Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

"Angel Face" is a film that was one of Hughes' numerous flops at the time it was made.  Unlike most of other Hughes flops, it has steadily increased in popularity.  It has been assisted by the recent wave of interest in film noir.

Paired opposite Simmons in another shrewd stroke of casting was Robert Mitchum, whose sleepy-eyed look and broad-shouldered macho demeanor made him a natural for noir mood pieces.  In the 1947 Jacques Tourneur directed RKO noir classic "Out of the Past" Mitchum could not shake loose his passionate urges toward Jane Greer, despite evidences of treachery and the desire to serve herself at all cost at the expense of others.

Mitchum enters comparable terrain in "Angel Face."  He meets Simmons after being called to the Beverly Hills estate of her father, a prominent novelist played by Herbert Marshall, over an alleged "accident" wherein Simmons' stepmother, played by Barbara O'Neil, comes close to being a fatal victim of gas asphyxiation.  

Ambulance driver Mitchum is suspicious of Simmons from the outset, but, as in the case of Greer in "Out of the Past," his failure to act on his better instincts ultimately costs him his life.

Simmons is superb in the manner that she pulls off her role of looking sweet, talking softly, but operating as all ice water and zero humanity.  The only person Diane Tremayne is interested in is herself and her goal is total domination over everyone she encounters.

A key scene of the film that shows Simmons at her most conniving is a luncheon meeting with Mitchum's then girlfriend Mona Freeman.  She coolly informs Freeman of her designs on Mitchum with the nonchalance of asking her to pass the salt.

Whatever asset Simmons has she exploits.  Her looks and absence of conscience give her advantage enough in dealing with men, but on top of that she has money at her disposal.  Not only is her father a prominent author but he married into money as well.

Maintaining her unceasing coolness of manner, Simmons maneuvers Mitchum away from his ambulance job and into the family estate.  She not only offers him the job of chauffeur but sweetens the offer.  He is told that she is willing to sponsor a return to Mitchum's first love, race car driving, which he pursued before wartime duty called.

Simmons plays Mitchum and the situation like a concert virtuoso.  One can see the symbolic tooth marks as the femme fatale with the deceiving innocent looks gnaws at Mitchum, bringing him down, making him her prey, always speaking in a low key manner that defies her high level domination.

Like a restless cat, it is just a question of when Simmons would launch a deadly spring.  It came when her father and stepmother are killed in their automobile due to mechanical failure.  

Mitchum, destined to experience deep trouble in Simmons' company, finds himself on trial for murder with her.  Given his automotive expertise as a professional race car driver he is hard pressed to protest his innocence.  It appears that he will suffer the same fate as the guilty Simmons.

When the interesting courtroom phase of the drama arrives we see a ploy utilized from the 1946 film noir release "The Postman Always Rings Twice" with one of the dueling attorneys from that earlier film appearing, but in the opposite role.  In the earlier drama Hume Cronyn uses slick legal tactics to secure the release of John Garfield and Lana Turner as they were preparing to stand trial for the murder of Turner's husband.

The district attorney whose prosecution was thwarted by the deftness of defense counsel Cronyn was Leon Ames, who told Garfield confidently that he would eventually send him away, and did on the basis of killing Turner in an automobile accident.  The irony is that the second time around Garfield was innocent.

This time Ames steps into the shoes in which Cronyn had earlier niftily tap danced his way toward freeing a love duo guilty of murdering a victim husband.  His cagey maneuvering results in acquittals for Simmons and Mitchum as he convinces them to marry.  Their marital status assists Ames with his successful legal ploy.

Wily sociopath Simmons takes events in stride, but innocent party Mitchum realizes how close he came to San Quentin's gas chamber.  He has seen enough of the beautiful sociopath with the innocent face.  After Mitchum demands a divorce and announces he is through with Simmons she reveals that her interest is in control above all else, even if she has to personally suffer.

Never has Preminger's moral ambiguity theory been pushed as far as Simmons' behavior embodies.  In Simmons' world the operating ploy is if you cannot control a man you want then to destroy him, even if you are compelled to suffer the same fate.

Another pivotal moment emerges when Simmons visits cagey counselor Ames in his posh penthouse suite.  She comes armed with a signed confession asserting that she and Mitchum were responsible for the deaths of her father and stepmother.

Ames did not reach the penthouse lawyer level by being dumb.  He never looses his smooth, smiling demeanor as he casually tears up Simmons' confession and explains the common law principle of double jeopardy to his client.  

Simmons and Mitchum have already been tried.  A jury of their peers has found them innocent.  Accordingly they cannot be tried again and there is nothing more to be said.  Ames coolly tells her to go home and forget about it.  

Forgetting an issue of control is something Simmons is incapable of doing.  Mitchum will pay one ultimate lesson due to his ignorance of that basic fact.

Mitchum has hope that beyond the wreckage of his tumultuous romance with Simmons that he can rekindle the flames of passion with former girlfriend Mona Freeman.  This element of the film is reminiscent of Mitchum and "Out of the Past" with his romance opposite Virginia Huston, the small town good girl opposite Greer's femme fatale.

Perhaps the most clever dialogue snippet from "Out of the Past" was the sweet and innocent Huston telling Mitchum regarding Greer, "Nobody is all bad."  Man of the world Mitchum coolly responds, "She comes the closest."

After Mitchum left Mona Freeman to take up with Simmons his former fellow ambulance partner Kenneth Tobey began dating her.  Tobey lacks Mitchum's glamour and flash, but to Freeman that is fine since he possesses reliability.  The three person showdown finds Freeman nixing Mitchum for Tobey's stability.

With no chance to revive romance with Freeman, Mitchum decides to leave for Mexico and start a new life.  This was where Jane Greer intended to take him in "Out of the Past" but they never came close to even leaving town before ending up dead.

The same fate awaited Mitchum in "Angel Face" with Simmons, rather than Greer, ending his life.  He was shot by Greer but Simmons, who had proven earlier that she was willing to see her life end as long as Mitchum suffered a comparable fate, offers her former lover a ride to the bus station.

Mitchum never reaches Mexico or even the bus station.  He never even leaves Simmons' estate.  She offers him a ride to the station and he accepts.

Symbolically Simmons and Mitchum suffer the same fate as her father and stepmother had earlier, death inside an automobile as, in this case, the calculating brunette backs up her car to a nearby cliff and pushes hard on the gas pedal.

Alas, Simmons gets her wish.  Mitchum would not be separated from her, at least in this life.