls to be had, so he deals with Eddie, allowing his soul to inhabit his look-a-like on Earth to get on with the dirty deeds. His look-a-like is a clean living pillar of society Judge Parker who is standing for state election. Here's the rub, the Judge was very successful at reforming criminals and hence keeping them out of the clutches of the Devil/Nick, the plan & motives have become obvious.
Eddie in the Judge's body starts out to try to continue his evils ways, but with the help of Barbara Foster, his fiance (Anne Baxter), his bad deeds turn out to have good conclusions. All the time Nick is in the background trying to guide the Eddie/Judge on the ways to do evil. But he's no match for the forces of good and maybe there is another force at work from above wanting things to turn out great ... at least Nick begins to think so.
For all his efforts, for all Eddie/Judge tries to do, Nick does not get a single extra soul ... plus it looks like he might lose Eddie's in a horrible twist for Nick. However Eddie has grown to like being good, so he makes the ultimate sacrifice for the Judge & Barbara to have long, happy and successfully "good" lives. The sacrifice being Eddie accompany s Nick back to hell & to remain there ... he does so with a smile.
This is not a well known movie, but it is well worth seeking out & watching. I give it 7.5/10