Angel Face

1952

1h 31m

Crime

Drama

List

77%

Tomatometer

13 Reviews

77%

Audience Score

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.

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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

Full Review

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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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

Full Review

andrey k

An emotional drama with moody and soul-stirring soundtrack from Tiomkin, which is especially disturbing in the scene where she wonders in a now lonely and deserted estate realizing her terrible crime and at the same time deeply repenting it. Both Robert Mitchum delivered an unusual for him and quite nuanced role and Jean Simmons played convincigly a confused and psychologically damaged young woman, who is not just a typical femme fatale and you really have mixed feelings about her.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Angel Face is definitely a well-acted film. I loved what Jean Simmons did with her part, because it was important that we sympathize with her for at least some of the story. She brought an innocence to the role that was endearing, and at least gave you reason to question whether she could possibly be devious in any way. Robert Mitchum is ridiculously charming, and seeing him in this role worked just right. You could see how he got himself into this predicament, and yet you pitied him for all the struggles he goes through. The two of them didn’t have as much chemistry as I would like for this plot, in fact I felt Mitchum had better chemistry with Mona Freeman. But I think the story works even if you’re not convinced the two leads are madly in love. One of my biggest complaints in Angel Face was that I saw where it was going most of the time. I had a pretty strong sense of who I could trust and who I could not, and mystery feels essential to the story they’re trying to tell. I won’t go any further into spoiling things in case you were to watch it and don’t see what is coming. My other struggle with Angel Face was just the fact that it doesn’t exactly have the most pleasant ending. Once again, i won’t go any further into details (and this is probably something I should expect from the film noir genre) but I just tend to like something a bit more uplifting at the end. This also might be a symptom of where my mind is right now, I’m simply not in the mindset to enjoy depressing films. Aside from some general issues I had with the story in Angel Face, it was still a well-made movie and if I could see myself liking it quite a bit under different circumstances.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

11/26/20

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andy f

Stick with this noir, it's a terrific little tale enhanced by Jean Simmons giving probably her best ever performance and Mitchum being typically stoic throughout.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This movie has stood the test of time so well: superb direction from a master at the peak of his career, stellar acting from Mitchum and Simmonds, a great score, and a chilling yet strangely moving dissection of the destructive power of deranged passion. Truly a classic of its genre.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

Full Review

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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
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