Angel face

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Movie
German title Angel face,
also: Angel face - the beast in woman
Original title Angel Face
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1952
length 91 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Otto Preminger
script Ben Hecht ,
Oscar Millard ,
Frank S. Nugent ,
Chester Erskine (short story)
production Otto Preminger
music Dimitri Tiomkin
camera Harry Stradling Sr.
cut Frederic Knudtson
occupation

Engelsgesicht (alternative title: Engelsgesicht - Die Bestie im Weib) is a feature film by the Austrian - US director Otto Preminger from 1952. The film noir is based on a short story by Chester Erskine and was produced by the RKO Radio Pictures film studio .

action

The ambulance driver Frank Jessup, who laconically describes his journeys as "hearse tours", is called with his work colleague Bill to an assignment in Beverly Hills . The second wife of the English writer Charles Tremayne suffered from gas poisoning. Catherine Tremayne, who apparently dropped her key to the gas tap and accidentally pushed it into the fireplace, was saved by her husband. After taking care of Mrs. Tremayne, who is in shock, Frank also meets 19-year-old Diane, who lives in the house and plays the piano, disturbed. The girl, who breaks out in hysteria, can be brought to reason by Frank and a little later follows the ambulance driver to his regular pub. When he sees Diane, Frank postpones the planned meeting with his friend Mary Wilton, a hospital employee, and decides to spend the evening with the mysterious beauty. In a dance hall, Frank tells her about his past as a car racing driver before the war and the plans to set up a car service for racing cars with his girlfriend Mary. During the course of the conversation, Diane won over the idea of ​​relaunching his career with a racing car she financed. One day later, Diane meets with Mary, whom she does not know. She tells her about yesterday's appointment with Frank and about investing $ 1,000 in the planned car service. But Mary sees through Diane's plan to make Frank bad with her and suspects that she has not seen the girl for the last time.

In the years that followed, Diane met Frank more and more often and managed to convince her father and stepmother to employ Frank as a chauffeur. Frank soon moves into the room above the garage in the Tremayne's luxurious estate, while Diane suggests to her stepmother to invest in Frank's business. After the family emigrated to the USA, Diane's father did not write a single line. This leaves Catherine Tremayne, who inherited a large fortune from her late first husband, solely responsible for the family's financial well-being. One evening, when Frank is waiting for Diane on the coastal road, she presents him with the crumpled drafts of Frank's calculations. Diane makes it clear to Frank that Catherine Tremayne only dismissed plans to knock out her stepdaughter. Diane also tells him that her stepmother locks her in her room out of spite. Frank agrees to keep the affair with Diane a secret. In fact, he longs for Mary, while Diane knocks on his room door one evening and tells of an incident. Catherine would have stood in front of her bed and watched her. A little later, Diane's stepmother closed the window and fiddled with the fireplace, only to quietly leave the room. Diane then, as she claims, heard a hiss and realized that her stepmother had turned the gas on. She quickly turned off the gas and reported to Frank. Despite Frank's advice, Diane refuses to report the incident to her father or to call the police. Frank doesn't believe the story and rejects a token of love from her.

The next day, Frank meets with Mary, who is now also indulging in the advances of rival Bill, Frank's former work colleague. However, it signals to him the chance of a revival of the relationship if Frank also makes his choice. A little later, Frank packs his bags in the Tremaynes estate and plans to quit his job. While preparing, he is surprised by Diane, who bursts into tears when she learns of his planned resignation. Frank suspects that Diane hates her stepmother profoundly and that this could culminate in a murder, but at the same time he believes he loves the beautiful young woman. Diane then surprises Frank with a packed suitcase and plans to leave with him. She suggests moving her jewelry and car to finance a small workshop for Frank. As Frank leaves the hillside property, Diane becomes aware of a possible plan for the first time to get the annoying stepmother out of the way. As a test, she picks up a stone from the ground and throws it into the depths. During the next few days, Diane is particularly well-disposed towards her stepmother, from whom she hides Frank's resignation. When Mrs. Tremayne sets off into town by car, she is unexpectedly accompanied by Diane's father. However, when Catherine Tremayne shifts into gear and accelerates, the car reverses without braking and falls down the cliff. The Tremaynes have no chance of survival in the 65 meter fall.

