Angel Face (1952) User Reviews

In Jean Simmons, Robert Mitchum meets a dangerously demented femme fatale

[bmacv · 8/10 · 29 June 2003]

In Otto Preminger's Angel Face, Robert Mitchum lays out his credo: `Never be the innocent bystander. That's the guy who always gets hurt.' He's being disingenuous; he's not quite so innocent as he pretends – but he still ends up getting hurt.

An emergency medical technician, Mitchum responds to a call at a mansion high up a hill. There a wealthy woman (Barbara O'Neil) has almost asphyxiated from the gas in her unlit bedroom fireplace. Was it a suicide bid, or something more sinister? Her husband (Herbert Marshall), a burnt-out novelist she supports, can't explain it. Neither can his daughter by a previous marriage (Jean Simmons).

Mitchum finds Simmons quite the dish, but she finds in him something more than a passing fancy. She jumps into her sleek sports car, follows the ambulance back down to the hospital and waylays Mitchum in a diner. Generous with his affections, Mitchum breaks a date with his steady girlfriend (Mona Freeman) in order to spend a perfectly `innocent' evening of dining and dancing with Simmons.

But his experience with fractures and coronaries hasn't equipped him to deal with a dangerously scrambled psyche. Simmons first invites Freeman to lunch so she can humiliate her by spilling all the details, cunningly tweaked up, of her `innocent' rendezvous with Mitchum. Then she arranges for him to take on the job of family chauffeur, installing him in a garage apartment (just like Joe Gillis in Sunset Blvd.). And she hits up her stepmother to lend Mitchum the money to start up his own business as a car mechanic. Telling himself that he's just looking out for Number One, Mitchum blithely lets her erase any boundaries between them.

Klaxons start bleating, however, when she pounds on his bedroom door in the middle of the night with a cockamamie story about O'Neil hovering over her bed and playing with gas again; the earlier incident, she claims, was just a smokescreen. She tells him, too, that the stepmother reneged on his loan – in order to get back at her. Mitchum's wariness enrages Simmons and redoubles her delusional obstinacy.

When her father and stepmother perish in a spectacular freak accident (their car plummeted in reverse down the steep ravine abutting the driveway), the heiress Simmons finds herself charged with murder. As does Mitchum – he had the expertise to sabotage the vehicle. Wily attorney Leon Ames (in a small but succulent part) sees the defendants' marriage as the path to acquittal. Which leaves Mitchum with a Hobson's choice – risking either the gas chamber or the psychotic wrath of a woman he never loved....

Though Preminger can deploy twists of plot with the best of them, he had a subtler knack of keeping his audience off-balance, never quite sure in which direction the story might develop. So for a while we share the perplexity of Mitchum, so laid back that he doesn't grasp that he's playing with a five-alarm blaze until it's too late; opportunistic but lazy, he's the perfect stooge.

Simmons may have been working within her limitations in her low-voltage, passive-aggressive performance, but she fits the character, who operates in a world inhabited only by herself. She's not a duplicitous vixen scheming to get what she wants; what she wants is the only reality she knows. Preminger recognizes this, and gives her one of the movie's quietest, most freighted scenes: During one of Mitchum's flights from her, she snoops as if sleepwalking through his rooms, finally curling up in his easy chair, his sport coat draped around her shoulders against the dawn chill. It's an eerie calm before the final storm.

excellent Preminger

[blanche-2 · 8/10 · 14 September 2005]

Jean Simmons meets the man of her dreams just as he walks into a nightmare in "Angel Face," an Otto Preminger film released in 1952. Simmons is excellent as a beautiful young woman who hates her wealthy stepmother, adores her father, and is obsessed with an ambulance driver, played by Robert Mitchum, who comes to the family home when it appears Diane's stepmother tried to kill herself. Although the victim claims that someone tried to kill her...

