Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

I won't give it away, but I didn't see that coming. In a way, I feel like I wasted two hours just to see that, but Jean Simmons' performance was worth it. Most of the time she played the good girl, but here, she is positively diabolical. Robert Mitchum gives a solid performance playing Robert Mitchum, although I thought that Frank was smarter than he ended up being. I don't know about California's rules regarding jury trials in 1953 or any other year, but I've never heard of a juror asking questions during a trial--seems like that would be grounds for a mistrial, but of course this is a movie.

As the movie opens, an ambulance is responding to an accident--or an attempted murder, or a suicide—at the mansion of the wealthy Catherine Tremayne (Catherine O'Neil). One of the drivers is Frank Jessup (Robert Mitchum). After a brief police investigation of her husband (Herbert Marshall) and stepdaughter Diane (Jean Simmons), the case is essentially closed as an accident. As Frank leaves the house, he meets Diane and briefly talks to her. She then follows him to a coffee shop and tries to win him over by various ploys. One ploy is to get her stepmother to invest a in garage with Frank—he is a former sports car driver and seems to love Diane's Jaguar!! Finally, she talks him into becoming the family chauffeur—even though they really don't need one. In sprite of her attempts to manipulate him, Frank is no fool: he sees right through her. One day, as Diane's stepmother starts to go to her bridge club, her father asks his wife for a ride into town. As the two drive away, the car sticks in reverse and plunges over a cliff killing the two instantly. Following this, Diane—who had been devoted to her father--is hospitalized for depression. Frank is tired and convicted of rigging the car. Thanks to their clever lawyer (Leon Ames), Frank is acquitted by marrying Diane. Once acquitted, the two are left alone with each other. Frank leaves Diane for his old girlfriend. When Diane is left alone, she wants to plead guilty to the double murder but can't legally do it.This movie has so many elements in common with The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) where Leon Ames also plays the clever lawyer—that it basically seems like a poor remake of it and it's even better predecessor, Ossessione (1943). Is Simmons is the femme fatal of this film noir, she gives a strange performance as a young sociopath who adores her father and hates her stepmother. The fact that her motives seem unclear for these feelings made the plot confusing and unconvincing If anything saves this movie at all, it is the cool and steady performance from Robert Mitchum.

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.

Angel Face didn't go down in history as an essential piece of the film-noir movement, nor is it Otto Preminger's most important contribution to the genre, but it still stands out from the rest, mainly by avoiding every cliché the genre has to offer. Preminger's direction is surprisingly subdued and subtle, never giving in to melodrama but always keeping a sense of tension even when very little is happening on screen. While it clearly belongs to the film noir genre, it's more a character study than a mystery or a thriller - and for once, both the male and the female leads are equally intriguing and morally ambiguous.Credit should go to the actors too, of course - Robert Mitchum is at his best and for me he was much more convincing as a questionable mechanic/driver than he ever was as a private eye; he brings a lot of heart into this otherwise sleazy role. Jean Simmons may not have had the charisma of Lauren Bacall or Ingrid Bergman but she did have her own unique presence (not to mention a remarkably beautiful face) and she makes Diane mysterious and fascinating, playing with the femme fatale and damsel in distress stereotypes without fitting into either one. Preminger, though, gets all the credit for not going the easy way by presenting their relationship as a passionate romance; Frank and Diane are both strong and independent characters who are clearly attracted to each other, but they're both in it for their own interests and never lose themselves in a dramatic and uncontrollable love affair. It makes for a story that's more cynical and more realistic than almost anything else in the genre. A must watch for any real film-noir fan, and for Robert Mitchum fans too.