Angel Face (Otto Preminger, 1952)

Frank: Well, hello! You do get around fast, don’t you?
Diane: I’ve parked my broomstick outside
Frank: Beer Harry! And what do witches drink?
Diane: Just coffee

War veteran Frank Jessup (Robert Mitchum) has met Diane Tremayne (Jean Simmons) for the second time.

Earlier that night Frank had driven an ambulance to a wealthy mansion to find Diane’s stepmother, Mrs Catherine Tremayne (Barbara O’Neil), almost dead in her bedroom. Her husband - a famous writer called Charles Tremayne (Herbert Marshall) – had just come in time to save her from dying asphyxiated. It seems there was a problem with the gas but the lady thinks maybe someone wanted to kill her for her money.

When Frank was leaving the house he met Diane for the first time. She was playing a sad piano piece and they felt an immediate attraction for each other.

Frank breaks up his relationship with nurse Mary Wilton (Mona Freeman) and Diane convinces her family to hire him as the family chauffeur. From this moment on Frank will be trapped and manipulated by Diane. He thinks he may help her to fulfil his dream of having his own garage. However her angel face hides a troubled and obsessed femme fatale…

Angel face is a first class noir movie with suspenseful direction by Preminger, excellent performances by Mitchum and Simmons and a haunting piano song

Catherine: “Where are the keys?”
Diane: “In the car” (she sits at the piano and plays a sad melody…)

Laura (Otto Preminger 1944)

Waldo Lydecker: I shall never forget the weekend Laura died. A silver sun burned through the sky like a huge magnifying glass. It was the hottest Sunday in my recollection. I felt as if I were the only human being left in New York.

The narration of egocentric columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb) introduces us to the memory of Laura (Gene Tierney) – an elegant publicist who has been killed recently.

Lieutenant Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) is in charge of the investigation of her murder. Following his investigations the story is narrated in flashback. Laura may be dead but her spell is still haunting and fascinating us – and McPherson too - through a melody, a portrait, her friends’ descriptions…

The dream-like almost ethereal presence of Laura Hunt sets the tone for what is maybe the most elegant noir film ever made. The atmospheric David Raskin theme, the soft black and white colour, all can give an impression that we are in Mark McPherson’s dream:

Laura: What are you doing here?
McPherson: You're alive.
Laura: If you don't get out at once, I'm going to call the police.
McPherson: You are Laura Hunt, aren't you? Aren't you?
Laura: I'm going to call the police.
McPherson: I am the police. In fact some critics argue that the second part of the film – after Laura’s arrives while McPherson is sleeping could be his own dream…
This thrilling whodunit movie is also a remarkable character study: Together with Laura and McPherson the caustic, self-centred Lydecker (In my case, self-absorption is completely justified. I have never discovered any other subject quite so worthy of my attention) , the broke playboy Shelby (a young Vincent Price), the jealous mature Ann Treadwell (Judith Anderson) set an elegant puzzle of characters not to be forgotten.