Mitchum brings a perfect touch of ne'er do well and untrustworthiness to the role. He has ambition, he has a job, but he's a jerk to his girlfriend (Mona Freeman) and seems more than happy to take up with Diane when she pursues him.

Simmons, though not as striking as Vivien Leigh, has a similar look - she's petite, with a beautiful figure and facial structure, and gorgeous eyes. Her performance as Diane is right on - even the cynical Mitchum character can't quite figure her out, even when he thinks he has. She keeps her stepmother off-balance, too. There are some wonderful touches - when she walks into her father's house toward the end of the film, without any dialogue, one knows she can no longer live there.

The ending is breathtaking. This Preminger film has the pace lacking in "Fallen Angel," which is another character study of a sort.

What a subtle and yet outrageous movie, great plot and direction and acting

[secondtake · 8/10 · 11 February 2011]

Angel Face (1952)

An extraordinary film in many ways, including simply avoiding clichés. It starts with a slap, and ends with a real shock. Between it beguiles, it plays with your sympathies, it seems to toy with an obvious turn of events then subverts it.

Robert Mitchum is the obvious centerpiece for most viewers, and if you know him you know he's consistent in all his roles, including in this one where he plays a mechanic doing odd jobs. More impressive, for me, is the femme fatale, the leading woman, Jean Simmons, who not only has an angel face, but an expressive one, moving from lively and untarnished to devious, pained, or stubborn. The two of them do not have the on screen chemistry of some of the great romances in film--blame Mitchum, maybe, for his coolness, attractive as it is to the viewer, or blame the director, Otto Preminger.

Preminger, for all his genius and willingness to flaunt the censors, is a director's director, a little like Welles without the burden of virtuosity. His best films ("Man with the Golden Arm" and "Laura" and possibly "Anatomy of a Murder") present a romantic situation as if it is a given. It doesn't really develop into something steamy or passionate or emotionally necessary. That is, he's no Nicholas Ray in this sense. And so in "Angel Face" there is a romantic involvement that is believable but never quite compelling.

And usually this is perfect, because Mitchum and Simmons in their parts are wary of each other, or are not quite involved for the sake of love. Or for love alone. That's partly why the movie works, as a movie, in a slightly different way than we expect from this kind of romance. And it's not just a romance, of course, with the hint of murder in the fringes. And then a real murder, with a huge and awful twist.

There's no question this is a beautiful movie, and a compact one, moving through several phases of the plot with fluidity. The secondary actors are good, mainly the inimitable Herbert Marshall as the father. And the writing is particularly good, I think. This is a special movie the way Jacques Tourneur's "Out of the Past," which also stars Mitchum. It's has film noir strains, but it is something else completely, too. Special stuff.

fast your seat belts

[TheFerryman · 28 May 2004]

Otto Preminger takes the noir/ femme fatale genre a step beyond in his usual pessimism. This world of shady mansions, sad piano-playing and lonely boulevards perpetually driven, suits well Jean Simmons's calm insanity and Mitchum's stoic acceptance of his tragic destiny. Mitchum uses the same discontent tone to order a beer and to refuse to be part of a murder. He smokes, empty-minded, staring out of the window, too tired to get his way out of the schemes of his employers. He may take the most important decision of his life, but after the cigarette's over he'll be doing the total opposite. On the other hand one has the feeling that the film wouldn't worked as well with one more conventional noir leading lady, like Lana Turner. Simmons' charming and weak aspect makes her character irresistible. To top it all there's a masterful score by Dimitri Tiomkin and the most surprising of endings.

