While some question the power of celebrities to guarantee box office success, there is one actor whose name value seldom wavers in getting people into the theaters. Tom Cruise has become one of the world’s most recognized and revered actors, with an impressive filmography of fan favorites throughout the decades, including Risky Business (1983), Top Gun (1986), Mission Impossible (1996), Jerry Maguire (1996), Minority Report (2002), and the list goes on and on up to the modern era with massive blockbuster his like Top Gun: Maverick (2022) and fan favorites like Edge of Tomorrow (2014).

His success as an actor has remained prevalent for decades, despite controversies involving his association with the Church of Scientology and some oddball interviews (who can forget Cruise jumping on Oprah Winfrey’s couch in 2005?). Still, Cruise remains best known as an actor who is very much in charge of his career trajectory. That is what makes his first and last directed work such an oddity.

‘Fallen Angels’ Was Neo Noir Perfection on TV

Taking inspiration from The Twilight Zone, Fallen Angels was an American neo-noir anthology television series that presented stories by some of the genre’s most notable authors. The series originally aired on Showtime on August 1, 1993, and lasted for two seasons, at 15 episodes. Fallen Angels took place in a somber Los Angeles during the post-World War II era, with the style mimicking that of the black-and-white classics of the 1940s and 50s.

The show would have many notable names attached to the project, upfront and behind the scenes. Besides Tom Cruise’s involvement as a director for an episode, Peter Bogdanovich, John Dahl, Phil Joanou, and Steven Soderbergh lent their talents to the series. The cast also had some recurring actors of note, including Gary Oldman, Kiefer Sutherland, and Danny Glover. To bring authenticity to the project in capturing the era’s style, famed composer Elmer Bernstein wrote the theme for the opening and closing credits, with his son, Peter Bernstein, composing the individual episodes.

Fallen Angels would go on to be nominated for the show, which was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards and was generally heralded for its unique approach. However, the half-hour format many fans of the genre felt was limiting. The show, somewhat lost in the ’90s, had maintained a dedicated fanbase among noir fans. Tom Cruise’s episode was released at a point when the director had already found fanfare, coming out the same year as The Firm and a year after A Few Good Men.

Tom Cruise Took to the Director’s Chair to Make ‘The Frightening Frammis’

Season 1, Episode 4, titled The Frightening Frammis, would mark Tom Cruise’s directorial debut for the TV anthology show Fallen Angels. Based on the short novel by Jim Thompson, the episode follows grifter Mitch Allison (Peter Gallagher), who uses some of his wife’s money after she comes into a large amount off a con job to run his own get-rich-quick scheme. Yet, when he comes across a woman known as Babe (Isabella Rossellini), he falls for her hard, and his schemes get entangled in trying to impress the woman. Babe, married to a man (John Reilly), starts a web of deception and backstabbing between parties as they vie for a big payday.

While it would be ideal to say that Tom Cruise’s directorial debut showed potential, the truth is that the episode does little to distinguish itself from the existing format or show any flare one could point to. The episode is an engaging back-and-forth backstabbing drama as various individuals race for a large sum of money, perfectly paced at half an hour. Still, it is not even the best episode in the series, with that title being a toss-up between Alfonso Cuarón’s Murder, Obliquely, Steven Soderbergh’s Professional Man, or his The Quiet Room.

Tom Cruise’s involvement in Fallen Angels also does not shed light on his views on directing or whether this was an enjoyable process for him. However, with his production company, Cruise’s involvement has been called very hands-on. This included Mission Impossible, where he would help direct camerawork, stunts, and dialogue. Perhaps Cruise’s involvement in Fallen Angels gave him early confidence to have a grander command of various aspects of production, but it may have also led him never to want to take on the specific role of director again.

Should I Watch Fallen Angels and Tom Cruise’s Directorial Debut?

Fallen Angels is a great show but also a product of the era. It predates shows like The Sopranos, which would define the production standards of TV as we know them today. Simply put, the series is a bit rough around the edges, and you would have had to have grown up in that era to appreciate the rough aesthetic of the show, which was commonplace; it is undoubtedly polished and stylish for the time.

Fallen Angels offers clever stories somewhat harmed by the short 30-minute runtime (45+ minute episodes would have been better). Still, for fans of the noir genre, there are a lot of gems in the series, particularly for those who love pulp novels and are familiar with the source material. Tom Cruise’s episode is nothing special, but it is also entertaining as well. If you are going to watch the series, there is no reason to avoid his entry, particularly knowing the Hollywood icon was behind the camera. Fallen Angels is unavailable for streaming, but you can find episodes on YouTube.