In the course of the police investigations that are started after the accident, Diane is in the focus of the police officers. Catherine Tremayne had appointed her stepdaughter as chief heir in the event of her death because her husband could not handle money. Diane can also expect $ 400,000 from her parents' life insurance policy. However, the orphan had no plans for her father to die and passed out while identifying the dead in the morgue. In the prison infirmary, she reports to her lawyer Dr. Barrett that she was solely responsible for the accident, but Frank is burdened by Diane's packed suitcase that was found in his room. Dr. Barrett wants to forestall a possible accusation by the prosecutor that Diane and Frank were having a secret affair. The lawyer manages to persuade Frank to marry Diane in order to win the jury's favor for the two defendants. During the court hearing, it can actually be proven that the gearshift of the accident vehicle was manipulated. The crafty Dr. However, Barrett succeeds in questioning the expert's testimony and refuting all of the prosecution's evidence. Diane and Frank are then acquitted by the jury.

Despite the successful acquittal, Frank cannot forgive Diane, who is guilty of grave guilt by murdering her parents. Despite all of Diana’s remorse, he plans to divorce his wife and return to Mary, who was present every day of the trial. Diane can then persuade Frank to make a bet. She bets for her car that Mary will not return to Frank. If she is wrong, Frank should get her car. In fact, Diane is right and Mary refuses to return to Frank in the presence of Bill. Meanwhile, Diane, believing that she has lost Frank, dismisses her servants and mourns her murdered father in the huge estate. She stays up the night and waits for Frank. When she hears the noise of a vehicle coming to a stop in front of the house the next day, it is only the Japanese servant who has found a new job in town and wants to catch up with his belongings, to Diane's disappointment. Diane then decides to join Dr. Barrett and, after Frank has apparently left her, has a written confession in which she pleads guilty to the murder of her parents. However, the lawyer can convince the girl that she can no longer be prosecuted for the crime that has been committed. Dr. Barrett destroys the document his secretary had recorded after Diane's visit.

When Diane returns home, she meets Frank, who has lost his bet and is planning to start a new life in Mexico . Despite requests and begging from Diane, he refuses to share a future with her. Diane then offers to drive Frank to the bus station in town. Frank prefers them to the taxi that has already been called. Shortly thereafter, Diane drives up with her sports car and presents her husband and wife with a bottle of champagne and two glasses. As Frank pours himself a glass, Diane shifts into reverse and the two fall like Mr and Mrs Tremayne down the cliff to their death.

History of origin

Angel Face is based on a short story by Charles Erskine, which screenwriters Oscar Millard , Frank S. Nugent and Oscar winner Ben Hecht adapted for the screen. Among other things, Hecht wrote the film script for Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious in 1946 . The Austrian-American director Otto Preminger, who had revolutionized the genre of film noir with Laura eight years earlier and was loaned from competitor Twentieth Century Fox , was able to be won as producer and director . The American Robert Mitchum , who made his debut in film noir under the direction of William Castles in the B-movie Marry Never A Stranger ( 1944 ) and became a key player in this genre in the years to come, was hired as the male lead . The British Jean Simmons could be won for the female lead of Diane Tremayne . Simmons had the international breakthrough as an actress in 1948 as Ophelia in Laurence Olivier's Shakespeare adaptation Hamlet and had always given innocent and enchanting characters a face. Filming took place in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles and was completed in just eighteen days. The reason for the hurry during the shooting was that the then owner of the film studio RKO Howard Hughes had bought his leading actress out of her contract with the English film studio from J. Arthur Rank for exactly this period. For Simmons, who disliked Hughes, the filming was painful, as Preminger demanded the utmost authenticity from his cast. In a scene in which Mitchum was supposed to slap Jean Simmons, the director actually got his leading actor to hit Simmons. Harry Stradling Sr. , who won the Oscar in 1946 for The Portrait of Dorian Gray , acted as cameraman . He was loaned from Samuel Goldwyn . The renowned composer Dimitri Tiomkin was responsible for the dramatic film music .