Fun to watch, but filled with ridiculous improbabilities

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 14 May 2007]

This is a fun film to watch and it's really interesting to see the usually sweet Jean Simmons (the actress, not the rocker) play a femme fatale. And there are also many interesting story points--particularly her desire to murder her step-mother. However, time and again the film seems to chose the path of improbability and when you put together all these difficult to believe moments, the overall effect is rather muted. The best example of this was the end of the movie. Sure, it's a lot of fun to watch but who would believe that Mitchum would get in a car Simmons is driving after he's positive she murdered her dad and step-mom by fiddling with the car! Plus, the usually street-wise and cool Mitchum plays a real chump who is practically led around by the nose by a woman--something that you just can't believe about the Mitchum persona. A few other hard to believe moments would include Mitchum agreeing to be tried along with Simmons for murder when he's sure she did it, agreeing to marry her and sticking around in the first place soon after the film began--it was obviously a set-up. Interesting but quite flawed like MANY of the films of Howard Hughes (who, behind the scenes was VERY involved with the film).

A haunting theme ... and unforgettable sequences.

[Hup234! · 10/10 · 4 February 2000]

"Angel Face", according to one film journal, has become a cult film with a strong repeat-viewer base ... a bit like the children at a scary movie who cover their eyes but continue to peek through fingers just the same. I'm an "AF" fan, too. One of the film's most powerful aspects is the utterly chilling soundtrack score with its turbulent minor-key piano. To my mind, Dimitri Tiomkin never composed a more appropriate theme than this. And during the lonely nighttime scene when Jean Simmons' character revisits the windswept driveway where her parents had met their horrific death, when the wordless chorus swells into Tiomkin's theme, see if you don't agree that this is one of cinema's most memorable moments. Highly recommended to all except young children and sensitive adults for its surprising and shocking imagery.

Good, weird ending

[Kelley-4 · 7/10 · 6 August 1998]

Really a good film. If you like Robert Mitchum, you need to see this movie. Jean Simmons plays a good psycho. I figured the movie could only end one of two ways. One was happy, the other, unreal. It was the unreal one. See if you can guess, before it happens.

What a bleak film...and I loved it!

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 16 September 2018]

The film starts with a call for an ambulance. A woman at a large estate has almost been asphyxiated by the gas heater in her room. The key has been removed from the radiator, so it seems deliberate. Did somebody try to kill her or did she try to kill herself or was it just some kind of odd freak accident?

While the commotion is going on upstairs, ambulance driver Frank Jessup (Robert Mitchum) wanders downstairs and finds the stepdaughter ( her dad is married to the wealthy woman), Diane (Jean Simmons) playing the piano. And that's where the attraction begins on the part of Frank. It's where the obsession begins on the part of Diane. It's where Diane mutters her first double entendre. She asks how her stepmother is, and says "It's so hard, just waiting...". Waiting for her to live, or for her to die?

The film is ultimately a wicked study in obsession - the kind of obsession that has no boundaries - the kind of obsession between a man and a woman - the kind of obsession that is so self-serving. And, interestingly, it is largely one-sided - since Frank may enjoy the delights of Diane, but also knows deep down that she should be put back on the shelf. Diane's obsession is so real that you do basically know that Mitchum's Frank Jessup doesn't really stand a chance.

But Frank wasn't just wandering through life alone when Diane met him. The other woman in Frank's life, played by Mona Freeman, is blonde and desirable. She may be an excellent cook and not ask questions, as Frank says, but there is some stark language for the production code era. He mentions she sleeps in pajamas. He mentions how much she weighs - "stripped". The implication is that Frank may be the free agent that he claims to be, but he has been sleeping with the lady. But she's a lady with a level head, and she is not just going to wait around for Frank to come to his senses - or not. Instead she explores another more dependable romantic possibility.

Let me just say Jean Simmons was a revelation here. She's a good actress but she has always come across as a virginal school marm type in all of the roles I saw her in until this one. I would have never believed she could have played opposite Mitchum's cool, relaxed persona and have made it work, but she did.

This film is dark to the extreme and is as fresh, as vital, and as pertinent as though it were made just yesterday.

The ultimate femme fatale?

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 27 July 2015]

ANGEL FACE is a dark and brooding film noir mystery featuring a likable, laconic Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons as the object of his love/nemesis. The story begins with paramedic Mitchum showing up as a result of a case of suspected gas poisoning, but before long he soon begins to fall in love with the victim's stepdaughter, who rekindles his love of fast cars.

