Angel (1984)

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Angel had potential to be a good movie. What we have instead is a remarkably tame movie, considering it's subject, it's only real violent scene, is a shower slaying. We really have no depth of characters, though larger than life (Shawn and Calhoun-both great) and likable. John Diehl, solid, is the nutter doing them, where it ends in a showdown between Angel, well acted by Wilkes, and our psycho sicko killer who makes love to nude corpses, and sucks the yolks out of raw eggs. This is like a substitute description for his lack of written character, who we detest, and Diehl plays well with the hand he's dealt, though Angel could of been much more. Still it is a fun watch, colourful so so drama, thanks to it's quirky street characters, plus adding some spice to it, is standout Cliff Gorman, as the caring cop, though he won't admit or show it. What's up with that? Angels suffers because of it's shallow depth of it's poorly written characters. It's not a badly made film. It would of been better to go into more of Angel's background, so we'd have a better understanding of her character, we wanted to know so much more about, and that goes for all the other characters. So we're left with another cheesy exploitation B grader, that spawned three more sequels. Susan Tyrell is great as Angel's uncouth/punk haired, aspiring painter-landlord.

"Angel" is a classic of its era, a trash favourite with an effectively exploitative concept, of a 15 year old honour student, Molly Stewart, played by the lovely Donna Wilkes, who walks Hollywood Boulevard at night as a hooker named Angel. She DOES want more out of life, and actually is just doing whatever she can to support herself with her actual parents nowhere in sight. She still has a loving family of sorts, albeit a highly unconventional one made up of colourful characters like drag queen Mae (Dick Shawn), faded cowboy actor Kit Carson (Rory Calhoun), and butch lesbian landlord (the inimitable Susan Tyrrell). She will need to rely on these people when an extremely creepy necrophiliac killer (a pre-'Miami Vice' John Diehl) is butchering Angel's fellow prostitutes. "Angel" may not be exploitative as some fans may wish it to be, but it's still awfully hard to resist, especially with those striking scenes set on the Boulevard and a soundtrack featuring a theme song, "Something Sweet", performed by The Allies. There's a fair amount of comedy, often thanks to Shawn and Tyrrell; however, while Shawn camps it up a bit, he does invest the character with some dignity and appeal even while so outrageously attired. In fact, the movie hits its emotional peaks quite well. The theme of abandonment by parents gives the movie some poignancy and Wilkes really scores in the scenes where she's required to give the exposition / back story, and one can really sympathize with the Angel character. She actually does a pretty convincing job of playing about a decade years younger than she was at the time. Cliff Gorman is likewise engaging as Lt. Andrews, the compassionate detective who develops a concern for Angel's welfare. Calhoun is an absolute hoot, as is Tyrrell. A number of familiar faces appear in other roles big and small: Elaine Giftos ("Gas!", "The Student Nurses") is the kindly school counsellor, John Carpenter regular Peter Jason the jovial john, Steven M. Porter is the street entertainer Yo-Yo Charlie, Gene Ross ("Don't Look in the Basement", "Halloween 4") is the vice cop, and Ross Hagen an urban cowboy. Diehl is memorable as the psycho, uttering not a word until his final scene. Viewers will appreciate the breast shots, although the shower sequence where we see some full frontal nudity is awfully fleeting. Generally agreeable and entertaining, "Angel" moves along very well to its inevitable ending; it would be followed by a few sequels in the years to come. Eight out of 10.

Just one look at the poster for this film, which depicts its winsome star Donna Wilkes both as pig-tailed, 15-year-old high-school student Molly and hot-pants wearing Hollywood hooker Angel, and it is clear that the film has bags of sleazy potential: after all, isn't under-age prostitution always a winner? Factor in the film's vicious serial killer angle, the seedy locale, and a whole menagerie of LA weirdos, and this could easily have been an essential slice of hard-hitting 80s exploitation. Sadly, this is not quite the case...If one is to believe Angel's writer/director Robert Vincent O'Neill, Hollywood Boulevard circa 1984 was a gaudy wonderland where, even if one's dreams didn't come true, there was still friendship to be found among the kind-hearted hookers and lovable oddballs who walked the streets at night; psycho killer aside, everyone in the film is essentially a good soul despite their outwards appearance or dubious life choices. While O'Neill's rather rose-tinted view of Hollywood and his affection for his characters gives the film heart, it also seriously undermines its ability to act as a truly gritty shocker.Particularly notable is the reluctance to depict Angel actually plying her trade, as if doing so might make the viewer less sympathetic towards her plight; she spends most of her time chatting to friends, and the one time she actually picks up a john, the scene is cut short before any hanky panky can take place (in fact, virtually all the nudity in this film occurs in the girls locker room at Angel's high school, and none of it is from Wilkes!). O'Neill also kindly spares his viewers the pain of seeing any of the oh-so-undeserving murder victims dispatched in detail, meaning that the film is disappointingly light on gore.The good news is that, even though Angel frustratingly wimps out on the stronger stuff, thereby denying it legendary status, the film still offers plenty for it to warrant a viewing: John Diehl makes for a convincingly deranged killer; Susan Tyrrell, Dick Shawn, and Rory Calhoun give strong supporting performances; cinematographer Andrew Davis effectively captures Hollywood's seamy vibe; and last but not least, there's the undeniable appeal of Donna Wilkes who, whether in school uniform or slutty work attire, looks gorgeous throughout.

Pure 80's exploitation, I remember (sadly) at the age of 9, after seeing this film that being a hooker might be fun, as this movie so plainly tries to make it out to be, as long as you dodge knife-wielding psychos & make sure you get straight A's & make sure your "two worlds don't collide"! Yes,I'm being sarcastic but i truly love this & the other great hookers-in-peril 80's film Vice Squad (which is a way more serious film). Donna Wilkes ( who in my opinion should have stayed in the business, she was a very good actress.) is in fine form as the main character Angel, the high school honor student by day, Hollywood Blvd hooker by night whose 2 worlds start to collide as a psycho with a knife starts to target her hooker comrades (one who is played very well by another underrated B-movie actress from the 80's & also one half of the Motley Crue backup vocalist group named the Nasty Habits, that toured with the Crue in the late 80's on their Girls Girls Girls tour, Donna McDanel)& as she's the only one to witness the guy picking up her soon to be murdered friend, the police want to her to identify him.Also, great is the late actors Rory Calhoun & the truly wonderful Dick Shawn (in one of the truly greatest drag queen performances of all time)as her friends from the street who think her mom's an invalid & she hooks to help them both survive. Also great is Susan Tyrell as Sally the landlady. The only thing that disappointed me about this films( as their were like 4 or 5 more sequels) is that they always replaced the actress to play the character of Angel with a different actress each time. Why didn't they just get Donna Wilkes? Betsy Russell, nor Mitzi Kapture did her justice not the way Ms Wilkes did. If you like 80's cult films this is a must-see. I must say though when I moved to Hollywood for a brief period in 2000 & in 2001, I never saw any prostitutes on Hollywood Blvd not like all of the ones i saw in 80's films?????? **** out of *****