The 1952 noir Angel Face offers four locations to visit while on the Lonely Street Bar Noir Pub Crawl. The stops appear early on in the movie in quick succession so if you want to visit them, be sure to catch the first twenty minutes or so.
First up is the open all-day diner, Harry's, where the special is always seventy-five cents. A favorite of the staff of the Beverly Hills Hospital just across the street, Harry's offers sandwiches, beer, ale, and soft drinks in a traditional diner setting. A counter and window booths provide seating.
Open all day!
Harry will do the pouring.
For a little more substantial meal, there's always this place, a restaurant that's never named but appears to be quite popular. A kind of 'you've got to know somebody who knows somebody who can get you in' place. Reminds me of a time my wife and I were in Manhattan and we 'found' a Mexican restaurant in the basement of a building on 44th Street. The hostess looked surprised we asked for a table. The only other customer stopped eating when she sat us, dropped some money on the table, and left. For the Lonely Street Bar Noir Pub Crawl, we'll call this establishment the second stop of the night.
The restaurant appears to have a European flair, most likely Italian from the artwork and checkerboard table clothes. Coffee, perhaps espresso pots are left for the guests. Like the gentleman at the Manhattan restaurant, our fallen hero and his femme fatale drop money on the table and leave.
Looking for a nightcap after a filling meal? Head off to the popular Club Macombo. Smoky and probably over the capacity limit, the Macombo packs in the 20-40 year-old demographic. Not much else is known about this club, except that couples quickly lower inhibitions while moshed in the crowd.
Hold me closer, tiny dancer...
If a catty lunch is required the next day for the mistress to throw it in the face of the girlfriend that she was out with her boyfriend when he said he went right home after work, then look no further than this unnamed sidewalk cafe. Quaint, out in the open along a busy Beverly Hills boulevard. Table-side service is offered.
When the waitress knows what you're doing
And now the story of Angel Face:
When ambulance driver Frank Jessup shows up at the home of Dian Tremaine, the young woman is smitten. After treating Dian's stepmother for essentially a panic attack, Dian follows Jessup and his partner, Bill Crompton, back to the Beverly Hills Hospital where she kind of happens to pop into Harry's while Jessup is on the phone with his girlfriend, Mary, a nurse at the same hospital. A whirlwind affair begins and by the time Jessup realizes what Dian is plotting, he's in too deep.
Angel Face was written by Frank S. Nugent and Oscar Millard from a story by Chester Erskine. Directed by Otto Preminger and produced by Howard Hughes, the movie stars Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons. The venerable character actor Kenneth Tobey does a solid turn as Mitchum's meat wagon partner. Mona Freeman appears as Mary, the jilted girlfriend. Herbert Marshall takes on the role of the beloved father, Charles Tremaine, while Barbara O'Neal shows up as the hated stepmother. Jim Backus in his pre-Thurston Howell III days takes on the role of the district attorney. Leon Ames gives a stellar performance as defense attorney, Fred Barrett, coolly dropping lines like, '"It doesn't matter if you're guilty. It matters what we make the jury think."
Angel Face is a classic noir. Only thing missing is a moody rendition of a title song by a chanteuse. 4 out of 5 boilermakers.
2/1/23
