Angel Heart

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed!

Angel Heart (1987) depicts a world bereft of goodness and morality, where evil reigns. The movie is most notable for Allan Parker’s directing that creates visceral responses through surrealistic and religious imagery and symbolism.

The initial setting is an inhospitable wintery New York in 1955. The opening shows a dirty, dark alley with smoke rising from vents which, in the context of this film, suggests the fires of hell. A dog and cat prowl the spot, making animal sounds possibly pointing to the bestial nature that exists even in a metropolitan city. There is a dead body with a blood-smeared face in the alleyway. No one is singing “New York, New York” here.

Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke), which turns out to be an ironic name (the title of the novel on which the movie is based is called Fallen Angel), is a lowly private eye with a messy office. He receives a phone call from attorney Herman Winesap (Dann Florek) to meet Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro). The last name sounds like “cipher,” which means something cryptic that needs decoding. Well, if you put the first and last names together you get what sounds like “Lucifer.” So, meeting this guy can’t be good.

Angel must go to a church in Harlem which turns out to have a funeral procession outside, an ominous scene. The place is not what one usually associates with a place of worship. Pastor John (Gerald Orange) is overtly greedy as he tells his flock to open their “wallets” and “purses” because he should not be riding in a Cadillac, because if his parishioners “love” him he should have a “Rolls Royce.” Angel meets Winesap who has a partner named Mackintosh. As IMDb points out they have names of apples, and in the Bible the apple represents temptation which brings sin into the world. (Not the only time lawyers are associated with evil. There is The Devil’s Advocate with Al Pacino as Satan. The senior partners in the TV show Angel, another deceptive title, are demons). Angel sees a woman wearing a black hood (spooky) cleaning blood off a wall. Winesap says a man committed suicide by shooting himself. What a church. Do they sing “Oh, Happy Day” here?

Angel meets Cyphre who sits on a small platform almost like he is on a throne. He wears black clothes (nothing subtle about that). He fiddles with a cane (a scepter?) His fingernails are long, a possible reference to his being a demon, and he has a pentagram ring on his finger. Be afraid, be very afraid. Winesap greets Cyphre by holding his hand, like in The Godfather or, in a different context, the way one kisses the Pope’s ring. The image is one of paying tribute to a powerful leader. There are electric fans in the room which become a motif in the movie. Cyphre wants Angel to find out if a “client,” a singer named Johnny Favorite, who was injured in the war and supposedly suffered from amnesia, was alive or dead. He received treatment at an institution. Winesap, using legal language, says that there was a contract between Cyphre and Johnny, and there was to be payment for what Cyphre supplied. If he is the devil, then one would suspect that Johnny sold his soul to achieve some fame. Cyphre suggests that he and Angel met before, which is also ominous.

Angel drives to the place that treated Johnny. He has a bunch of fake ID cards, which shows his use of deception in his work, and pulls one out for the “National institute of Health.” IMDb also mentions that Angel has several keys that would be “skeleton” keys (a deadly name). In the novel they are pass keys that can, supposedly, magically open all doors, which adds to the supernatural element in the story and fits how a private detective tries to discover secrets. He discovers that a Dr. Albert Fowler (Michael Higgins) transferred Johnny Favorite (whose real name is Liebling) out of the institution. (“Fowler” is pronounced like “Foul-er,” suggestive of one who commits foul deeds. But, as we find, chickens disturb Angel, so “fowl” works here, too).

Angel tracks the doctor down through the phone directory and breaks into the dilapidated residence. Next to a bible in a drawer is a revolver, offering up opposite images of destruction and salvation. Angel finds morphine in the refrigerator, an illegal substance to privately possess. So, when the sweaty Fowler, looking for a drug fix, comes home, Angel threatens to snitch on the doctor if he calls the cops. Angel found out that the deceptive Fowler faked a transfer to a VA hospital and took a bribe of $25,000 to release Johnny to a man named Edward Kelly and a girl while maintaining that Johnny was still hospitalized. Angel locks Fowler in his room so he can’t get at his morphine to make him desperate enough that he may remember who took Johnny. In the room is another slow-moving fan that alternately shifts its blade direction. These fans seem to announce the presence of evil or of corrupted souls.

The surreal quality of the film increases as Angel hears his name whispered as he walks down a street and he sees two nuns through a swinging church door silently praying, while what looks like blood drips into a basin near them. There is an old-fashioned elevator door opening and closing inside, too. Could these images suggest the opposites of going to heaven or hell, gaining salvation or being damned?

