Angel is a 1984 action thriller film directed by Robert Vincent O'Neil, written by O'Neil and Joseph Michael Cala, and starring Donna Wilkes, Cliff Gorman, Susan Tyrrell, Dick Shawn, Rory Calhoun and John Diehl.
15 year-old Molly Stuart is the best in her class in high school. Nobody suspects that the model pupil earns her money at night: as prostitute "Angel" on Hollywood Blvd. The well-organized separation of her two lives is shattered when two of her friends are slain by a necrophiliac serial killer. She's the only eye witness and becomes a target herself. The investigating Detective Andrews helps her, not only to survive, but also to query why she keeps on humiliating herself and to stop it.
The first movie of The Angel Trilogy.
Tropes:
- Audit Threat: Miss Allen is attempting to gain access to Molly's apartment but is being stonewalled by Molly's landlord Solly. Miss Allen then tells Solly that she used to work for the Department of Health and she can see so many violations in this rattrap that she could get the apartment building closed with one call to City Hall. Solly relents and gives her the key to the apartment.
- Axes at School: Responding to Ric's accusations that Molly is a prostitute, Miss Allen searches her locker and finds the small automatic she purchased planning to hunt down the Serial Killer.
- Back-to-Back Poster: The same character variation: Molly's "high school honor student by day" look is posed next to her "Hollywood hooker by night" look.
- Bad Habits: After shaving his head to disguise his appearance, The Killer dresses as a Hare Krishna monk in order get close to Angel.
- Bathroom Stall of Overheard Insults: Molly is in the girls locker room when she overhears two of her classmates saying that Ric is telling everyone in the school that she is a hooker (which is true) and that she had sex with him and his two buddies last night (which is a lie).
- Big Damn Heroes: Cool Old Guy Kit Carson arrives with his sixguns blazing like a one man cavalry to save both both Angel and Lt. Andrews: firing eight shots from his twin .45's into The Killer's body.
- Bring My Brown Pants: After Jerk Jock Ric abducts Molly and threatens to rape her, she responds by firing a shot just past his head and through the windscreen of his car, and then forcing him and his two buddies out of the car. As Molly drives off in Ric's car, his two buddies notice that Ric has wet himself.
- Can Always Spot a Cop: Angel identifies the undercover vice cop the second she hops in his car. Knowing she is probably being recorded, she says nothing to identify herself as a prostitute, specifically states she is underage, and asks the cop to let her out as she sees a friend waiting on the sidewalk. Without a leg to stand on, the vice cop has no option but comply.
- Casting Gag: The aging and largely forgotten cowboy actor Kit Carson is played by the aging and largely forgotten cowboy actor Rory Calhoun (and he is awesome).
- Cool Old Guy: Kit Carson is a former cowboy actor and stuntman who used to hang out with stars like Tom Mix and Hoot Gibson. He still dresses in his old cowboy outfit and wears a pair of Colt Peacemakers. He earns a living telling stories and selling autographs to tourists, and operates as the unofficial Sheriff of Hollywood Boulevard; providing protection to working girls. He walks Molly and her friends home each night to keep them safe.
- Combat Stilettos: Angel chases The Killer along Hollywood Boulevard while wearing stiletto heels and has no trouble keeping up with him.
- Disposable Sex Worker: A Serial Killer is preying on the hookers who ply their trade along Hollywood Boulevard. After two of her friends are killed, and the killer escapes from the police, Angel decides to hunt down the killer.
- Ephebophile: One of Angel's johns tells her that her being over 14 would be a deal breaker.
- Guns Akimbo: There's a fairly realistic depiction of this trope in the climax. Right when Angel and Lt. Andrews are about to be shot by The Killer, Kit Carson arrives in a Big Damn Heroes moment, opening up with his twin .45 revolvers. He only shoots one gun at a time, aims carefully, and does not stop firing until he's certain The Killer isn't getting back up (but he is very careful not to empty his pistols, just in case).
- How Dare You Die on Me!: Mae manages to fight off the Serial Killer, but is fatally stabbed in the process. Solly finds Mae and holds her while dies; all the time yelling ''Don't you dare die on me!". Mae's main concern is that Solly not allow Angel to see her body cut up like this.
- I Love the Dead: It is strongly implied that The Killer has sex with the bodies of his victims after he kills them.
- Invented Individual: Molly claims to be living with her invalid mother, and uses this as an excuse not be involved in any extracurricular activities. However, her mother actually abandoned her when she 12, and there is no else besides Molly living in the apartment.
- Invented Invalid: Molly claims to be living with her invalid mother, and uses this as an excuse not be involved in any extracurricular activities. However, her mother actually abandoned her when she 12, and there is no else besides Molly living in the apartment.
- Jabba Table Manners: The Killer consumes a raw egg in the most disgusting manner possible: piercing the top of the shell with the same knife he uses to murder prostitutes, sucking out the contents, and then crushing up the shell and stuffing it into his mouth.
