Angel Face

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Angel Face

1952

1h 31m

Crime

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

77%

Tomatometer

13 Reviews

77%

Popcornmeter

500+ Ratings

Beautiful Diane Tremayne (Jean Simmons) is a sophisticated, wealthy young woman capable of manipulating anyone who crosses her path. She also has a dark side she manages to conceal behind her appearance and her good manners. Soon after the untimely death of her stepmother (Barbara O'Neil), Diane pursues handsome Frank Jessup (Robert Mitchum). Before long, she starts to win him over -- but Frank quickly suspects that the manic Diane had more to do with her stepmother's death than she lets on.

New York Times

A capable cast, headed by Jean Simmons and Robert Mitchum, and a nice, taut story idea have been set adrift in a pretentious Freudian mist that wafts through the handsomely mounted proceedings with disastrous results.

Rated: 1.5/5

Aug 8, 2006

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Geoff Andrew

Time Out

Superb Freudian crime thriller, noir-inflected in theme but shot by and large in crisp, bright drawing-rooms.

Feb 9, 2006

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Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

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.

Mar 31, 2003

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Film buffs smile knowingly at the mere mention of this title, for two reasons.

Rated: 3.5/4

Jul 10, 2023

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Manny Farber

The Nation

Angel Face is a congested thriller that kills off all its actors with modern sports cars.

Nov 24, 2020

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Allen Almachar

The MacGuffin

The dark themes quietly wrap themselves around us, pulling us into this story of love, anger, and madness.

Aug 11, 2020

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Insomniac X

Romantic melodrama with courtroom and thriller elements. Preminger brings his usual brand of high brow self-seriousness to the soapy source material. Ultimately, though well cast and capably acted, there is hardly enough story here to justify the film's 91-minute runtime.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/25/25

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acsdoug D

Jean Simmons is excellent in this compelling noir.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

12/21/24

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reyla g

This may be another "masterpiece" like the "Postman Always Rings Twice". Except I like the beautiful setting and decor of the mansion in this movie over the more common place diner settings in Postman. Jean Simmons is so good in this film. I think she should have been nominated for an Oscar. The movie itself should have been nominated. However, I guess because the movie is so dark and the ending so shocking it would never have been nominated in 1953 or maybe even in 2024. See it for yourselves and decide! I just saw it the second time and it was even better than the first viewing,

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

09/16/24

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mark g

Beautiful and dark film with all kinds of Freudian themes. Simmons is spectacular, as is Mitchum.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

09/09/24

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Steve D

Unravels in the last 10min or so. Simmons is fantastic

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/23/24

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Leaburn O

I liked the darkness of this classic 50s noir. The ending is predictable but fun. This one was watched on BBC iPlayer.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

11/10/23

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Otto Preminger

Director

Robert Mitchum

Frank Jessup

Jean Simmons

Diane Tremayne Jessup

Mona Freeman

Mary Wilton

Herbert Marshall

Mr. Charles Tremayne

Leon Ames

Fred Barrett

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Synopsis

Beautiful Diane Tremayne (Jean Simmons) is a sophisticated, wealthy young woman capable of manipulating anyone who crosses her path. She also has a dark side she manages to conceal behind her appearance and her good manners. Soon after the untimely death of her stepmother (Barbara O'Neil), Diane pursues handsome Frank Jessup (Robert Mitchum). Before long, she starts to win him over -- but Frank quickly suspects that the manic Diane had more to do with her stepmother's death than she lets on.

Director: Otto Preminger
Producer: Otto Preminger
Screenwriter: Frank S. Nugent, Oscar Millard
Production Co: RKO Radio Pictures Inc.
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (DVD): Jan 23, 2007
Runtime: 1h 31m