Taglines: The men she loved she destroyed.
Angel Face movie storyline. In California, the ambulance driver Frank Jessup and his partner head to a mansion in Beverly Hills to assist the millionaire Mrs. Catherine Tremayne that was poisoned with gas, but her doctor had already medicated her. When Frank is leaving the house, he meets Catherine’s twenty year-old stepdaughter Diane Tremayne that follows him in her Jaguar.
After-hours, they go to a restaurant and Frank finds an excuse to his girlfriend Mary Wilton to not visit her and he dates Diane and they go to a night-club. Diane has a crush on Frank and on the next morning, she meets Mary and tells to her what Frank and she did. Frank and Mary are saving money to open a garage since he is an efficient mechanic. Diane convinces Frank to be better paid working as a chauffeur for her family.
Soon Frank learns that Diane hates her stepmother and he decides to quit his job. But Diane seduces him and he stay with the Tremayne family. When Mr. and Mrs. Tremayne have a fatal car accident, Diane and Frank become the prime suspect of the police and they go to court charged of murder. Now their only chance is the strategy of the efficient defense attorney Fred Barrett.
Angel Face is a 1953 American black-and-white film noir directed by Otto Preminger. The drama, filmed on location in Beverly Hills, California, features Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons, Mona Freeman, Herbert Marshall, Leon Ames, Barbara O’Neil, Kenneth Tobey, Griff Barnett, Raymond Greenleaf, Robert Gist and Morgan Farley.
About the Story
Frank (Robert Mitchum) and Bill, two Beverly Hills ambulance drivers, arrive at the Tremayne mansion, where Catherine Tremayne has been affected by gas poisoning but has already been treated by the police. When Frank tries to reassure Catherine’s stepdaughter, Diane, she becomes hysterical, causing them to trade slaps. After they leave, Diane follows Frank to a diner, where they flirt and decide to go to dinner, despite the fact Frank already has a girlfriend, Mary.
At dinner, Diane tells Frank about her father, and Frank tells her about Mary. We learn that Frank had been a race-car driver and that Mary was saving up money in order to help Frank to buy his own garage. The following day, Diane meets with Mary under the pretense of contributing to Frank’s garage. In reality, she wants to make Mary jealous by letting it slip that they had dinner the prior evening.
Mary loses confidence in Frank and agrees to go out with Bill, an old boyfriend. Frank tracks down Diane to berate her for telling Mary about their impromptu dinner. But when she tells Frank he can work at the estate as the chauffeur, as well as prepare and drive her sports car in an upcoming race, Frank forgets about what she has done. Diane convinces her parents to hire Frank as chauffeur and let him live in a small apartment on the estate grounds. She further ingratiates herself to Frank by getting her stepmother Catherine to agree to listen to Frank’s proposal about investing in a garage. The two begin a romantic involvement.
While Catherine is awaiting advice on Frank’s proposal from her attorney, Diane lies to Frank, telling him that Catherine wants nothing to do with the project. She further attempts to alienate him from her stepmother by saying Catherine would fire Frank if she ever found out about his and Diane’s romance and that Catherine would take it out on both her and Diane’s sickly father if she were being defied. Diane claims Catherine even attempted to kill her by turning on the gas in the fireplace. Frank suspects Diane is lying.
Frank goes to Mary and says he is getting out of both the chauffeur job and romantic entanglement, after which they reconcile. But when he goes back to the Tremayne estate to get his gear, Diane cries and begs him to run away with her. He is confused enough to agree to stay for a few more days, but will no longer work as the chauffeur.
Catherine is about to drive herself to a bridge tournament, and Diane’s father Charles asks her for a ride to town. Instead of moving forward as expected, the vehicle speeds in reverse, crashing through a guardrail. It careens down a steep cliff, killing them both. As Diane is now the sole heir, she comes under suspicion for murder; police arrest her and Frank as well. Diane is devastated, as she never intended her beloved father to be in the car, and she is admitted to a hospital for treatment. She confesses that she planned and executed Catherine’s murder. Doctors believe she is delirious.
Angel Face (1952)
Directed by: Otto Preminger
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons, Mona Freeman, Herbert Marshall, Leon Ames, Barbara O’Neil, Kenneth Tobey, Griff Barnett, Raymond Greenleaf, Robert Gist, Morgan Farley
Screenplay by: Frank Nugent, Oscar Millard
Production Design by:
Cinematography by: Harry Stradling
Film Editing by: Frederic Knudtson
Costume Design by: Michael Woulfe
Set Decoration by: Jack Mills, Darrell Silvera
Art Direction by: Carroll Clark, Albert S. D’Agostino
Music by: Dimitri Tiomkin
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: RKO Radio Pictures
Release Date: February 11, 1953
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