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Angel Heart (1987)
In writer/director Alan Parker's
supernatural-mystery film
noir - a twisting, metaphysically-confusing
film set in the mid-1950s in New Orleans, LA. Parker's own screenplay
was adapted from the 1978 novel Falling
Angel by William Hjortsberg.
The plot line was simple but still very complex and
twisting - a NYC PI was hired to conduct a missing persons case (for
a man named Johnny Favourite), and during the case in New Orleans,
he encountered a series of brutal murders. It
offered the cryptic tagline: "It will scare you to your very
soul. Harry Angel has been hired to search for the truth... Pray
he doesn't find it."
It was immediately controversial for the nudity and
sex scenes of one of its stars, Lisa Bonet in her film debut, who was
a child star as Denise Huxtable in the family TV show The Cosby
Show. With a budget of $18 million, its domestic box-office revenue
was only $17.2 million.
- in the film's opening sequence, a dog found
a bloody corpse in an alley
- in the year 1955, ragged and seedy Brooklyn PI (private
detective) Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) met in Harlem with mysterious,
enigmatic client Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro in a masterfully-acted
devilish and satanic role), with long fingernails and a pentagram
ring
Cyphre hired Angel for a missing persons case; Angel
was to find the whereabouts of a missing person, disgraced singer/bandleader
and WWII draftee Johnny Favourite (nee John Liebling), known as
the "guy with the golden tonsils"; Favourite, who was reportedly
suffering neurological damage (shell shock) from military-related
war injuries, and was admitted to a Poughkeepsie Nursing Home
- from then on, Favourite became a "disappearing
act" after signing a contract with Cyphre in post WWII;
Favourite had been secretly transferred out of the private
hospital in late 1943 with fake documents provided by one of the
doctors (Dr. Fowler) and the help from two individuals (later identified
as the Krusemarks); Favourite had allegedly skipped out without paying
Cyphre a debt
- [Note - Spoiler: It was revealed that Favourite
had actually promised his soul to the Devil in exchange for worldly
success and stardom, but then tried to renege, cheat the Devil,
and hide his identity in someone else.]
- shortly later during a NYC diner scene, Cyphre
remarked: "Some religions believe the egg is a symbol for
the soul" -- before meaningfully biting into a hard-boiled
egg, and offering Angel $5,000 for his efforts
Egg-Eating Louis Cyphre - Satanic Figure (Louis
Cyphre = Lucifer)
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- after being hired by Cyphre, during Harry Angel's
investigations in upstate NY (Poughkeepsie) and in New Orleans
to track down Favourite and his many contacts, he delved into the
black arts of voodoo; there
were many brutal murders or deaths of the individuals
he questioned or came into contact with
Margaret Krusemark (Charlotte Rampling)
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Toots Sweet (Brownie McGhee)
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Epiphany Proudfoot (Lisa Bonet)
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- during the course of his work, Harry encountered an illegitimate,
17 year old, half-Creole, teenaged voodoo practitioner Epiphany Proudfoot
(Lisa Bonet), reportedly the mixed-race daughter of both Favourite and Evangeline Proudfoot
(a now-deceased black voodoo queen); Angel witnessed Epiphany's participation
in a voodoo ritual in which she was scantily-clad as she slit a chicken's
throat and let the spurting blood drip down her face, neck and breasts
- in the film's well-known plot twist, missing piano
player/singer Johnny Favourite's identity was revealed; Johnny Favourite
had sold his soul to the devil (Lu-cifer) for fame and stardom, but
then reneged on the contracted bargain, hid out, and took the alias
of Harry Angel; through a satanic black magic ritual (involving consumption
of a beating heart), Johnny evaded Satan by murdering and stealing
the soul of a young WWII GI soldier in Times Square on New Years'
Eve in 1943; Favourite had planned to assume the dead soldier's identity
and name (Harry Angel), but was
drafted and then injured overseas
- the revelation in the film was that Favourite
had actually transferred his soul through a Satanic ceremonial
ritual into the original Harry Angel's body twelve years earlier;
Favourite had randomly picked WWII GI Angel off the street, and assumed
Angel's identity; Then, because of the war, he was traumatically
brain-injured, hospitalized, had extensive facial surgery; he also
suffered amnesia so that he was unrecognizable and couldn't remember
who he was; Favourite 'forgot' that he was
Harry Angel (and henceforth fooled others about his real identity)
- the film included a notorious,
steamy sex scene (originally NC-17-rated, but trimmed
for an R-rating) of abandoned sexuality (with the theme of blood
sacrifice) between Angel and Epiphany. They made love on a bed with
raindrops (and chicken blood) dripping from the ceiling through the
leaky hotel roof during a rainstorm, while listening to the radio
playing the sultry tune "Soul
on Fire" by Laverne Baker; he was unintentionally having incestuous sex with
her; and then Harry 'woke up' and found himself strangling her
Incestuous Rape-Murder of Epiphany
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- the film shockingly concluded with Epiphany bloodied
and dead on the bed (with a gunshot to the groin), with Harry's
military 'dog-tags' (HAROLD ANGEL) around her neck; after the rape-murder,
Harry had killed his own daughter, the teenaged daughter of Evangeline Proudfoot
- without a memory of committing the
crime, Harry rushed back to his hotel room - the murder/crime scene
(notice a black-cloaked figure sitting in the hallway - a clean-shaven
Cyphre!); he viewed Epiphany's half-naked body, and the bed drenched in blood
- Angel revealed to racist Detective Deimos (Pruitt
Taylor Vince) that he was the murderer - the film's final lines of dialogue:
Detective Deimos: "Why'd you come back?"