What follows is a brooding slow-burner of a film with murky photography and even murkier character intentions. Mitchum essentially plays the viewer's role, a newcomer to the almost Gothic mysteries surrounding this rich household, while Simmons bags a typically complex role and one she ably succeeds with. Otto Preminger's direction brings out the atmosphere of the tale while the slow-building suspense is punctuated by outbursts of sudden violence which shock the viewer to the core.

The essence of melancholy

[hildacrane · 10/10 · 31 October 2005]

A sense of unavoidable doom hangs over this film from the start, when an ambulance, its siren blaring, races to a mansion whose owner has almost been asphyxiated by gas--whether by accident or design is not clear.

Jean Simmons is mesmerizing as the haunted and haunting Diane, who lives luxuriously in postwar L.A. , but whose wartime-London childhood has irreparably scarred her. (Robert Mitchum' s hapless Frank would have done well to remember that in Roman mythology Diana was the huntress.) This film has one of the most melancholy scenes of any film near its end when Diane wanders disconsolately through a deserted mansion. She enters and leaves rooms where she had once been happy, and Dimitri Tiomkin's music painfully underscores the character's desolation. That loneliness is later echoed in the final image: a cab driver drives up to the empty house and honks his horn in vain for passengers who will never appear.

Car trouble

[Lejink · 7/10 · 5 July 2015]

Apparently shot in 18 days to ensure Jean Simmons filmed her part while still under contract to producer Howard Hughes, this is a fine film noir with a particularly memorable ending.

I wasn't sure I could believe Robert Mitchum, the king of world-weary sardonic-ism, falling so readily for the youthful charms of evil step-daughter Simmons, especially with a smart, pretty and loving girl of his own, but once I surrendered this point, it was easy, rather like Mitchum's ambulance-driver, to be persuaded to follow the plot here through to the bitter end.

I actually considered both leads to be somewhat miscast in the film, Simmons effect dulled somewhat by a rather ugly helmet of a wig and the dialogue lacks the snap of a Hammett, Chandler or even a Spillane, but the narrative is intriguing and the ambivalent natures of both the main parts strangely compelling, plus, like I said there's a surprise, no make that shock ending, to finish things off with a knockout punch.

Director Preminger mixes up some staple noir elements of a femme fatale, her stooge of a male admirer, sex, murder and mystery, employing big-close-ups, atmospheric lighting and crisply shot monochromatic sets, perhaps only faltering over a slightly dull, over-technical courtroom scene, and the miscasting already mentioned.

Nevertheless, the story crackles along and I doubt many will anticipate the climax, which certainly caught me off-guard and yet in retrospect, delivers a finish true to the genre's often nihilistic traits.

Mitchum of course is naturally very good as the ensnared Frank, the piano-playing Simmons, dressed throughout in black and white outfits, perhaps stressing the duality of her nature, a little less so.

A fine, little known noir with excellent performances by Jean Simmons and Robert Mitchum

[Terrell-4 · 8/10 · 15 February 2008]

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.

A Sly Homicidal Minx

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 28 November 2009]

Angel Face has always for me been a kind of cut rate version of Sunset Boulevard without all the glitz and glamor of a Hollywood setting. Jean Simmons is not an older woman here, but she most certainly is as much of a femme fatale as Gloria Swanson playing Norma Desmond.

Robert Mitchum plays an ambulance driver who responds to the home that Simmons lives in with father Herbert Marshall and stepmother Barbara O'Neil. For no discernible reason Simmons hates O'Neil feeling she should be number one in her father's life. She hatches a scheme and draws the hapless Mitchum in.

The main problem with Angel Face is Robert Mitchum is much too strong a screen presence to play what is essentially a weak character. I never quite was able to believe him in the part.

On the other hands Simmons does very well cast against type. She's usually good people on the screen, sexy, but good. She is one cunning minx in this film.

