the audience applauded

Please don't spend money on this.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I liked Anger Face. But for once, I'd rather have seen someone other than Robert Mitchum as the male lead. He tends to dominate his scenes to such an extent that the other characters, except for Jean Simmon's Diane, end up as a backdrop of wallflowers.Frank's role calls out for a more nuanced, less self-assured presence, maybe a Dana Andrews or Richard Widmark. Mitchum definitely brings his wry humor and maverick attitude to the role; but that has the effect of mitigating the noir suspense and atmosphere with an almost comic slant. I agree with the reviewer who feels that Barbara O'Neil's and Herbert Marshall's characters are two-dimensional and uninteresting. It's Mitchum's love interests who animate the plot.As it is, Frank's spin between Mary and Diane makes little sense. Mary has the obvious good nature and girl-next-door prettiness that would seems such a better match for the everyman Frank than Diane, who has only wealth. Okay, she's certainly attractive too, but seems incredibly immature compared to Mary, and looks young enough to be Frank's daughter. Plus there's the little matter of needing her parents dead in order for her to realize her wealth.Why would Mitchum be eager to take up with Simmons when she obviously hates the stepmother for no good reason, and he suspects, based on the opening sequence, that she has tried already to kill her? He has plenty of opportunities to go back to Mary, but ultimately burns his bridges. Mary's right that he can't expect her to drop everything, including her new boyfriend/fiancee, just because he becomes available. Frank's last scene with Mary seems stiff and formal from his perspective; he's forvever lost the casual familiarity she now shares with Frank's former friend and coworker.There's two possibilities for Frank: either he's 'fallen between two stools' by losing both women, or he really doesn't care that much for relationships anyway. That explains his last-minute decision to split to Mexico. And that puts Diane in the driver's seat, literally, just long enough for her to kill both of them.That leads us to Simmon's character. If we accept that she's a budding sociopath, then the murder/suicide makes some sense. If she can't have Mitchum, then no one will. Still, since sociopaths are inherently selfish, wouldn't she want to live? Also, If she's just having a sudden nuts/jealous impulse, why not kill just him? At least there was a point to setting up her stepmom's murder. She gets closer to the family money.On the technical side, Angel Face hits on all cylinders: both of the car crashes follow-through with the actual car (first the Chrysler, then the Jaguar) tumbling down the hill, not the usual substitute-a-jalopy-for-the-expensive-car deal. Even better, in the courtroom scene when the engine from the wrecked Chrysler is used as evidence, we get an authentic and properly banged-up early Chrysler hemi.Anyway, a watchable but not-so-noir film noir. There's an interesting plot, which, as others have pointed out, shows up in better company in other noir thrillers. I was disappointed enough with the way the cast interacted, or rather failed to interact convincingly, to rate Angel Face higher. Good title, though.

Otto Preminger directs this noirish tale of deceit and murder but inserts different ingredients to the mix. The femme fatale here is not platinum blonde but dark haired and English. Jean Simmons plays Diane a young lady over from England with her novelist father and stepmother who she dislikes and has nefarious plans for. Why she wants to murder her is not made clear.During her first failed attempt to gas her stepmother, in arrives paramedic (Frank) Robert Mitchum and the two meet when he tries to stop her hysterics. Diane follows him and strikes up a conversation with Frank a wannabee garage mechanic and former racing driver and who has a girlfriend Mary a hospital receptionist who is also saving money to help him reach his ambitions.Mitchum with his big burly frame is tailor made for such a crime thriller but apart from striking up an opportunistic relationship with Diane and cheating on Mary is not actually guilty of any crime whereas in other similar films the man is lead on to commit a murder, not so here apart from being in the frame as a suspect. The potential fall guy.However the stepmother is eventually killed in a spectacular car crash which also kills Diane's father and Frank and Diane stand trial but are assisted by a cagey defence lawyer (Leon Ames) as the film becomes a courtroom thriller.Mitchum plays a guy who realises he might not want to be a bystander in a situation that would engulf him in flames. Simmons is certainly an angel face but behind that lies a devious, calculating, alluring dangerous woman who has it all figured out. It certainly is different from similar genre films from that period but its too low key although the actors defy expectations as Mitchum is no brute here.

The Howard Hughes era of R.K.O. had some trashy elements about it, and one of the worst offenders of it was this, a melodramatic thriller so far-fetched, it made the same era's Bowery Boys seem mature in comparison. The waif-like Jean Simmons is the spoiled daughter of a millionaire who hates her step-mother so much, she plots murder with the intention of involving young doctor Robert Mitchum in her schemes. But nothing turns out the way she wants it which leads to more destruction.It seems that every time evil occurs, Simmons is seen dramatically playing the piano as if nothing was going on. There have been many seemingly mousy femme fatals over the years, but not one of them comes close to her absurdly written character. Attorney Leon Ames is one of the most amoral of all defenders, in full knowledge of the truth, but fully willing to allow the truth to be swept under the rug. At least Herbert Marshall and Barbar O'Neill get merciful early exits, Marshall's exit line comically tragic. Get a load of the extras in the mental ward, one of who looks like Grandmama Addams. Overwrought with unintentional humor and an influx of characters whose relationships are not believably explained, this film noir seems more like something from director Otto Preminger's later credits, where the audience was automatically forewarned of what to expect.

Directed by Otto Preminger, 1952's Angel Face is a nicely-paced Crime/Thriller about passion gone haywire.With the innocent face of an angel, and the deceptive heart of a devil, the young and alluring Diane Treymayne uses her many seductive charms to set up Frank Jessup, the handsome ambulance driver, as the fall guy when she secretly plots out the fool-proof murder of her wealthy stepmother in order to collect on the inheritance.In Angel Face it's all flimsy alibis, heartless betrayals, and thrilling courtroom drama, compounded by the fire of a femme fatale who's too dangerous to trust, but too tantalizing to resist.Set in and around Beverly Hills, Angel Face stars one of my fave movie tough-guys from the 1950s, Robert Mitchum.