angel

It would be a difficult thing for any movie to live up to this catchy poster with its even catchier slogan , but nevertheless Angel became one of the more popular exploitation films of the eighties.

Angel is about an orphaned schoolgirl called Molly. By day she studies hard (maybe so that she can become the next Heidi Fleiss) at your average wholesome American high school , and by night she sells her can on Hollywood Boulevard to pay for school fees , rent , and those little extras every young schoolgirl needs like fishnet stockings , and a .32 calibre automatic pistol.

She's a pretty messed up kid, and has some even more messed up friends including her Jewish Lesbian landlady , a transvestite , and a washed up cowboy called Kit Carson , who constantly bores everyone with his stories about the hundreds of westerns he's starred in. That's the funny thing about this movie. It tries to give the impression that everyone hanging out on Hollywood Boulevard at 3am is a really nice person.

This highly implausable 'Red Light Garden Of Eden' situation doesn't last long though.... a nutcase is killing hookers left right and centre. He establishes exactly how nuts he is at various stages of the movie by: eating raw eggs , scratching himself constantly ( although to be fair his apartment looks to be full of fleas) , and wait for it... disguising himself as a Hare Krishna. He starts killing Angels friends one by one , and the cops don't seem to care. Naturally he works his way through the hooker food chain until he gets to Angel , who was a witness to one of the murders. Angel is packing heat though , and things build up to a predictably violent end.

Like I said , for such a cool poster and tag-line , this had to dissapoint. It really seemed like a lot of stuff was cut out of Angel to get it down to a marketable running time. It also suffered as a result of trying to be all things to all people. The sub-plot about Angels teachers concerns for her welfare led absolutely nowhere , and seemed to be included to appease weepy drama fans who had been dragged along to this movie by exploitation loving other halves. It also tried to be part soap opera , and part comedy, along with being a seriously violent exploitation flick. It would have worked a lot better if it had been made as a gritty, dark Taxi Driver style movie.

Still , Angel had its moments... Rory Calhoun's over-acting and generally funny appearance racked up a lot of points entertainment wise. The serial killer was one of the most cliche characters I've seen in a while too. The whole premise that Angel was whoring herself because she didn't want to go into a foster home was funny as hell too. Surely a foster home couldn't be as bad as prostitution. Not the greatest exploitation movie around , but it's virtually a classic when you compare it to most movies in the new release section of your local video store.