Angel (1984) New World/Action-Thriller RT: 94 minutes Rated R (language, strong violence, graphic nudity, sexual content) Director: Robert Vincent O’Neill Screenplay: Joseph M. Cala and Robert Vincent O’Neill Music: Craig Safan Cinematography: Andrew Davis Release date: January 13, 1984 (US) Cast: Donna Wilkes, Cliff Gorman, Susan Tyrrell, Dick Shawn, Rory Calhoun, John Diehl, Elaine Giftos, Steven M. Porter, Donna McDaniel, Graem McGavin, Mel Carter, David Underwood, David Anthony. Box Office: $17.4 million (US)
Rating: ****
The tagline for Angel reads, “High School Honor Student by Day, Hollywood Hooker by Night”. Not only is it a perfect summation of the plot, it lets the audience know they’re in for a great trashy B-movie.
15YO Molly Stewart (Wilkes, Jaws 2) attends a private school in L. A. where she maintains a straight A average. She keeps to herself and doesn’t appear to have any close friends. She turns down a date with a BMOC on the pretense her mother doesn’t allow her to date. The truth is her night job keeps her busy. When the sun goes down, she becomes Angel, a hooker who walks the streets of Hollywood Boulevard. I don’t know how she makes a living at it since she’s never shown doing any actual “work”.
She has a tight group of friends that includes sharp-tongued transvestite Mae (Shawn, Love at First Bite), street performer Kit Carson (Calhoun, Motel Hell) and foul-mouthed lesbian landlord Solly (Tyrrell, Bad). They’re her surrogate family as her biological one doesn’t appear to give a s— what she does. There’s actually more to it than that, but I’ll hold off on discussing it for now.
Everybody’s a bit on edge these days with a psycho killer (Diehl, D.C. Cab) on the loose carving up hookers like a Thanksgiving turkey. Lead investigator Lt. Andrews (Gorman, Night of the Juggler) can’t get a solid lead on the creep. Hookers aren’t known for being especially cooperative with the police even when it concerns one (or more) of their own. He finally catches a break when Molly/Angel gets a quick glimpse of the killer as he walks off with his latest victim, friend and co-worker Lana (McGavin, My Tutor). It’s Molly/Angel that finds her mutilated corpse in the sleazy motel room they use to entertain clients.
The police arrest the killer in a porno theater and bring him in for a line-up for their star witness. It goes south quickly when the wacko escapes, but not before he sees Molly/Angel. She becomes his next intended victim. Disguised as a Hare Krishna, he sets out to silence her permanently.
Directed by Robert Vincent O’Neill (Blood Mania), Angel plays like a combination of a seedy exploitation thriller and one of those old “warning movies” from the 70s like Diary of a Teenage Prostitute except it doesn’t really condemn teenage prostitution. It doesn’t depict real-life dangers like pimps and drug addiction. Instead, it paints a colorful portrait of the life by depicting Hollywood Blvd. as a carnival-like place crawling with street performers, punk rockers, religious zealots, hookers and tourists. We never see any of the hookers engaged in sexual acts of any kind. The closest to something like that in Angel is a scene where Molly/Angel takes a john to her motel room only for him to bolt before she even takes her shoes off. Realism doesn’t appear to be of great concern to the makers. If it was, we’d get scenes of perverts slobbering all over her. That kind of thing is best left to documentaries which Angel most definitely is NOT.
At the same time, the screenplay (by O’Neill and Joseph M. Cala) takes the time to spell out the details of Molly’s life and what exactly made her take to the streets in the guise of Angel. This is where her home life comes into play. Simply put, there is no biological family. Molly’s father left a long time ago and Mom split when she was 12. Not wanting to enter the foster care system, Molly turned to prostitution to make a living. It was easy. All she had to do was put on sexy outfits, high heels and makeup. It’s how she affords rent and tuition. NOBODY other than Mae knows about her double life. Molly conceals the truth with a story about her mother being an invalid in need of constant care. I’d like to know how it is nobody figured it out sooner. You’d think that her counselor at school (Giftos, The Student Nurses) would want to speak to a parent at some point. Well, nobody ever said Angel was believable.
Wilkes delivers a good performance in the title role. Even though she was 24 at the time, she’s believable as a teenager dealing with some heavy issues. She’s constantly has her guard up in trying to keep her two lives separate from one another. Of course, it’s inevitable they will collide sooner or later in some devastating manner.
Let’s talk about the killer now. We never learn his name. He doesn’t utter a single word until the end of the picture. It’s implied his mother abused him as a child. He’s obviously psychotic and definitely a necrophiliac. When he’s not roaming the streets looking for potential victims, he’s in his dingy apartment lifting makeshift weights (cement blocks on a pole) or sucking raw eggs from the shell. In short, he’s a freak! Do the details of his background really matter? It’s clear this guy is a total nutjob with multiple skeletons in his closet.
I really like the colorful characters in Angel. They’re interesting and portrayed by some good actors. Shawn is hysterically funny as Mae, one of Molly/Angel’s closest friends. She genuinely cares about her. Mae gets all the best lines. Upon hearing the cops have no leads on the killer’s identity, she remarks “Remind me never to get murdered.” His scenes with Tyrrell are priceless. Their banter is as funny as it is profane. Solly gets off a few good lines of her own. After a hostile encounter with Molly’s counselor, she turns to Mae and says, “The f—–‘ mouth on that broad!” Calhoun’s character, an old cowboy that entertains folks with probably fabricated stories of working with old western stars Tom Mix and Hoot Gibson, is great. Gorman makes a memorable impression as the gruff but good-hearted detective who comes to care about Molly, especially after learning her set of circumstances in a touching scene.
Angel is B-movie gold! It really hits its stride in the climax when Angel hits the streets brandishing a big handgun and looking for the killer. At the same time, it’s more than a sleazy, low-budget exploitation flick. It’s also a powerful drama about a surrogate family taking care of a child in adult clothing. O’Neill manages to blend the two things quite well without lifting it out of its trashy, tawdry origins. It lives more for the thrill of the kill than exposing a dark side of life. It’s fine. That’s not what I asked for when I bought my ticket. I was there for the sheer enjoyment of a violent B-movie action-thriller and that’s what I got.
