ANGEL (1984)
Reviewed By Jerry Saravia
"Angel" is a pure exploitation piece that benefits from a strong central performance by Donna Wilkes as Angel aka Molly, a tough girl who doesn't want her double life uncovered. At school, she is shy and doesn't participate in extracurricular scholastic activities, nor does she accept dates from nerds. Interestingly, Angel is never shown having sex or even entering a motel room with a john (except for one brief instance). The movie, wisely or not, decides not to get too sleazy. Instead, there is a focus on a mad slasher (John Diehl) who is killing all the hookers and is something of a necrophiliac. After his murderous and sexually twisted deeds are done, he bathes himself with a sponge as if to rid himself of his own immorality.
"Angel" is essentially two movies in one - an ideal double feature mesh for the midnight crowd. The performances are pretty damn good, especially a nicely sympathetic turn by Cliff Gorman as the paternal cop who is on the hunt for that mad slasher. Everyone is paternal to the young prostitute but her reasons for hooking are odd - her mother had died and her father abandoned her and, until he gets back, she will keep on serving the sexual needs of Hollywood's finest - that is, horny men. Why she does this is unclear to me, or what her father has anything to do with it.
"Angel " is serviceable entertainment, neither too gory or too sexy or too sleazy. The movie has a grungy, slightly washed-out Hollywood look from those neon-lit streets to scenes at a high-school that looks just as washed-out and, frankly, rather flat. I don't know what to take away from "Angel" except a drag queen can sucker punch a Hare-Krishna and if a retired cowboy actor doesn't wish to be sent to a nursing home, he might pull a gun on you. As for Angel, she is a sweet, precious soul but only the high-school cheerleaders show full-frontal nudity in the film's sole gratuitous nudity, shot in a locker room. Hmmm, what on earth does this mean?