The camera focuses on Angel holding the key to Fowler’s bedroom, another reference to trying to discover what is happening by finding out what is hidden. When he unlocks the bedroom, it appears that the doctor killed himself with his gun, the one that Angel found in the drawer outside the bedroom. How did Fowler get it if the door was locked? Angel lights a cigarette by striking a match on the dead man’s shoe, an emotionally cold thing to do. As it turns out the bible Angel discovered was hollowed out and contained bullets. Talk about danger hidden below a benevolent surface! Angel wipes down everything to erase his fingerprints (more deception).

Angel meets Cyphre in a nice restaurant which is strangely empty. Angel tells Cyphre what he has learned about Johnny, informing him that Johnny left with his face bandaged because of an injury. Cyphre is undeterred, equating Johnny with a slug who always leaves a trail of “slime” when they leave. It is a damning metaphor, and Cyphre says it as he loudly cracks the shell of a hard-boiled egg. He convinces Angel to continue his investigation by upping his fee despite Angel worrying that he could now be a suspect in Fowler’s death. Cyphre says that in some religions “the egg is the symbol of the soul.” He asks if Angel wants an egg, but Angel declines and throws salt over his shoulder. IMDb says that superstition says that one is throwing salt into the eyes of the devil, blinding the demon. Cyphre then devours the egg staring menacingly at Angel. If this guy acts like he is eating souls then he is either the devil or thinks he is.

Apparently, the church where Angel met Cyphre harbors an evil cult because when Angel returns there he finds a dead monkey that was killed as a sacrifice and other items, such as an inverted cross. Men (probably members of Pastor John’s cult) attack Angel as he is about to confront a hooded person (the person who cleaned up the blood earlier?). He escapes to a bar and meets a woman named Connie (Elizabeth Whitcraft) who works for the New York Times. She provides Angel with information as they undress (not very romantic as there is no room for love in this world). He now has a picture of Johnny Favorite who had a fiancé named Margaret Kruzemark (Charlotte Rampling). She, along with Johnny, and other companions, practiced magic. Angel then has a series of images: soldiers celebrating in Times Square; a trellis elevator, which is what he saw at the church; a person going up a staircase; a woman’s feet; and a fan in a window (lots of fans here).

Angel tracks down Johnny’s associates and starts with Spider Simpson (Charles Gordone) who is a patient in a hospital. He tells Angel that there was a musician named Toots Sweet (Brownie McGhee) who went to New Orleans. Angel suspects that Johnny and Margaret also went there. Johnny also was intimately involved with an African American woman named Evangeline Proudfoot. She had a “spooky store” in Harlem. There was also a palm reader named Madame Zora who had a booth at Coney Island. Angel goes there and it looks desolate which fits the time of year and the tone of the film. There is a geek named Izzy (George Buck) there who says he bites the heads off rats. We are definitely in the realm of the bizarre here. He wears a nose guard but there is hardly any sun. He gives one to Angel, who puts it on. He looks scary, like he is wearing a mask, possibly showing his true nature. There is a possible reference to Chinatown where Jack Nicholson’s private detective wears a bandage over his nose after getting cut, which suggests he is following the wrong scent. Angel learns from Izzy’s wife (Judith Drake) that Zora was actually Margaret who eventually went home to Louisiana.

Angel goes to New Orleans which is the opposite of New York because it is sweltering. Angel is traveling south, possibly symbolically to hell. He notices an advertisement for M. Kruzemark, a fortune teller. He makes an appointment with her. He sees a woman who turns out to be Margaret, which is kind of magical in itself, and follows her to her place. She asks his date of birth, which is on Feb. 14, 1918. She says that she knew another born on that date and she admits that he hurt her. It’s Johnny’s birth date and he eventually tells her he is trying to get information about the singer. She abruptly ends the session, saying Johnny is dead. She quickly reads his palm on the way out telling him he wouldn’t like to know what she sees, which is a bit of foreshadowing. He notices she wears a necklace that has pentagram similar to the one Cyphre wore, which indicates her ties to the satanic realm.

Angel discovers that Johnny’s secret love, Evangeline, is dead. He goes to her grave (another Gothic element added to the story) and hides as a young woman approaches the gravesite. She has a baby and changes offerings that are on the plot, which contrasts with the Catholic cemetery setting. The girl says to her child that it is her grandmother there. Angel follows her and finds that Evangeline’s daughter’s name is Epiphany (Lisa Bonet) (an “epiphany” is usually a sudden insight into something and usually has spiritual overtones). Angel accidentally scares the child with his nose shield glasses, which adds an ominous tone to his presence. She denies knowing anything about Johnny or Toots Sweet. Angel compliments her on her beauty and she smiles, showing she might find him attractive, too. (The chickens around the yard upset Johnny and he mentioned his problem with them before. Does it have something to do with Cyphre saying eggs were symbols of the souls of people, and he has lost his?).