Otto Preminger directed Angel Face and he was his usual tyrannical self on the set. So much so that according to Lee Server's fine biography of Mitchum, he got overenthusiastic trying to demonstrate a proper reaction to Jean Simmons on how to take a slap. Mitchum felt so bad for her that he intervened, asking Preminger in no uncertain terms to see what his reaction would be if Preminger slapped him.

Angel Face is an interesting noir melodrama that could have used a few improvements.

Paint by the numbers Film Noir

[Turfseer · 5/10 · 18 April 2010]

In his commentary on the DVD special features, film noir expert Eddie Muller initially had reservations about "Angel Face," considering it to be a fairly minor and unexceptional film. However, other factors, such as the endorsement of renowned director Jean-Luc Godard, seemed to influence his opinion. Muller praised director Otto Preminger's efficiency in storytelling, but I found the film's inefficiency to be a significant drawback, relegating it to the mediocre category of noirs despite its impressive cast.

Muller acknowledges that "Angel Face" didn't fare well at the box office upon its release, with critics pointing out its slow-moving narrative. This criticism holds true for the first half of the film, until Diana (played adequately by Jean Simmons) murders her father and stepmother. The movie starts off with a gripping scene as paramedic Frank Jessup (Robert Mitchum) rushes to the Tremayne household, where Diana's stepmother has been exposed to gas. Diana develops an obsessive interest in Frank, even attempting to sabotage his relationship with his girlfriend Mary Wilton by lying about a date with him. While Diana's parents and their Japanese servants seem intriguing, they remain underdeveloped characters. Diana's obsession dominates the story, resulting in repetitive and talkative scenes where she tries to ensnare Frank. Frank's decision to take a chauffeur job at the Tremaynes, hoping to secure funding for his sports car shop, seems out of character for the hardened Mitchum, as he willingly falls for Diana's manipulations.

Although Diana's method of killing her parents, with the car dramatically plunging off a cliff, has a cinematic quality, it lacks surprise. Preminger's heavy-handed foreshadowing, with Diana flipping a cigarette box over the cliff, diminishes the impact. It's also hard to believe that Diana wouldn't account for her father's whereabouts before tampering with the car, given that her goal is to eliminate the stepmother.

Ironically, the courtroom scene provides a welcome relief from the preceding dialogue-heavy scenes. Thanks to Leon Ames' excellent portrayal of Diana's slick attorney and effective cross-cutting cinematography, the courtroom drama feels less verbose. With Diana in the background during the trial, the secondary characters take center stage, offering a refreshing change of pace.

Following the standards of the Hollywood decency code in 1952, the murderer must face justice, and Diana's seeming remorse isn't enough to save her. As Frank lied to the police about Diana's state of mind, he, too, must be punished. Unfortunately, the predictable ending of "Angel Face" becomes apparent early on. We anticipate Diana's intention to kill Frank after his rejection, but the manner in which it happens-another car plunge off a cliff-feels like a tired cliché.

The femme fatale storyline suffers from overuse by 1952, requiring a fresh angle to maintain audience interest. Unfortunately, Jean Simmons' portrayal of the demented socialite fails to deliver any surprises, but the fault lies not entirely with the actress herself, as the role lends itself to one-note overacting.

Lastly, despite his miscasting in "Angel Face," it's reassuring to know that Robert Mitchum wasn't a pushover in real life. According to Muller, when Preminger insisted that Mitchum slap Simmons multiple times during rehearsals, Mitchum retaliated by slapping Preminger and asking, "Is this the way you want it done?" Mitchum objected to Preminger mistreating women, leading Preminger to storm off the set, demanding Mitchum's dismissal. Fortunately, Preminger's demand was unsuccessful, and Mitchum continued to live up to his reputation as a chivalrous tough guy knight in shining armor.

shock registers after initially lulling pace

[limsgirl · 18 August 2001]

Angel Face was a recommended film according to several noir chronicles, so I figured when it rolled around on TMC I could tape it and erase if it failed to satisfy. Despite initial difficulty getting involved in the plot, before I knew it I was absorbed by Jean Simmon's keynote performance. The myriad small moments of suspense along the way in no way prepare the viewer for the shocking moment which closed this cautionary tale. Definitely recommended viewing.

