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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: Turner Home Ent
Salesrank: 65068
Released: January 23, 2007 |
| Our Price: $15.97 |
| Used Price: $15.97 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Otto Preminger, who showed how to mix a beautiful woman with murder in the landmark Laura, directs this tale of a passion gone haywire. Frank's a regular guy with a steady girl and a dream of owning his own garage when he crosses paths with Diane. She wants him. Or does she want a fall guy to blame when Diane's stepmother plunges off a high cliff and leaves her fortune to Diane? Alibis, betrayals, courtroom thrills and the fire of a woman too dangerous to trust and too alluring to resist make Angel Face a film-noir classic.
Description of Angel Face:
Robert Mitchum was already a dab hand at film noir when he stepped into the delicious trap of Angel Face, Otto Preminger's 1952 addition to the genre. Here Mitchum plays an amazingly seducible guy who falls under the spell of spoiled rich girl Jean Simmons; a former race-car driver, he'd like to open his own sports-car garage, and her money would come in awfully handy. But she's got a few quirks to work out first, including her hostility for her stepmother, who doesn't stand a chance against this poker-faced vixen. True to its title, the film has an absolutely deadpan approach to this material, as Preminger's calm style recalls more the clinical courtroom proceedings of Anatomy of a Murder than the perverse lushness of Laura. Mitchum's in absolutely top form, and Jean Simmons has just right amount of intensity behind her porcelain beauty. The supporting cast is led by Herbert Marshall, as Simmons' father, a writer who's been sponging off his wife for years, and Leon Ames does a skillful turn as a crafty lawyer. The ending is as pre-ordained as can be, and the film moves toward its sinister conclusion without turning its head to explore other options. But that's why we love film noir. --Robert Horton
Angel Face Reviews:
Car talk . . . 
2009-07-21 - I'm no huge film noir fan but get a kick out of Hollywood's idea of nasty characters up to no good, circa 1950. This Otto Preminger project (produced by Howard Hughes) is as good as they come, with a smoldering Jean Simmons ensnaring an equally smoldering Robert Mitchum in a scheme to do away with her wealthy step-mother. When all is said and done, a lot more gets done away with than anybody bargains for. The script (after numerous rewrites, including an uncredited one by Ben Hecht) has enough clever turns and salty dialogue, even while it stretches credulity, but the relationship between a conniving young woman and her chump of a chauffeur boyfriend is more than plausible in its portrayal of class differences. Mitchum's laid-back self-confidence as he tries to manipulate two girlfriends simultaneously is outdone only by Simmons' double-dealing scheming.
Also in the cast are Leon Ames (as her slick lawyer), Herbert Marshall (as her father), and Jim Backus as a prosecuting attorney. Dimitri Tiomkin has written a fine score, with a haunting piano composition that portrays the troubled and restless spirit of our dark femme fatale. The DVD has a wonderful commentary by film historian Eddie Muller, whose enthusiasm can sound sometimes like the guys on "Car Talk," which is appropriate for a storyline that involves cars and a discussion of how to disable an automatic transmission.
Glib writing and cardboard acting. 
2009-06-04 - The movie plunged into its plot way to soon before I got to decide which character is to like or to hate, or even if I'm interested in them to see where they go. Unusual enough plot twist at the hour mark, not very believable (at least now days) but I suppose one would be capable to do anything when their neck is so close to a noose.
Notes: That Jean Simmons looks a bit at times like Audrey Hepburn. Mitchum was way to cool for a framed guy. The femme fatale: you weren't really sure if it was real remorse or still scheme. Not enough emotional content to make story believable.
The trial is pretty ridiculous. Double jeopardy will not prohibit a new trial if the previous trial was a product of fraud or under false pretenses. And in what court can a juror ask a question?? When cant a lawyer ask the relationship of a witness to any of the parties involved? And why would you trust an unstable 20yr old at the end of all it?
Its noir but not very good noir; and not terribly entertaining either. I felt a bit suckered by my interest in noir. This movie is liken to a made for tv movie on lifetime, the actors couldnt play validate the stereotypical characters.
