Diane Tremayne (Jean Simmons) should be everything Frank Jessup (Robert Mitchum) could ever want. She's young, beautiful and rich. The trouble is, she arranges "accidents." She worships her father and hates her stepmother. She's the kind of young woman who can make herself believe, for as long as she needs, what she must believe. We know there is going to be an inevitable, deadly conclusion to Diane's and Frank's story as soon as we hear the music over the opening credits and, a few minutes later, see Diane's beautiful, expressionless face crumple into tears when she learns her stepmother survived a leaking gas jet.
Angel Face is a taut, well-told noir with a superb performance by Jean Simmons and an equally good one by Mitchum. Who knows what triggered Mitchum to get involved enough in a movie of his to put forth the effort for a complex performance. Whatever it was, he delivers the goods as Frank Jessup. Frank is an ambulance driver, ambitious enough to be saving his money to start his own garage. He has a girl friend he more than just likes. But when he arrives at the Tremayne mansion on an emergency call one night he finds himself caught up in a number of temptations. He may be a reasonably honorable guy, but deep behind his eyes he can see the possibilities when Diane Tremayne begins to pursue him. It's not long before he has agreed to become the chauffeur for the Tremaynes, to place on hold his relationship with his girl, to allow himself to relax with Diane's attentions, to let himself think of that garage he wants financed by Tremayne money. And he begins to recognize Diane's obsessiveness...her hatred of her step-mother...the likelihood she had something to do with that gas leak...her way of innocently manipulating things. "You hate that woman," he tells Diane, "and someday you'll hate her enough to kill her." Frank is no fool. "Diane, look. I don't pretend to know what goes on behind that pretty little face of yours and I don't want to. But I learned one thing early. Never be the innocent by-stander...that's the guy who always gets hurt." Too late, Frank.
What Frank has to deal with is Diane Tremayne, and that means Jean Simmons. She was a marvelous British actress who became a Hollywood star. This was one of her first movies after she came to America. Her innocent, vulnerable beauty too often disguised an immense range as an actress. At 17 she played young Estella in Great Expectations. Her imperious ways of making young Pip's life difficult is fascinating. At 18 as Kanchi, the native girl in Black Narcissus, she was sexy, spoiled and believably knowing. At 19 she proved she could hold her own against Olivier when she played Ophelia in Hamlet. At 22 she was almost unbelievably fragile and vulnerable as Sophie Malraux in The Clouded Yellow. In Hollywood, she became a star, but all too often the films she was in were big fat productions which are scarcely thought of now. With Angel Face, Simmons gives a portrait of obsession that keeps us off balance. She looks at us and we want to believe the best...but we know better than to do so. There's always that slight edge of unnatural wheel-turning that, thanks to Simmons' skill, we only catch at the corner of our eyes. The story of Angel Face may be strictly linear, but Simmon's Diane Tremayne gives the movie a lot of uneasy depth. Combine that with Mitchum's first-rate performance and we're looking at a very good movie. The ending, while perfectly set up, is memorable and startling.
Along the way we can enjoy the subtle, charming job Herbert Marshall does as Diane's father...an aging author who has given in to the luxuries and security of a very rich wife, and the smooth performance of Leon Ames as Fred Barrett, the lawyer who defends Diane and Frank against murder charges. Barrett is not sleazy, simply an excellent and realistic legal strategist. Angel Face is a fine movie; anyone who likes noirs, or just good drama, should welcome this to his or her collection.
Angel Face is a taut, well-told noir with a superb performance by Jean Simmons and an equally good one by Mitchum. Who knows what triggered Mitchum to get involved enough in a movie of his to put forth the effort for a complex performance. Whatever it was, he delivers the goods as Frank Jessup. Frank is an ambulance driver, ambitious enough to be saving his money to start his own garage. He has a girl friend he more than just likes. But when he arrives at the Tremayne mansion on an emergency call one night he finds himself caught up in a number of temptations. He may be a reasonably honorable guy, but deep behind his eyes he can see the possibilities when Diane Tremayne begins to pursue him. It's not long before he has agreed to become the chauffeur for the Tremaynes, to place on hold his relationship with his girl, to allow himself to relax with Diane's attentions, to let himself think of that garage he wants financed by Tremayne money. And he begins to recognize Diane's obsessiveness...her hatred of her step-mother...the likelihood she had something to do with that gas leak...her way of innocently manipulating things. "You hate that woman," he tells Diane, "and someday you'll hate her enough to kill her." Frank is no fool. "Diane, look. I don't pretend to know what goes on behind that pretty little face of yours and I don't want to. But I learned one thing early. Never be the innocent by-stander...that's the guy who always gets hurt." Too late, Frank.
What Frank has to deal with is Diane Tremayne, and that means Jean Simmons. She was a marvelous British actress who became a Hollywood star. This was one of her first movies after she came to America. Her innocent, vulnerable beauty too often disguised an immense range as an actress. At 17 she played young Estella in Great Expectations. Her imperious ways of making young Pip's life difficult is fascinating. At 18 as Kanchi, the native girl in Black Narcissus, she was sexy, spoiled and believably knowing. At 19 she proved she could hold her own against Olivier when she played Ophelia in Hamlet. At 22 she was almost unbelievably fragile and vulnerable as Sophie Malraux in The Clouded Yellow. In Hollywood, she became a star, but all too often the films she was in were big fat productions which are scarcely thought of now. With Angel Face, Simmons gives a portrait of obsession that keeps us off balance. She looks at us and we want to believe the best...but we know better than to do so. There's always that slight edge of unnatural wheel-turning that, thanks to Simmons' skill, we only catch at the corner of our eyes. The story of Angel Face may be strictly linear, but Simmon's Diane Tremayne gives the movie a lot of uneasy depth. Combine that with Mitchum's first-rate performance and we're looking at a very good movie. The ending, while perfectly set up, is memorable and startling.
Along the way we can enjoy the subtle, charming job Herbert Marshall does as Diane's father...an aging author who has given in to the luxuries and security of a very rich wife, and the smooth performance of Leon Ames as Fred Barrett, the lawyer who defends Diane and Frank against murder charges. Barrett is not sleazy, simply an excellent and realistic legal strategist. Angel Face is a fine movie; anyone who likes noirs, or just good drama, should welcome this to his or her collection.