Psycho Angel

[ldeangelis-75708 · 7/10 · 18 July 2021]

All I want to say is, the ending alone makes this movie worth all those stars; it'll stick to your memory and never let go.

Reverse Obsession for Preminger

[krorie · 8/10 · 27 July 2005]

Otto Preminger's "Laura" and "Fallen Angel" concerned themselves with men obsessed with beautiful but dangerous women. Preminger's "Angel Face" reverses this and is about a woman (Jean Simmons) obsessed with a man (Robert Mitchum)to the point of wanting him dead if she cannot have him for herself. There is a second woman who is nearly obsessed with Mitchum, Mona Freeman, but her obsession is much less lethal and she learns how to wean herself away from him. Another famous director, Alfred Hitchcock, would take the theme of obsession to the heights of its glory in the movie classic "Vertigo." Most men and women have found certain dangerous others to their liking and it's easy to see how such liking can become perverted into obsession. Stalking, which is so much in the news today, can become a lethal form of obsession. I have often wondered why such a gifted and talented actress as Jean Simmons never received her just desserts in Hollywood or with the general public. After seeing this movie, I partly understand why. She reminded me so much of a young Elizabeth Taylor that at first glance I thought that was the actress I was seeing. The title is apt for Jean Simmons. She certainly does have an angel face, but what is in her heart? Watch the film and find out. Some critics have downplayed the ending as not very shocking, but the viewer must realize that this film was made in 1952, long before such movies as Thelma and Louise et al. Even today the ending packs a punch. Though not on the same level as the classic "Laura," this is still top notch film noir.

a guilty pleasure

[kidboots · 7/10 · 29 February 2008]

I like this film so much and I think, now, it is finally getting the praise it deserves. Leonard Maltin called it slow and predictable and other critics called it an absurd melodrama. I strongly disagree.

Jean Simmons must have jumped at the chance to play a "bad girl" and I think her icy demeanour was totally right for the part. Seeing it for the first time - the fact that she is quite insane creeps up very slowly.

Robert Mitchum is his usual cool self as Frank Jessup, an ambulance driver who is called to the mansion of a "would be" suicide victim (Barbara O'Neil) who is convinced someone is trying to kill her. Following that storyline could have made the film predictable but the audience sees the story through Frank's very casual eyes and he becomes tangled up with Diane (Jean Simmons) and her wealthy family. She feels a lot of hate toward her stepmother, who she feels is the cause of her father's (Herbert Marshall) inactivity. Her father is suffering from writer's block. He married O'Neil for her money and his creativity has dried up as he spends his days spending his wife's money and lavishly buying clothes and trinkets for his daughter Diane. She has set her sights on Frank and his "casual" girlfriend (Mona Freeman) is left behind.

There is a scene where Mona Freeman is in her nightie, there is a knock at the door and she casually opens it - then gets Mitchum to zip up her dress!!!! (which she puts on after he has made himself at home in her flat) - pretty "hot stuff" for a big studio film of the early 50s.(Well, I suppose Howard Hughes did produce it.)

There is a double murder, a trial, a marriage, rejection and then ..... but I won't spoil it. The ending is shocking and a huge surprise.

Jean Simmons is beautiful as the icy Diane. Herbert Marshall has a very rare chance at playing a "not nice" character and is good. Robert Mitchum is always sooooo coooool playing whatever role he plays. Did he ever give a bad performance??????????

"Never be the innocent bystander. That's the guy that always gets hurt."