OTTO PREMINGER, OPUS 17 
2008-06-04 - ***** 1952. Produced and directed by Otto Preminger. Robert Mitchum is seduced by Jean Simmons, the stepdaughter of a wealthy business woman. He's put on trial when Jean manages to plot her stepmother's death. A movie I worship for more than 35 years now. Rocked between the black-haired Dianne and the blonde Mary, Frank Jessup suffers the consequences of his passivity. ANGEL FACE'S screenplay resumes the vertebral column of the 1945 Fallen Angel (Fox Film Noir) but gives to the character of Diane Tremayne a relief that will haunt you for days. Masterpiece.
one of my favorites for years
2008-01-26 - I have loved this movie for more years that I can remember. It is the best. I have been waiting for it to come out on dvd. The only copy I had of it was a vcr that I recorded from the tv. I am so glad it is now out on DVD..
Jean Simmons plays a young woman who is totally spoiled & hates her step-mother, who has all the money & controls it also. Her father has no money of his own so everything he gives her the stepmother pays for.
She desides to kill her step-mother so that the money will all belong to her father. From that point on everything goes down hill until the great ending.
Hackneyed Plot and Vicious Intent Produce a Chilling Film Noir.
2007-08-04 - Conceived simply as an instrument of Howard Hughes' revenge, "Angel Face"'s perverse production history and mundane plotting yielded a disquieting cult classic in the deft hands of director Otto Preminger. Actress Jean Simmons had successfully sued Hughes to get out of a 7-year contract but still owed RKO a movie. Not one to let bygones be bygones, Hughes pulled an unexceptional script out of the vaults and plied Preminger to direct, promising him full creative control. It was the sort of "murder drama" that we now call "film noir", already rapidly losing appeal in the early 1950s. Preminger's rewrites, a low budget, 18 shooting days, a mission to make life miserable for Jean Simmons, and bodily conflict between Preminger and star Robert Mitchum produced a film that is not especially memorable for its story but whose eerie, disturbing undertones make it unforgettable.
Ambulance driver Frank Jessup (Robert Mitchum) is called to the Tremayne mansion when Catherine Tremayne (Barbara O'Neil) nearly asphyxiates from a gas leak in her bedroom. Her husband Charles (Hebert Marshall) and police speculate on how the accident may have occurred, but Catherine believes that someone tried to kill her. After a brief flirtation with Catherine's oddly unstable stepdaughter Diane (Jean Simmons), Frank heads back to the station. Diane impulsively follows, easily convincing Frank to beg off his evening with girlfriend Mary (Mona Freeman). Frank sees a lot of Diane, an idle, rich young woman who idolizes her doting novelist father and jealously despises her stepmother. She gets Frank a job as Tremayne family chauffeur. She connives to come between him and Mary. She lies. She dramatizes. Frank sees through her. But, intrigued by Diane's' lifestyle and flattered by her neediness, he goes along anyway.
Maybe the on-set strife and cruelty informed "Angel Face"'s perverse psychology. Neither profound nor clever, Diane's clumsy machinations and Frank's submission pack an emotional wallop. Diane is trouble all right, but not a classic noir femme fatale. Her motives are entirely emotional -insecurity, instability, infatuation. Her scheming is childish and transparent. Frank Jessup, very much in noir protagonist form, is foolish enough to entangle himself in it. The film is elevated by careful, though certainly cliched, writing of the supporting characters, who provide the circumstances from which Frank and Diane's self-destruction emerges: Diane's burned-out, free-spending father and indulgent stepmother. Frank's pragmatic, hard-working girlfriend. Diane barely in control of her devastating behavior and Frank thoroughly in control to no avail make a lasting impression.
The DVD (Warner 2007): There is a nice audio commentary by film noir historian Eddie Muller, who obviously admires the film. He discusses themes, Robert Mitchum's noir archetypes, the film's structure, refutes the idea of the femme fatale as a reaction to post-war working women, and provides a lot of background information on the motives, rewrites, and conflict behind "Angel Face". Subtitles for the film are available in English. Dubbing is available in French.
