Angel Face Blu-ray - Robert Mitchum / Jean Simmons

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Murder Story" or "The Bystander" or "The Murder")

directed by Otto Preminger
USA 1952

This intense Freudian melodrama by Otto Preminger (1953) is one of the forgotten masterworks of film noir. Jean Simmons, beautifully blank, plays the ultimate femme fatale, a rich girl who seduces her beefcake chauffeur (Robert Mitchum) when daddy (Herbert Marshall) resists her advances. The film is a disturbingly cool, rational investigation of the terrors of sexuality, much as Preminger's later masterpiece Bunny Lake Is Missing is a detached appraisal of childhood horrors. The sets, characters, and actions are extremely stylized, yet Preminger's moving camera gives them a frightening unity and fluidity, tracing a straight, clean line to a cliff top for one of the most audacious endings in film history.

Excerpt from Dave Keher's review at the Chicago Reader located HERE

Diane (Jean Simmons) is the daughter of wealthy Charles Treymayne (Herbert Marshall). She has an angelic appearance that masks an unbridled psychotic personality who'll let nothing stand in the way of her perceived happiness. When her hated stepmother, Catherine (Barbara O'Neal), threatens to take Charles away from her, Diane attempts to kill her stepmother, making it look like a gas leak. The attempt fails. Responding to the “accident” is ambulance driver Frank Jessup (Robert Mitchum), whom Diane becomes infatuated with, is eventually hired as the family chauffeur at her request. She steals Frank away from his sweetheart Mary and forces him to become supportive, but unaware, accomplice in the wealthy stepmother's successful murder plot. When she is killed, it is unfortunately with the father in a rigged auto accident. A trial ensues with both Frank and Diane as defendants. They are eventually acquitted but Frank quickly rebukes Diane soon after and when she finally realizes that she'll never be able to keep him, she decides to punish him as she does anyone who keeps her from what she wants….

This lost Film Noir directed by Otto Preminger in 1952 marks a stunning character turn for actress Jean Simmons, who was normally cast for her innocent looks and charming nature. Here she plays a cold-blooded psychopath, nearly on par with co-star Robert Mitchum’s 'Max Cady' in Cape Fear.

Posters

Theatrical Release: December 31st, 1952

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Review: Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:31:53.424
Video	1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 45,305,459,160 bytes Feature: 26,605,780,992 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.89 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	DTS-HD Master Audio English 1760 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1760 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) Commentary on SD transfer: Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -31dB
Subtitles	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Warner Archive 1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 45,305,459,160 bytes Feature: 26,605,780,992 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.89 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Eddie Muller Commentary (Standard Version) (1:31:43) • Theatrical Trailer (2:17) Blu-ray Release Date: June 27th, 2023 Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 24

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Warner Archive Blu-ray (August 2023): Warner Archive have transferred Otto Preminger's Angel Face to Blu-ray. We compared 4 DVD versions of the film HERE. The BD is dual-layered and the HD presentation has a max'ed out bitrate. It looks marvelous - contrast, grain - a wonderful advancement over the weak and older DVDs.

Strangely, there is also an "SD version" on the Blu-ray but it is bumped to 1080P and seems solely to exist for the Eddie Muller commentary. Couldn't they transfer that audio as an option in the HD presentation? I don't think I've ever seen this. I've compared one set of captures of the two below. It is 18 Gig in size with a 25 Mbps bitrate - a full notch below the feature presentation.

Gregory tells us in email: "They explained in The Extras podcast why SD version is included in blu-ray - they discovered that original camera negative had extra frames that were missing from old DVD transfer. Eventually, the commentary was getting misaligned from the video and it was recorded with the sound from the movie so the only option they had is to include the SD transfer on the blu-ray release." (Thanks Gregory!)

NOTE: We have added 58 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Warner Archive use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. Angel Face has a couple of nasty car crashes but is mostly quite passive. The audio is authentically flat and a wonderful piano-heavy score by the iconic Dimitri Tiomkin (Mad Love, Strangers on a Train, The Men, Only Angels Have Wings, Dial M For Murder, The Thing From Another World, Undercover Girl etc. etc.) sounding clean and there is consistent dialogue in the lossless transfer. Warner Archive offer optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Warner Archive Blu-ray offers the Eddie Muller commentary from their own 2007 DVD - but, as stated, is only on an SD-bumped transfer of the film included as an extra on the Blu-ray. Eddie discusses Angel Face as rated one of the 10 greatest films of the sound era by Jean Luc Godard (actually 8th place), the initial iconic 'Meeting Noir' scene between Frank Jessup (Robert Mitchum) and Diane Tremayne Jessup (Jean Simmons,) the slapping of Jean and Mitchum's slapping Preminger "Like that Otto?" and other anecdotes of feuding between the star and director. How the story is a typical "man stuck between the good girl and the bad girl" and he identifies Angel Face's classic-ness. He sees comparisons to Mitchum's character Jeff in Out of the Past, how one of the major themes of the film is about class, how women have all the power throughout the movie, the writer Frank Nugent and producer Howard Hughes fetish for Simmon's hair as well as the acronym WwMd ('What would Mitchum do?') It's a great commentary - I thoroughly enjoyed the re-listen. There is also a weak-quality trailer.

The reputation of Otto Preminger's Angel Face has only grown over the decades. Preminger's economical short shooting time, the specter of producer Howard Hughes torturing Jean Simmons, Mitchum defending her during the production, the Diane Tremayne Jessup character of a pure femme fatale psychopath and the boldest surprise ending in the history of the 'dark cinema' cycle. It's a noir masterwork and the Warner Archive Blu-ray a/v improvement, essential Muller commentary make this a must-own. Don't hesitate.