[classicsoncall · 8/10 · 20 January 2017]

Robert Mitchum's character obviously didn't take his own advice noted in my summary line above. You can read that two different ways - he decided to be an involved bystander once Diane Tremayne (Jean Simmons) worked her seedy tentacles into his psyche. But on the flip side, even if he had remained the innocent bystander, he would have wound up getting entangled in Tremayne's demented scheme anyway.

The thing that really puzzled this viewer was Frank Jessup (Mitchum) agreeing to marry Tremayne in her hospital bed on the advice of attorney Barrett (Leon Ames). The way Barrett framed it had to do with a sympathy angle the press would have taken to treat the murder of Catherine Tremayne (Barbara O'Neil) and her husband. Even for the early Fifties, I don't know if that ploy would have worked; today the National Enquirer would make mincemeat of the argument. Can you just imagine the headline?

While watching, I was questioning whether or not it would be possible to rig a car to go in the opposite direction intended but the courtroom scene did a pretty good job of explaining things. Still, one has to envision Miss Tremayne crawling around under the vehicle to rig the throttle reactor spring and remove the cotter pin from the gear shaft assembly. That mental picture doesn't jive with Tremayne's demeanor for most of the story, so I guess one has to accept it on faith. Another element of that trial scene managed to bug me too - was there ever a time a juror could stand up during proceedings and begin asking questions?

What this all boils down to, and I didn't see any other reviewer for the picture mention it, but to me, Diane Tremayne was as insane as her attorney intimated when she showed up to write out her confession following the acquittal. She took a perverse pleasure out of making the lives of others miserable while cooking up her own twisted form of revenge on Catherine because of the way the older woman treated Diane's father. Though the movie certainly qualifies for it's classification as film noir, it turns out that the femme fatale of the piece was actually a lunatic.

Character-Based Noir

[itamarscomix · 7/10 · 11 February 2013]

Angel Face didn't go down in history as an essential piece of the film-noir movement, nor is it Otto Preminger's most important contribution to the genre, but it still stands out from the rest, mainly by avoiding every cliché the genre has to offer. Preminger's direction is surprisingly subdued and subtle, never giving in to melodrama but always keeping a sense of tension even when very little is happening on screen. While it clearly belongs to the film noir genre, it's more a character study than a mystery or a thriller - and for once, both the male and the female leads are equally intriguing and morally ambiguous.

Credit should go to the actors too, of course - Robert Mitchum is at his best and for me he was much more convincing as a questionable mechanic/driver than he ever was as a private eye; he brings a lot of heart into this otherwise sleazy role. Jean Simmons may not have had the charisma of Lauren Bacall or Ingrid Bergman but she did have her own unique presence (not to mention a remarkably beautiful face) and she makes Diane mysterious and fascinating, playing with the femme fatale and damsel in distress stereotypes without fitting into either one. Preminger, though, gets all the credit for not going the easy way by presenting their relationship as a passionate romance; Frank and Diane are both strong and independent characters who are clearly attracted to each other, but they're both in it for their own interests and never lose themselves in a dramatic and uncontrollable love affair. It makes for a story that's more cynical and more realistic than almost anything else in the genre. A must watch for any real film-noir fan, and for Robert Mitchum fans too.

Crazy Heart

[lucaajmone-it · 8/10 · 23 March 2010]

Jean Simmons is sensational as the deeply disturbed beautiful girl. She creates a characters that is both, alluring and terrifying at the same time. She looks at Mitchum asking him "Do you love me?" and we know she's trouble, real trouble but just like Mitchum we're ready to fall into her trap without really knowing or caring what kind of trap we're falling into. Otto Preminger at the helm is not George Cukor. Oh how I wish George Cukor had directed this film. He did wonders with Simmons in "The Actress" and he understood the female heart even one as dangerous as this one. Preminger seems interested in showing us and telling us rather than allowing us to participate in a more organic way. The script is uncertain at best but Jean Simmons makes the film, compelling viewing.

