One thing you can practically bank on is that if the film was made by Otto Preminger, it is going to be bold and interesting. Angel Face is definitely that. From the cold and calculating Diane Tremayne (Jean Simmons) to the somewhat naive yet also world-weary Frank Jessup (Robert Mitchum), we get a story about money, love, lust, and murder. But despite this being a run-of-the-mill setup, Otto has managed to craft a film with plenty of surprises, including two of the most visceral car crashes ever seen on film. And both happen so abruptly that you are left in shock at what you just saw, jaw on the floor as you contemplate what these moments mean.
The film opens with Frank, an ambulance driver, responding to a call at the Tremayne estate. The matron of the house is convinced that someone had tried to kill her. There, Frank meets Diane, the daughter and beautiful heiress, who intrigues him. After a night on the town, she convinces him to approach her stepmother about bankrolling an automobile repair business catering to the upper class, a dream he has always had. Then, she convinces him that her stepmother dismissed the idea after he left. Eventually, he accepts a job as chauffeur for the family, complete with his own rooms on the estate. While all of this is going on, Frank is alienating his girlfriend, Mary (Mona Freeman). Things come crashing down, literally, when Diane’s father and stepmother are planning on driving into town, and the car suddenly launches in reverse, despite being shifted into drive, and flies off a cliff, killing them both. Suddenly, Diane and Frank are being tried in court for their murders.
Famously, Otto Preminger and Robert Mitchum fought over the direction of this film, with Otto trying to goad Mitchum into repeatedly filming the sequence where he slaps Diane. Mitchum defended Simmons, refusing to perform the scene repeatedly. Otto was a tough director who bullied his actors at times, and this film was no different. But Otto was also an inspired director who knew how to make films that pushed the envelope, catching you off guard and disturbing you. When the parents go over the cliff, it is so abrupt and well shot that you are left speechless after seeing it. Audiences in the theater didn’t have the luxury of rewinding and rewatching it, but I did just to make sure that car was in drive when it happened.
The ending was just as shocking. It was a bold decision to take it down this route, and Otto made sure that we were also shocked by this moment but also that we deeply felt it. Frank is led along for much of this movie, and he is far from a sympathetic character, but we still like him to a degree, even though he makes some stupid decisions along the way. So that ending comes as a surprise and leaves us troubled. This is a wonderfully made psychological sexual drama that merits repeat viewings to really take in everything that is going on. It is anchored by some truly powerful performances by Mitchum and Simmons, neither of whom are phoning it in. But the real star is Preminger, himself, who has once again given us a great film that is a credit to the film noir genre. 1953 - 91 minutes
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