Otto Preminger was one of the best directors of his day. Otto was a complicated man.  He was a tyrant on the set and a bleeding heart liberal offstage. He was hired by Howard Hughes to direct Angel Face to make star Jean Simmons’ life miserable. It was how the shoot started until Robert Mitchum stood up for Simmons. Otto backed down. The cast and crew turned their attention to making a first rate movie. They succeeded.

Hughes was a horrible man who thought he was catnip for actresses. When refused, he’d threaten them. If they were under contract to him, there was a way to beat him: SUE. Hughes hated public appearances as much as he hated rejection. That’s what Simmons did to get out of her contract with the billionaire horndog. Angel Face was her final film for Hughes and RKO.

The offstage mishigas counted for nothing when the film was finished. It was another triumph for Preminger. The Fifties were his decade. Here’s Otto on the set of Angel Face with Mitchum and Simmons:

The Angel Face in question belonged to Jean Simmons as Diana Tremayne. It could be called a baby face or an affidavit face, which is what I called innocent looking witnesses in my lawyering days. Simmons plays an unhappy rich girl who loves her father and loathes her stepmother. Daddy was played by Herbert Marshall and the wicked stepmother by Barbara O’Neil:

Cars are important to the movie’s story. Mitchum is an ambulance jockey/race car driver who dreams of owning his own sports car repair shop. Simmons lures him to work for the Tremaynes by dangling a possible investment from her wealthy stepmom. Inevitably, Simmons is interested in the hunky Mitchum even though he smokes like a chimney and she’s a non-smoker.

Simmons may look like an angel but down deep, she’s pure femme fatale. She manipulates everyone in her orbit. Mitchum resists her charms for much of the movie but he gets in too deep to walk away unscathed.

Angel Face has it all including a murder trial. Simmons is represented by a Perry Mason like lawyer played by Leon Ames:

That’s all the plot I’m willing to reveal, this feature is called pulp fiction, not pulp spoilers, after all. Suffice it to say that the movie is full of plausible and exciting twists and turns as well as one of the best and bleakest endings of any film noir.

Preminger was a protege of Ernst Lubitsch. Critics liked to talk about the Lubitsch Touch. Otto had the Preminger Touch, which was aided here by cinematographer Harry Stradling, composer Dimitri Tiomkin and writers Frank Nugent, Oscar Millard, Chester Erskine and the uncredited Ben Hecht to whom I give most of the credit for the script’s excellence.

Grading Time: I give Angel Face 4 stars and an Adrastos Grade of A-.

It’s time for the poster portion of the post.

We begin with a triptych of long sheet posters, foreign and domestic:

The quadrangle at my high school was the heart of campus where buildings intersected and wayward youth gathered. That has nothing to do with the quad poster for Angel Face but I thought I’d slip it in. Why not?

Let’s all go to the lobby to rangle some treats or is that wrangle? Does that make me a wrangler? Discuss amongst yourselves.

My treat quest is complete. Mmm, movie candy.

The lobby cards are a mixture of color and black and white photographs.

Now that we’ve played chess with Jean Simmons and Herbert Marshall, let’s take a look at the trailer.

The last word goes to Eddie Muller with his Noir Alley intro and outro: