FeistyUpper
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Sexyloutak
Absolutely the worst movie.
Logan
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
HotToastyRag
Despite the presence of two attractive people on the screen, Angel Face doesn't quite make it to the upper echelon of film noir classics. Jean Simmons even dons the same hairstyle that Barbara Stanwyck wore in Double Indemnity, but her chemistry with Robert Mitchum fizzled rather than sparked. Usually, I like his blasé charm, but in this movie, he obviously phoned in his performance.Like many film noirs, an innocent man is drawn into the deceitful world of a beautiful woman, led astray by his, well, powerful attraction to her. Jean Simmons certainly is beautiful, and the script is smart and snappy, but the scenes with the two leads feel a little lackluster. The best part of the movie is Robert Mitchum's girlfriend Mona Freeman. She's sassy and strong, and pretty much everything out her mouth makes you cheer and root for her.Rounding out the cast is Herbert Marshall, Jim Backus, Barbara O'Neil and Leon Ames. If you like this genre, give Angel Face a try, but it probably won't end up being your favorite. You'll come out of it a Mona Freeman fan, though!
Aaron Igay
With Otto Preminger directing and Robert Mitchum as your star how can you go wrong? OK this film does take a while to get into gear, but when it does there is no shifting back into reverse. Unique great films like this one are the reason I'm doing this project to watch every single classic film noir I can get my hands on. There is no way a major Hollywood studio would ever tell a story like this today. The big Hollywood studio that produced this film was the faltering Howard Hughes-helmed RKO. The box office takings from this 1952 film certainly didn't help and the studio fell over the cliff a few years later. The 'Angel Face' of the title, Jean Simmons was under contract with RKO but wanted to bat her eyelashes for a different studio. She tried to sabotage her unwanted contract by cutting her hair short. but Hughes wasn't defeated that easily, he just forced her to wear a wig for this film.
Claudio Carvalho
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")
itamarscomix
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.