Angel goes to a bar where the guitar-playing Toots Sweet performs. Angel asks about Johnny, but Toots is evasive. Angel follows him into the men’s room, and Toots is now upset with Angel. He is shaken when he sees a black cloth tied around a chicken foot on the sink, an obvious witchcraft. voodoo object. A bouncer sticks the foot in Angel’s face, and he again says he has a thing about chickens before the big bouncer tosses him out of the club. Angel follows Toots to a voodoo gathering in the woods where Epiphany, while dancing, performs a blood ritual by cutting the throat of the chicken and spilling it on her. The recurrence of associating blood with ritual adds a dark supernatural feel to the story.

There is another slow-moving fan in a stairwell as Angel climbs steps, which somewhat mirrors the previous image he saw as a kind of premonition. He is following Toots. He attacks Toots who has a razor like the one Epiphany used in the previous scene, which links the two characters together. Toots cuts Angel on the face, which echoes the sacrifice scene. During the fight that follows a religious statute falls from its perch and cracks on the ground, suggestive of the fall in the Bible from religious grace. Angel takes the razor and overpowers Toots. Angel then threatens to reveal Toots presence at the ritual. Toots also has the symbol of the pentagram decorating a tooth, which links him to Epiphany and Cyphre. Toots tells Angel that Epiphany is a priestess in the cult and the chicken foot was a warning for Toots that he talks too much. The association of chickens with occult groups may be another reason why Angel basically says the only good chicken is a dead one. As he leaves Angel drops Toots’s razor and a fan stops turning as he goes. Could it mean that Angel is the source of the evil symbolized by the turning fan blades?

Angel has a nightmare where he enters a dark room. The elevator appears again. His shirt is soaked in blood. He sees a razor and picks it up and blood gushes from his hand. The same person with the dark hood sits there. As he is about to reach for the anonymous person, he wakes up. Could Angel be the one causing the bloodletting, and, thus, guilty of crimes? The scene seems to link him to the blood sacrifices. Cops wake him up because someone killed Toots. His assailant cut off his penis and stuffed it in his mouth, causing him to asphyxiate. Talk about being full of yourself. The police found Angel’s note leaving contact information with Toots. He tells the cops that he was just asking Toots for some information and tells them the lawyer he is working for. Angel touched the implement of death twice now – the gun that killed the doctor and now the razor that a killer used on Toots.

In another bar, Angel prepares to call Margaret as he looks at his reflection. Mirrors in gothic tales usually represent the other, darker side of a person. Angel gets images of himself in that elevator again and soldiers celebrating. The fan makes another appearance. These images seem to connect Angel with something sinister. And something sinister occurs in the next scene. Angel goes to Margaret’s place and finds her dead, The same ornate knife he found interesting on his first visit is the murder weapon. Someone carved out Margaret’s heart and left it on the coffee table. Those associated with Johnny Favorite are turning up dead. Again, Angel handles the implement of death. He is upset and nauseous, but still searches the premises, finding a mummified hand in a box, which resembles the chicken foot that appeared earlier, another connection to dark ritualistic practices. Angel removes his name from Margaret’s appointment list so as not to be a suspect.

The unnerved Angel passes by a church (religion is on the sideline here) and drinks in another bar that has another ominous fan. Incongruously, there is a religious statue in the window, maybe showing the desecration of the spiritual. He drives past a baptism in a nearby lake, but that religious scene contrasts with a suspicious truck following Angel’s car. Angel stops at a dock and the men from the truck unleash their dog that attacks him. One of the men says Margaret’s father, Ethan (Stocker Fontelieu), is a rich man who wants Angel to go away.

Angel meets up with Epiphany and tells her she set up Toots since she was the only one who knew Angel was looking for him; thus, she sent the chicken foot warning that Toots talks too much. Epiphany is adamant that her religious group does not kill people. She now admits that Johnny Favorite is her father, but she does not know where he is.

Angel receives a message from Cyphre who is now in New Orleans and requests that Angel meet him at a church. These two again being in a place of traditional worship adds to the theme of evil undermining Christian ideals. It is funny when of all people, Cyphre chastises Angel for using vulgar language in a church. Angel tells Cyphre about the murders and notes the strange element of religious practices present. Cyphre comments on the twisted nature of the world when he says, “There’s enough religion in the world to make men hate each other, but not enough to make them love.” Angel thinks Johnny is killing those who disliked him, and he was setting up Angel to take the blame. Cyphre says he is only interested in collecting what Johnny owes him. It is ironic that he says he has traditional beliefs, such as “an eye for an eye.” We have the devil quoting the Old Testament Bible, which darkly associates the deity with his adversary.