- Jerk Jock: Ric is the quarterback on the school football team, and is attempting to bang all of the hot chicks in school. Molly turns him down, and later humiliates him, so he attempts to avenge himself by trashing her reputation.
- Lipstick-and-Load Montage: The first time Molly comes home from school, there is lengthy scene of her transforming herself from Molly the high school honor student to Angel the Hollywood hooker.
- Living a Double Life: Molly/Angel. Schoolgirl by day, hooker by night.
- Minor Living Alone: 15-year-old Molly lives alone and is a schoolgirl by day, hooker by night.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Kit Carson took his stage name from the famous frontiersman. His original name is mentioned briefly by the lawyer for his estate who is trying to move Kit into a nursing home, but Kit no longer answers to it.
- Naughty by Night: The tagline for the movie is "High School Honor Student By Day. Hollywood Hooker By Night".
- No Name Given: The Serial Killer is never named and is listed in the credits as 'The Killer'. He dies with the police being none the wiser as to who he was or what his motivations were.
- Non-Protagonist Resolver: Despite her vow to avenge the the murders of Crystal and Lana, and his obsession with closing the case, it is neither Angel or Lt. Andrews who stops the Serial Killer. It is aging movie cowboy Kit Carson who arrives with his sixguns blazing like a one man cavalry to save both of them: firing eight shots from his twin .45's into The Killer's body.
- One-Word Title
- Papa Wolf: Kit is easily old enough to be Angel's grandfather, clearly has paternal feelings for her, and looks out for both her as well as the other prostitutes. As The Killer finds out the hard way, he is also an expert with his twin .45's and doesn't fuck around when it's time to get down to business.
- Parental Abandonment: Both of Molly's parents abandoned her. Her father disappeared when she was 6, and her mother ran away to New York with her new boyfriend when Molly was 12; leaving behind a note and $100. From the way Molly talks about him, Lt. Andrews initially assumes her father is dead, and it is only when she says she is waiting for him to come back that he realizes that the father also abandoned her.
- Popcultural Osmosis Failure: Kit Carson is showing his matched pair of Peacemakers to a pair of cops on Hollywood Boulevard and repeating some advice he got from Tom Mix during the Golden Age of Hollywood. After Kit leaves, the younger cop turns to his older partner and asks:"Who's Tom Mix?"
- Retirony: Before falling victim to the Serial Killer, Lana expresses a desire to move to Tahiti.
- Raw Eggs Make You Stronger: The Killer—who is a bodybuilding fanatic—is shown consuming a raw egg in the most disgusting way possible.
- Secret Sex Worker: Molly is a quintessential 15-year-old good girl and model student who also secretly is a teenage prostitute with a close-knit group of other sex workers and performers on the street. The careful separation she has between her two lives begins to fall apart when a necrophiliac Serial Killer starts going after local prostitutes, with Molly and her friends as the next targets.
- Serial Killer: A serial killer is preying in the Disposable Sex Workers who ply their trade along Hollywood Boulevard.
- Second-Face Smoke: During their highly argumentative game of cribbage, Solly blows cigar smoke in Mae's face to distract her. Mae says that it is not the smoke she objects to, but Solly's breath.
- Shower Scene: There is an extremely gratuitous scene of Molly's female classmates enjoying a shower together in the locker room.
- Significant Haircut: After escaping from the police station, The Killer cuts off his hair and shaves his head to disguise his appearance.
- Silent Antagonist: The Killer never speaks on screen, even seeming to pick up hookers via body language, but there is no indication that he is mute.
- Stage Name: Kit Carson is a stage name, taken from the famous frontiersman. The lawyer for his estate addresses him by his original name once, but Kit no longer answers to it.
- Stand-In Parents: Miss Andrews arrives at Molly's apartment building to do a welfare check on her and speak with her mother. Mae knows that Molly is a Minor Living Alone and that her mother is an Invented Individual, so while Miss Andrews is arguing with the landlady Solly, Mae uses a spare key to let herself into Molly's apartment. When Miss Andrews arrives, Mae claims to be Molly's mother. As Mae is a very masculine looking transvestite, Miss Andrews is not fooled for a moment.
- Stocking Filler: Molly and Lana wear fishnet stockings and short skirts while picking up johns.
- Team Mom: Mae is a feather-boa clad blonde transvestite who watches over Angel and the other young prostitutes like a mother hen.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: After Angel gets a bad feeling about the motel room and tries to break off her their 'date', her john persuades her to stay by shoving a large roll of cash down her cleavage.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Mae and Solly act like they hate each other and constantly insult one another. However. they also spend all of their free time together playing cribbage, and when she discovers Mae after she is fatally stabbed, Solly is absolutely heartbroken.
- You Need a Breath Mint: During their highly argumentative game of cribbage, Solly blows cigar smoke in Mae's face to distract her. Mae says that it is not the smoke she objects to, but Solly's breath.