Otto noir

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 17 September 2019]

Ambulance driver Frank Jessup (Robert Mitchum) arrives after Mrs. Tremayne is poisoned. He meets her hysterical step-daughter Diane (Jean Simmons). They go out to dinner and she schemes to get rid of his girlfriend. She maneuvers him to be her family's chauffeur. She has murderous intent against her stepmother. When her parents die in the malfunctioning car, she becomes the sole heir and the main suspect along with Frank.

Some of this is badly written. I don't see Mary having lunch with Diane who is a complete stranger. That scene should be the same conversation with Diane surprising Mary at her door. The writing is rather pulpy. I don't think the marriage idea works. Spousal privilege usually only starts on the wedding day. Quite frankly, I doubt that they wouldn't be convicted anyways. The movie is concentrating on the angel faced Jean Simmons set against the juxtaposition of her villainous actions. Robert Mitchum is sitting on the fence with her. He suspects her but still goes along. This may work more as a mystery if her villainy is not so in your face. As director Otto Preminger had set it up, she's like a sledgehammer pounding on the audience. It's an effective hammering without being melodramatic. I like it more than Laura.

A Perfect Female Fatale

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 4 June 2013]

In California, the ambulance driver Frank Jessup (Robert Mitchum) and his partner head to a mansion in Beverly Hills to assist the millionaire Mrs. Catherine Tremayne (Barbara O'Neil) that was poisoned with gas, but her doctor had already medicated her. When Frank is leaving the house, he meets Catherine's twenty year-old stepdaughter Diane Tremayne (Jean Simmons) that follows him in her Jaguar. After-hours, they go to a restaurant and Frank finds an excuse to his girlfriend Mary Wilton (Mona Freeman) to not visit her and he dates Diane and they go to a night-club. Diane has a crush on Frank and on the next morning, she meets Mary and tells to her what Frank and she did.

Frank and Mary are saving money to open a garage since he is an efficient mechanic. Diane convinces Frank to be better paid working as a chauffeur for her family. Soon Frank learns that Diane hates her stepmother and he decides to quit his job. But Diane seduces him and he stay with the Tremayne family. When Mr. and Mrs. Tremayne have a fatal car accident, Diane and Frank become the prime suspect of the police and they go to court charged of murder. Now their only chance is the strategy of the efficient defense attorney Fred Barrett (Leon Ames).

"Angel Face" is among the best film-noir I have seen, with a perfect female fatale, amoral story and dark conclusion. Jean Simmons is impressive, with Oedipus complex and her angel face that manipulates Frank and even her stepmother. The melancholic music score completes this great movie. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Alma em Pânico" ("Soul in Panic")

Doesn't quite work

[IanIndependent · 6/10 · 29 August 2020]

Jean Simmons is absolutely perfect for her role as a scheming, underlyingly evil, yet beautiful and rich young woman. Robert Mitchum as sometimes happens with his performances sounds the wrong note and plays it a bit too cool and clever for the part. However, they do work well together but on the whole the film doesn't quite work because the suspense is negated by the fact that you know where the story is heading even if not quite sure how. There are a least a couple of shocks and a couple of twists so it is worth keeping with the film and to observe Simmons in hardly her best film but still one in which she is always watchable.

what a world

[ArtVandelayImporterExporter · 4/10 · 29 October 2023]

EMT shows up to treat your mom, who has taken the gas either intentionally, accidentally or murderously. Guy wanders into your living room uninvited where you are playing piano.

As you cry crocodile tears about your mother's predicament. He slaps you because ''the manual says a slap is supposed to treat hysterics."

Holy smokes have we come a long way.

Before you know it, Jean Simmons is in the same diner as Robert Mitchum. How she knew where he'd end up after his shift, who knows. They talk some mumbo-jumbo, and away we go.

The whole thing has the feel of a movie where the studios just had to stick their stars in something, anything, to keep them working under contract. Which is more or less how it went down, judging by other commentors who seem to know how nutjob Howard Hughes operated.

Ultimately a very skippable mess.