reception

Angel Face premiered in the United States on December 11, 1952 . The film opened in Germany on November 27, 1953 . The production with the advertising slogan "She loved one man ... enough to KILL to get him!" ( Eng .: "She loved a man ... enough to KILL to get him " ) was received cautiously by the critics and could not build on Otto Preminger's earlier successes such as Laura ( 1944 ). While the acting ensemble, in particular lead actress Jean Simmons , received praise for her role as the beautiful femme fatale , the production, which echoes Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis , was not very well received . It was criticized for being too pompous and gimmicky. Otto Preminger was only able to successfully report back as a director seven years later with the court drama Anatomy of a Murder , while Engelsgesicht only managed to establish a kind of cult status in the following decades. Today Preminger's eighteenth directorial work is counted among the masterpieces of “film noir” and one of Otto Preminger's most impressive melodramas, not only because of the spectacular finale. The film, which was ignored by all film awards at the time, celebrated its re-release in Europe over fifty years after its cinema release on September 1, 2004 .

Reviews

  • "This cleverly constructed noir film, if not quite convincing than others, still serves as a warning that sometimes beautiful people can be the most dangerous." (Channel4.com)
  • “This strong Freudian (sic!) Melodrama by Otto Preminger (1953) is one of the forgotten masterpieces of film noir. Jean Simmons, wonderfully expressionless, plays the ultimate femme fatale, a rich girl who seduces her muscular chauffeur (Robert Mitchum) when her father (Herbert Marshall) resists her advances. The film is a disturbingly cool, rational exploration of the horrors of sexuality; more than Preminger's later masterpiece ' Bunny Lake Has Gone ', it is an impartial appraisal of the horrors of childhood. The set, characters, and actions are highly stylized, yet Preminger is nimble Camera gives them a terrifying unity and fluidity that traces a straight, clean line to the top of a cliff, one of the boldest endings in film history. ”(Chicago Reader)
  • “This lost film noir, made in 1953 by Otto Preminger, draws a breathtaking character panning for the actress Jean Simmons, who was usually hired for her innocent looks and charming manner. Here she plays a cold-blooded psychopath, almost comparable with co-star Robert Mitchum's 'Max Cady' from ' A Bait for the Beast '. "(DVD Beaver)
  • “'Angel Face' ... is a tiresome mixture of solid talent, occasional perceptiveness and pompous psychological showmanship that will not upgrade RKO either, which should know better, nor the contributors. A competent cast, led by Jean Simmons and Robert Mitchum and a nice, tight story drifts helplessly into an overbearing Freudian (sic!) Fog ... As a crystallization point, Miss Simmons miraculously manages to successfully hold out a theatrical defensive battle. Mr. Mitchum's laconic remarks may or may not be impeccably consistent with the course of events. Mr. Marshall and Miss O'Neil make this out of their roles, but Leon Ames, as a family attorney, appears inappropriately villainous and selfless. ”(New York Times)
  • “Super Freudian (sic!) Crime thriller, the theme of the noir inflected but by and large taken up in sharp, radiant salons. Mitchum is the archetypal noir hero, confronted with a wandering the right path (sic!) Femme fatale ... he gives one of his most controlled and soulful performances, perfectly balanced by Simmons' demonic innocence. "(Time Out)
  • “What makes 'Angel Face' so unusual is the impartial way he looks at his characters. Diane Tremayne, played by Jean Simmons, isn't exactly that vicious. She does not lead a murderous campaign and feels as much remorse for her crimes as she can. "(ToxicUniverse.com)

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