Movies - Angel Face

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	Movies - Angel Face

Angel Face is a 1952 black-and-white film shot in the film noir style. The film was directed by Otto Preminger and is one of his many films noirs that also include Laura (1944), Where the Sidewalk Ends
(1950), and Fallen Angel (1945). The movie was filmed on location in Beverly Hills, California. Dimitri Tiomkin composed the music for the film.

Plot

Frank Jessup (Mitchum), an ambulance driver, meets 19-year-old (and mentally insane) Diane Tremayne (Simmons) while attending to her rich step mother after a strange accident. Diane is immediately attracted to former race car driver Frank and plans to use him to kill for her. When Diane follows Frank to his favorite diner, he tells her what he really wants to do is open a garage. Diane attempts to lure Frank with money and talks her father and stepmother to hire him as a chauffer. While working for the family Frank pitches the idea of a garage to Miss Wilson, who likes the idea. Diane finds out and instead tells Frank that the step mother hates her and has no intention of helping Frank with the finances. When Diane finally suggests that the pair team up to kill her step mother, Frank has enough and attempts to leave. Meanwhile Diane has rigged her mother's car to go backwards over a cliff when someone steps on the gas. The car indeed goes over, but her father was also unexpectedly in the car too. Now the young couple are arrested and charged with murdering the pair for money. While in jail, Frank and Diane get married as a ruse to help their case. They're eventually acquitted but Frank now doesn't want anything to do with the apparently insane Diane. Diane has other plans. She wants them to go over the cliff together too.

Critical reaction

The film today receives mostly positive reviews. writes: "The sets, characters, and actions are extremely stylized, yet Preminger's moving camera gives them a frightening unity and fluidity, tracing a straight, clean line to a cliff top for one of the most audacious endings in film history" while found the movie predictable and the end more silly then shocking "Not sure what the big deal is over this, using the plot of The Postman Always Rings Twice
once again and with only minor deviations, like giving Jean Simmons an Electra complex."

Cast

Robert Mitchum
as Frank Jessup
Jean Simmons
as Diane Tremayne
Mona Freeman
as Mary Wilton
Herbert Marshall
as Mr. Charles Tremayne
Leon Ames
as Fred Barrett

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Angel Face ]

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