angelface

Otto Preminger does it again with another psychologically disturbing film noir. I was treated to a
rare screening of “Bunny Lake Is Missing” a few years ago and was quickly introduced to the
strange and effective eye of Preminger. He understands how to haunt the lens with a character’s
emotional presence, even in unlikely people.

I don’t think there’s anyone more unlikely than Jean Simmons, the beautiful face of innocence in
classics like “Spartacus” and “The Big Country.” In the film, Simmons is the daughter of a writer
who is going through a serious dry spell. His new wife, her stepmother, is a focused
businesswoman. Robert Mitchum is an ambulance driver she hires to be her personal driver at the
family mansion. In reality, she’s obsessed with him and she’ll do anything to keep him, including
frame him for the murder of her stepmother.

“Angel Face” is a twisted film with a character so psychotic, her innocently pretty face makes her all
the more loathsome. What’s nice about this movie is Mitchum, who is allowed to play a cool, calm
and collected sort of guy, despite the fact that he’s the male lead of a film noir, which by default
makes him a chump of sorts.

There’s a side plot involving Mitchum’s real girlfriend, who he’s strangely indifferent to until
Simmons puts him in a pickle. In many ways, Mitchum’s character suffers a slow degradation of
intelligence as the movie moves forward. Frankly, for all of his coolness and machismo outwardly,
Mitchum inexplicably becomes a tactical simpleton towards the end of the movie. All of his caution
towards Simmons is thrown out the window, even after a long trial in which he learns just how
calculating and insidious she has become.

Like most film noirs, the ending isn’t exactly satisfying, but it certainly is shocking, though “Angel
Face” suffers a little bit from the “I saw that one coming” syndrome. By the last few minutes, if
you’ve been paying attention, you can start calling the shots. That doesn’t make it all bad though.
In point of fact, this is a compelling story.

The only thing I still can't figure out is why Mitchum allows himself to be roped in like he does.
Seems rather out of character to me...