"Angel Heart" - Superb And Timeless Tale Of Horror

As with many of my movie reviews, there is a personal anecdote for this one. I had just driven back from a job interview over a hundred miles from where I lived. It was late evening on a miserable winter day, and I was tired, both from interviewing and driving. There was time to either get dinner at nearby restaurant, or catch the last showing of a movie at a nearby theater. I reasoned that if I went to the movie, I could eat something from the concession stand while I was in the theater. To this day, I'm glad I made that choice.

"Angel Heart", as another reviewer on this site has noted, is a successful blend of a hard-boiled private eye movie with a horror flick. The blending is smoother than the slickest multi-viscosity brand by Quaker State, and like the oil, it's just as smooth with repeated viewing. Look for plot lapses, clumsy dialog, unbelievable characterization, or what have you, and you will be frustrated. This movie is as close to perfect as any I've seen, and I still feel that way about it over 15 years after my first viewing.

"Angel Heart" casts Mickey Rourke as a second-rate private-eye, (Harry Angel) who is hired by a large, New York law firm to conduct a search for one of their clients, a Louis Cyphiere. He seeks one Johnny Favorite, a former jazz musician, for the return of an unspecified item, according to contract. The detective need merely find Johnny Favorite; his efforts to be compensated by a very large fee.

What seems like a conventional skip-trace assignment quickly becomes a complicated odyssey full of dead-ends, murder, and voodoo. Angel looks for Johnny Favorite in a mental hospital (where he had been after World War II's end), in the deep south, and wherever his trail will lead him. Seemingly just one step behind his quarry, he is never able to pin him down, nor even get a good, clear image of him. Curiously, Johnny had extensive plastic surgery after the War to repair battlefield injuries, so he looks nothing like the old photographs that are available.

Angel becomes increasingly frustrated in his search, as more of Johnny's former acquaintances die before he's had a chance to interview them thoroughly, and curiously, just after he's first spoken to them. Their deaths are not natural; one has her heart cut out, another has a bullet put through his brain, and another is emasculated with a dull straight-razor. Their deaths are not the whole issue; the question is why is someone trying to quell the voices of those who knew Johnny Favorite? Will Angel find Johnny Favorite? Will Louis Cyphiere reclaim what is rightfully his? The answers to those and other questions is yes, but at a ghastly price. It would be much better for Mr. Angel if he had never taken the assignment.

One of the best things about "Angel Heart" are the many sly hints about things that are to come. Perhaps the best is the intrusion of the musical score into the "reality" of the movie; at one point Angel even whistles along with it while driving. In other words, things only appear to be as they are, but when your guard is down, reality intrudes and replaces the illusions. Likewise, Angel is repeatedly caught looking into mirrors and other objects that cast his reflection back at him, but often from cracked looking glasses that distort it. The clues, of course, make perfect sense when the movie ends, but they are coy hints before that knowledge is acquired.

I offer only the most minor criticisms of this movie. One of them being the slightly silly appearance of the Devil at the movie's end, complete with a poorly matching wig and glowing yellow eyes. One could also question the internal consistency of the movie at its most basic level. If you follow the logic of both the Devil and the explanation for body (soul?) switching one of the other characters gives, the Devil has had the soul he bargained for all along. It was only the memory of the contract, and the anguish it would cause, that was lacking in the person who struck the bargain. The Devil wanted his due, but it wasn't the soul, it was the realization that payment was due that was lacking.


While the movie is outwardly about souls, bargains with the Devil, and yes, an infamous sex scene, it's also really about something much simpler. Sometimes the answer to all your questions can be right under your nose, and you do not even know it. Sometimes it's even closer than that.