Harry: "I live here."
Detective Deimos: "Who is she?" (He reached for the
dog tags and read the identifying name) She ain't 'Angel, Harold.'"
Harry: "She's my daughter."
Detective Deimos: "Bulls--t. Who is she?"
Harry: "She's Epiphany Proudfoot. She stayed here for a
little while."
Detective Deimos: "Long enough for you to kill her, right?
Or ain't that your gun up her snatch? You're gonna burn for this,
Angel."
Harry: "I know. In Hell."
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it was now very clear that Harry Angel was actually Johnny
Favourite, the evil man he was being paid to find; and Louis
Cyphre was a gloating and knowing 'Lucifer' - waiting for Angel
to realize or remember that his true identity was Favourite,
so he could claim his immortal soul; Harry, however, was convinced
that Cyphre was framing him for the murders:
Harry: Do you think posing as the devil, just
because it scared some superstitious old guitar player, and
that witch, and that nutty old man, do you think it's gonna
scare me? Hah. It ain't, because I know who I am. And you killed
them, and you're tryin' to pin it on me. I know who I am.
Cyphre: If I had cloven hooves and a pointed tail, would you
be more convinced?
Harry: You're crazy. I know who I am. You're trying to frame me.
You're trying to frame me. Cyphre, I know who I am. You murdered
them people. I never killed nobody. I didn't kill Fowler, and-
and I didn't kill Toots, and I didn't kill Margaret, and I didn't
kill Krusemark, I didn't kill no-one!
- Cyphre did admit that he had "guided" Harry
to commit the numerous murders - after Johnny had killed Harry
Angel and took over his soul: ("All
killed by your own hand. Guided by me naturally. Frankly, you were
doomed from the moment you slit that young boy in half. Johnny
- for 12 years, you've been living on borrowed time and another
man's memories...The flesh is weak, Johnny. Only the soul is immortal, and
yours belongs to ME!") (Cyphre's eyes
turned a glowing pale yellow - a sign of the demonic, as he pointed
his long-nailed index finger at Harry!)
- then, Cyphre challenged Harry
to look back at his own actions: "However cleverly you sneak
up on the mirror - your reflection always looks you straight in
the eye"; a flashbacked montage followed of all of the murders
Harry had committed, during which Cyphre played a 78 rpm recording
of Johnny singing "Girl of My Dreams"; Harry killed all
of them -- all magic and voodoo practitioners who were involved
in Johnny Favourite's escape from the hospital and cover-up; he
had failed in an attempt to keep his identity as Johnny Favourite
a secret - both a secret from others and a secret from himself!
- at the crime scene, Sterne's partner Detective Sterne
(Eliott Keener) carried Epiphany's toddler son, Harry's
grandson, into the bedroom; the boy had glowing eyes - strongly
hinting that the boy was fathered by 'Lucifer' (Satan had impregnated
Epiphany during a voodoo ceremony) - and he pointed at Harry
- presumably, Harry - who descended
down a very lengthy elevator shaft as the film ended (during the
entire credits sequence) - was convicted of the murder of Epiphany
and doomed to the electric chair - and afterwards fated to burn in
Hell. At the end of his ride, with the final black screen, one could
hear a very faint exchange (in voice-over): "Harry?"
"Johnny?"
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Picture of Crooner Johnny Favourite
Death of Dr. Fowler
Death of Toots Sweet
Death of Margaret Krusemark
Death of Ethan Krusemark
Epiphany's Voodoo Ritual with Chicken Blood
The Rape/Murder Scene in Harry's Hotel Room - the Victim Was Wearing
Harry Angel's Dog Tags
Harry Angel Admitting to a Detective at the Crime Scene: "I
live here."
Murders Were Guided by Cyphre: "Only the Soul is
Immortal, and Yours Belongs to Me!"
Harry (Harold) Angel = Johnny Favourite (Mickey Rourke)
Dog Tags of 'Harold Angel'
Epiphany's Toddler Son
Harry Convicted and Doomed - Descending in Elevator
Before and During Closing Credits
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