Noir Watch: Angel Face (1952)

Angel Face was released in 1952, directed and produced by Otto Preminger (Anatomy of a Murder, Laura) and stars Jean Simmons (Spartacus, Guys and Dolls) and Robert "I guess I'll be in it" Mitchum (oh, geez. What hasn't he been in?).

Its a tidy little movie, interesting mostly in that it makes a few choices that bust the mold for the movies of the era and for those of us who with expectations from reading Chandler or Hammett.

This wasn't my favorite movie, but I did quite like Jean Simmons' character - the supposed stock femme fatale of the movie who single-mindedly pursues her own desires while living in an LA mansion.  Mitchum plays the ambulance driver who responds to a call at the mansion.

It seems Diane's mother has had an accident with the gas in the house and been overcome.  Mitchum tells her it'll be fine (after slapping her a good one), but we suspect - maybe Diane had something to do with it.  Diane trails Mitchum to the hospital and then to a diner where she basically offers herself up. 

Mitchum's Frank Jessup is no angel himself, ditching his steady girl for the millionaire girl batting her eyelashes at him.  Soon enough, Frank is two-timing his nurse girlfriend (played by Mona Freeman) and Diane has him working as a chauffeur for her family and begins drawing him into a web of.... MURDER (I mean, spoiler alert, but this is a noir film). 

Okay, seriously, spoilers below:

So, while watching the movie, two things really caught my attention.

...no, no, no.  Well, maybe.

1)  In the final reel Mitchum's Frank has been released from jail with Diane.  They were married as part of their defense strategy.  Frank goes back to Mary to see if she'll take him back.  She doesn't, makes it clear she's now shacking up with his old best friend, and Frank (in Mitchum-y, manly fashion) just shrugs and says "All right, doll" or something and heads out of there.

This was sort of the capstone on what had been a string of conversations with Frank, Diane and/ or Mary where it was pretty clear that Frank just really didn't give a damn.  Sure, he knew Mary was the win in this situation, but if it didn't work out, there are other dames.  And I turned off the movie and said to Jamie "look at this dude.  He just totally does not give a damn.  You'd never see this in a movie now.  He'd be crying in a park after this scene, or he'd be walking sadly down the street, or something.  But you know Mitchum does not give a damn."  But that was kind of Preminger's point. 

2)  Because Diane isn't your stock-issue sociopathic little rich girl.  She's just horribly, horribly naive.  Right up to the point where she does actually kill someone (her stepmother, intentionally, and her father, accidentally).  From then on, she's wracked with guilt and loss, a zombie through the movie.  The mistake of killing her father actually flips the switch that seems to shake her from the world of inconsequence she's clearly living in up until that moment (see the scene between Diane and Mary at lunch). 

So in the end its actually Frank's "I don't give a damn" approach that winds up doing them both in during the final scene.  Its not so much that he can't live with what's happened, but he doesn't want to keep living it with Diane. 

Anyway, its an interesting little scenario Preminger's concocted. 

End spoilers

The movie isn't wildly expensive, but it does feature two incredibly brutal car crash scenes that go one a lot longer than anything from The Postman Always Rings Twice.  And you can't not like Jean Simmons in this movie.  She's pretty great.

and absolutely nothing can go wrong in this sort of scenario...

 I will also say, you can tell how times change.  The defense uses a particular strategy that in today's courts would almost certainly point to the guilt of the clients and get them crucified in the media.  

I'm not sure its the first film I'd suggest you run out and watch, but I had no trouble making it through the movie, just to see how it played out.