You Otto See It: Angel Face (1953)

This is my first in a series of entries on the director Otto Preminger. I'm planning to watch 8 Preminger films (click here for the list) in preparation for my friend Kevin's lecture in November.

The first I watched was Angel Face (1953) , "presented" by Howard Hughes and starring Jean Simmons and Robert Mitchum. I'm not sure what this film is and after watching it I wasn't sure exactly what it was that I saw. I just know that Robert Mitchum looked hot and that he slapped Otto Preminger during production. Go Mitchum! I would have liked to have slapped Preminger too for having to sit through this film. Although I titled this series "You Otto See It", I don't really recommend it. It's boring, confusing and the only thing to look forward to is Mitchum's pretty mug.

I did, however, like the beginning of the movie. Mitchum plays an ambulance driver, Frank, who gets called to the scene of a potential smothering. A rich woman claims someone tried to suffocate her and already we are suspicious. Then there is the woman's step-daughter, Diane, played by Jean Simmons, who is beautiful, tormented, has an angel face, blah blah blah. Frank and Diane slap each other a few times (many re-takes compelled Mitchum to slap Preminger) and are thrusted into a hot and heavy affair. Trouble is Frank's got this girl, Mary, played by Mona Freeman, a nurse at the hospital he works for. She doesn't have the angel face but she's got an angel heart. He should be with Mary but Diane is the one who excites him. Mary is confronted by Diane and finds out about Frank's infidelity. Frank doesn't know that Mary knows about Frank & Diane's rendezvous the previous night. When Mary confronts Frank, this gem appears in the dialogue:

Frank: I would have been lousy company last night. Ten minutes after I left Harry's I was in the sack.

Mary: I can believe that. Well, you can head for that same sack tonight.

I don't know much about the social norms of dating and relationships in the 1950's. But from what I gather from this film and others like it is that a man is free to see who he wants until he gets married. There isn't really a concept of a "boyfriend" or a committed pre-marital relationship, as we have in our contemporary culture. Just a courtship, which if successful, leads to an engagement which is mercifully brief and followed by a quick marriage. Engagements sometimes last hours or a few days, unless the beau is really dragging his heels. Maybe fast courtships and engagements were a way to snag a guy before a dangerous angel face lures him away. Who knows?

It's not that this film answered any questions I had, it just got me thinking. So at least I have that. In the end, the moral of the story was that beauty is dangerous and don't teach a girl how to fix a car.

God Speed: Paul Newman (1925-2008)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Work: My Classic Film Nest

I am by nature a nester. I settle into a spot, make it all nice and cozy and I nestle in as happy as can be. When the company I work for moved offices in March of this year, I had a difficult time with the transition. After 4+ years of perfecting my desk-nest, I had to give it up forever for a new, bare and foreign cubicle. I knew if I was going to make the transition unscathed I had to nestify my cube, FAST! So within 30 minutes of my arrival to the new office, my new cubicle was decked out with tchotckes, notes, doodads and of course, Classic Movie Paraphernelia! Since then, the area has become less foreign and more of a comfort zone. And whoever stops by will for sure know I'm a classic film fan.

I thought it would be fun to take you on a journey of all the classic movie images I have posted in my work area. So I snuck into work early one morning and took some snap shots (lest I be ridiculed). Please enjoy!

First of all there is my Classic Movie Posters Calendar. It's been a permanent fixture in my work area for almost 5 years! I even have my 2009 calendar ready and waiting. And behold! September features Metropolis (1927)!

A few of the older calendars had preview layouts on the back with all the posters in mini-form. Being the resourceful person I am, I didn't let them go to waste and promptly cut them out and used them to decorate various parts of my desk area.

What would my desk be without Norma Shearer? This is a little clip that is pinned to my corkboard. It's from an issue of Parade and Norma's presence is purely coincidental because the tiny article was about Clark Gable. The caption reads "Gable with Norma Shearer: Good actor, bad breath".

Other people grace my cubicle too. I love this picture of Marilyn Monroe, it's by far my favorite of her. She looks elegant and vibrant. And that picture of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn staring into each others eyes, classic! My picture of Robert Mitchum was defaced however and is missing (see my post about the incident). Oh woe is me.

I tend to chuckle to myself when I see that great picture of Irene Dunne pulling on Cary Grant's hair. Grant's expression is priceless. I kept the old Harvard Film Archive schedule so I could hang that image at work and see it everyday. And what TCM fan doesn't love Edward Hopper? Represent!

I like to keep mementos from outings, especially when I go see films at theaters. The image at the top is a cut-out from an old HFA schedule and its of Dick Powell and Lizabeth Scott in Pitfall (1948) (see my previous post about that movie). The other picture is of Ludivine Sagnier (I LOVE HER!) in A Girl Cut in Two (2007). It's a cut-out from a Kendall Square Cinema schedule, where I saw the film recently. Yes, I watch contemporary films! Foreign ones too!

And then there is the obligatory Audrey Hepburn photo. This was a blad from BEA that a co-worker picked up for me. It's quite gorgeous and adds a bit of style to a bookshelf that holds books about dinosaurs, dragons, ducks and poop!