As suggested by the title, Angel Face centers around Simmons' portrayal of Diane Tremayne, a spoiled, sheltered rich girl with a murderous and pointed need to get whatever she wants. A classic femme fatale. Preminger's 1952 film is finally a much darker work than earlier 40s noirs, however, as Simmons turns out to be a complete psychopath, an "angel of death." Unlike, say, Phyllis Diedrichson in Double Indemnity, Diane has no remorse at all for her actions--no wavering moment of uncertainly or humanity. She sees no possible future that is not of her own making and acts accordingly and vengefully. Jean Simmons typically had sweet girl roles in the Audrey Hepburn vein, so seeing her go batty here is a real treat.
Mitchum plays Frank Jessup, a somewhat doe-eyed average joe who seems like an essentially nice guy, but with a fear of commitment to his blonde sometime-girlfriend Mary (Mona Freeman) that leads him slowly into the arms of our femme fatale. I actually like these type of roles for Mitchum better than when he plays the brawny adventurer, because his low-key style of acting often translates on screen as obliviousness, or innocence, and you feel he knows just a little bit less than the audience. At times you want to shake him: "Frank! Get outta there!" But Frank, a former race car driver, finds Diane's promises of financial help to make his post-war dreams come true too tempting.
In the film, Frank is an ambulance driver called to the Tremayne house after Diane's step-mother, Catherine (Barbara O'Neal) suffers what appears to be an accidental poisoning from a gas leak. Diane decides she has to have him, pursues him back to the hospital, and in short order he becomes the family's house chauffeur. It eventually becomes evident to Frank that Diane was behind the supposed gas leak accident, but not before Frank has left Mary for Diane and Diane's parents are dead from a rigged auto accident. Too late, Frank tries to get out, but Diane has other plans. And the film ends in a shocker finale which I won't belabor here in case anyone still has not seen this film.
A rewatch of the film makes it possible to better appreciate the performances of Herbert Marshall and Barbara O'Neal as Diane's father Charles and step-mother Catherine. Preminger shows us a lot of them, and it is interesting (though ultimately futile) to look in them for Diane's psychological motivation. As the film proceeds, more and more of the action takes place in the hill-top Tremayne house and the rest of the real world seems to fade away for Frank. Preminger's presentation of the parents, their treatment of each other, and of Diane, alternately indulgent and tight-fisted with money, adds to the increasingly fatalistic feel of the picture. Our sense that Frank will be trapped, just as Diane and Charles are in their relationship with Catherine, increases incrementally as the story plays out.
One other comment: Angel Face is interesting to watch, not only as a melodrama played out between two lovers, but as a class indictment wherein it is clear that the noir malaise extends to all classes of American society.
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