There are only so many Satanic Detective Movies.
But Angel Heart is a pretty special one in this cult-y genre about cults.
I sawAngel Heartthree times on the big screen when it was released back in 1987.
The pre-M. Night Shyamalan twist felt vaguely familiar.
I knew those streets.
The movie shocked some sensibilities who thought its sex and violence went too far.
The controversy overshadowed the film, a stylishly subtle study in satanic noir in the time of Freddy.
Hed directedMidnight Expressand the stylistically divergent musicalsPink Floyds The WallandBugsy Malone.
Parker recruited Trevor Jones to do the music forAngel Heartbecause he liked his score for Andrei KonchalovskysRunaway Trainin 1985.
The bleak sepia tones were the work of cinematographer Michael Seresi.
ForAngel Heart, Parker kept it real.
WWII Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart recipient Michael Higgins creaked into the role of Dr. Fowler.
The New York ofRosemarys Baby,New Orleans and Algiers also play significant roles.
The events inAngel Heartplay out in 1955 New York City.
Angels first stop is the Poughkeepsie hospital where Favorite has been vegetating since World War II.
But not before finding out that Favorite was shanghaied from the hospital on New Years Eve in 1943.
Cyphre eats an egg.
Angel jets to New Orleans where he gets Margaret to hold his hand long enough to fumble a pass.
Her heart wasnt in it.
A chicken foot telegram alerts Toots that he has a big mouth.
Later on that mouth would choke on the part of his body meant for pissing.
Angel gives one of them a historic head-butt greeting.
(Its the first head-butt I remember seeing in film.
I could be wrong, thats why they put rubber on pencils.)
The ghoulish gumshoe lets Ethan stew in his own gumbo while he goes and chases himself.
I am not unfamiliar with certain tenets of dark magick.
I always thought Voodoo was a beautiful religion that performed rituals to appease evil spirits instead of encouraging them.
The palpably evil Johnny Favorite only mixes races on stage and in bed.
Parker didnt shoot the rituals with the sultry lasciviousness hes been accused of, though.
How could Voodoo be so evil when it had such great beats?
Villains are more fun than heroes because a badass makes the heart beat faster.
The big screens biggest villain, the devil, has been played by some of the greatest actors.
Walter Huston, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman and Harvey Keitel, have donned horns and cloven feet.
He is amused by his prey.
Cyphre let Angel know he could eat his soul as easily as a six-minute egg.
He is there to collect a bill, but he enjoys the diversion of the chase.
The more Angel learns about Favorite, the more it costs him.
Every revelation he has in the case comes like a noose tightening around his neck.
Angel is beginning to choke.
Angel sees everything Favorite held dear destroyed and each time it bites him harder on the ass.
Every time Angel gets close to someone they becaome a statistic etched on crime blotter in gore.
Angels inquiries leave collateral damage.
Dr. Fowler shoots out the eye that saw too much.
Toots Sweets severed dick is shoved down the throat that said too much.
Margaret Krusemark is slit up the middle so her heart can be left like a greeting card.
New Orleans is famous for the race-flavored gumbo that Ethan Krusemark was boiled in.
Ive even used the Im from Brooklyn excuse for my own transgressions.
Angel could have been anyone.
We all speculate on how we could get the best out of a deal with the devil.
Wed all find ways to get out of it.
Angel doesnt throw everyone into the fire to avoid burning.
Harry Angel was so down to earth we could smell the crabs and dog breath on him.
He got so disheveled and dirty in the course of the pursuit we want to sympathetically shower for him.
When he finally lets go, he is already broken.
He cant even convince himself that he is who he is.
The Satanic Detective genre of film is especially satisfying for me because it mixes menace from two sources.
There is no femme more fatale than Mr. Scratch.
There is no noir darker than the promise of the pits of hell.
Shady speakeasies of the criminal underworld are mere subway stops on the BMT to the eternal underworld.
Every clause in a soul exchange contract is a loophole that will snag you.
No matter how cleverly you sneak up on a mirror.
