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Star Review

Angel Face is one of a string of superb film noirs that Otto Preminger made throughout the 1940s and 50s. Though the brilliance of Laura tends to overshadow the others, Angel Face is one of his very best, and is a complex, clever picture with two great stars on top form.
The plot is tinged with melodrama; ambulance driver Frank (Robert Mitchum) falls for a pretty heiress, Diane (Jean Simmons), realising too late that she is dangerously disturbed and may be plotting to kill her mother. When a murder inevitably takes place, in one of the best death scenes captured on celluloid, Frank finds himself in too deep, and risks being dragged down by his psychotic paramour.
Mitchum played this type of role several times, and he injects his anti-hero with customary wit and cynicism; but he also permits a degree of pathos, such as when he smugly returns to his former lover (Mona Freeman), expecting her to forgive his infidelity, only to find she has found someone else. Simmons has rarely been better, putting a very interesting spin on what could have been a stock femme fatale. Recalling Gene Tierney’s ruthless protagonist in Leave Her to Heaven, she portrays Diane as a damaged daughter, yet her natural malevolence makes her more than a victim of circumstance.
There are set pieces here worthy of classic status and some marvellous cat and mouse interplay between Simmons and Freeman. The former invites the latter to lunch to assure her she is not attracted to Frank. The latter sees through this blatant lie, and so begins a cracking dialogue loaded with tension. Simmons’ reaction when Mitchum slaps her to control her hysteria is beautifully played too. Preminger ordered numerous takes of this scene, until Simmons lost her patience, turned round and slapped the director!
Cited by Jean-Luc Godard as one of the top ten best American sound films ever made, Angel Face richly deserves rediscovery.

Alex Davidson on 7th February 2008

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