What follows is a dark surrealistic mixture of sex and violence referring to previous images in the film. Rain is pouring as Angel finds Epiphany near his room, which is leaking from the ceiling. Inside she says her mother thought that Johnny “was as close to true evil as she wanted to come,” but he also was a wonderful lover. Evil, which can destroy also seems to fuel the fulfillment of one’s sexual appetite here. As the two make feverish love the rainwater turns to blood. There are cuts to the hooded figure cleaning the suicide’s gore, the sacrifice of the lawyer Winesap, the elevator, and the fan. Epiphany reaches a screaming climax that sounds more violent than pleasurable. Angel gets out of the bed and punches the mirror, possibly reflecting anger at his darker, other self.

The police visit Angel, and one cop spews racial slurs after seeing Epiphany in the room. They ask questions about Margaret. The police are feeling the pressure from the dead woman’s powerful father. So, they try to squeeze Angel for answers, but he blows them off. The guys in the truck with the dog wait for Angel outside. He goes after them and chases one into a barn. The other man follows and again sets the dog after Angel, who runs off through a yard full of dreaded chickens, the objects of voodoo sacrifices.

Angel attends a sordid gathering of people skinning animals and conducting cock fights, another example of the depraved environment. He meets Margaret’s father, Ethan, who Angel now believes is the Edward Kelly who, with Margaret, took Johnny Favorite out of the medical institution. Ethan takes Johnny to where gumbo is cooking. The bubbling cauldron looks like it is boiling blood, another disturbing image. Ethan says he and his daughter left Johnny, with amnesia and a bandaged face, in Time Square on New Year’s Eve in the crowd in 1943. Ethan says he did it for Margaret’s sake because she and Johnny were delving into dark magic. Ethan says the mummified hand Angel found represents the Hand of Glory that can open all doors. This idea refers back to all the skeleton keys (another deadly reference) that Angel possesses. While Ethan talks, Angel becomes increasingly agitated, chopping at mounds of ice in Ethan’s office (The fires of hell attacking its opposite?) and he knows Ethan is more complicit than he lets on, and threatens the man. Ethan says that he introduced Margaret to Johnny, who conjured up Satan, to whom he sold his soul to become famous. Johnny then tried to cheat the devil by performing a demonic ritual which included taking the soul of his victim, the soldier, and his identity, by eating the man’s heart. Afterwards, Johnny was drafted and came back injured. Margaret hoped he would restore his memory by being in a New Year’s Eve crowd again, but instead Johnny disappeared. Ethan says that Margaret kept the unfortunate soldier’s dog tags in a vase.

After hearing this tale, Angel vomits in the bathroom, most likely because he is learning the truth about himself. He looks in the mirror, reflecting the other side of his being again, and visualizes the recurring images of the hooded person wiping blood off the wall, the fan, and the soldier in a crowd. When he exits the bathroom, Angel finds Ethan dead, his head plunged into the boiling gumbo, as fire wins over ice.

Angel bursts out of the building and runs to Margaret’s apartment. He rummages through the place and finds the dog tags that show his name, Harold Angel, on them. He is the soldier that Johnny Favorite possessed. If Epiphany (who lives up to her name in being part of Angel’s revelation) is Johnny’s daughter, then Angel in a way has committed incest. Also, Angel’s subconscious self (Johnny) killed all those associated with Johnny who helped him along the way to deny the devil his due.

On cue, Cyphre is there. He has used Angel to do his work for him. However, Angel is still in denial, saying the name Louis Cyphre is just a cheap joke reference to Lucifer. He says Cyphre killed all of the people and is using Angel as the fall guy. Angel keeps saying he knows who he is, but the opposite is true. Cyphre says Angel/Johnny was living on borrowed time, and now Angel’s soul belongs to him. As he says those words, his eyes glow. Cyphre puts on a record of “Girl of My Dreams,” the song that has been playing throughout the film and which was associated with Johnny, showing how Johnny was in Angel’s subconscious mind. Angel has flashbacks of his killing the victims.

Angel runs to where he is staying and finds the cops there next to Epiphany’s dead body, which has his dog tags around her neck, courtesy of Cyphre. Angel admits that it is his place and says that Epiphany is his daughter. Epiphany’s child is there and his eyes glow like Cyphre’s, which suggests that the devil is the father. The policeman says Angel will burn for her murder, and Angel says he knows, because his soul will suffer in the fiery pit of hell. We see that elevator going downward, suggesting his soul is descending to Lucifer’s realm.

The next film is Bound for Glory.