Angel Heart
Short description
Angel Heart is a horror mystery set in 1955. Harry Angel, a private detective working in New York, is hired by a mysterious client named Louis Cyphre to find Johnny Favorite, a musician who went missing after a stay in a psychiatric clinic. What begins as a routine search takes Angel from Harlem's streets to the jazz clubs of New Orleans and into the swamps of Louisiana, where he meets Epiphany Proudfoot, the daughter of a deceased woman once close to the missing man. As Angel questions witnesses, they begin dying in violent circumstances, and the investigation draws him in ever more personally.
Alan Parker wrote and directed the film. It arrived in 1987, seventh in a run of twelve features that began with Bugsy Malone in 1976 and continued through Midnight Express, Fame, Pink Floyd: The Wall and Birdy, followed later by Mississippi Burning, The Commitments, Evita and others. Mickey Rourke plays Angel, Robert De Niro plays Cyphre, and Lisa Bonet, Charlotte Rampling, Stocker Fontelieu and blues musician Brownie McGhee appear in supporting roles. Parker adapted the story from a novel, filming largely on location in New York and Louisiana.
The film was a modest commercial performer, earning roughly its 17 million dollar budget back worldwide. It has held up well with audiences and critics alike: on IMDb it rates 7.2 from about 103,000 votes, on TMDB 7.1 from a much smaller tally, while a critics' rating of 7.4 from 34 reviews puts professional assessment slightly above the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Part of the film was shot in New York, and director Brian Morris had to work hard not only to recreate a Harlem of the 40s and early 50s that matched old photographs, but also, according to his vision, to give the sets the desired color tone. The crew was partly lucky in Louisiana; many scenes with Lisa Bonet were filmed in the town of Thibodaux, which had changed little since those times. But in New Orleans, they had to rebuild a 1950s city street from scratch.
- When the main character, Harry Angel, finds Margaret Kreuzmark murdered, played by Charlotte Rampling, a close-up of the victim’s face and neck is shown around 1:11:12, and if you look closely, you can see a pulsing heartbeat. The necklace around her neck clearly emphasizes the characteristic pulse beats. Afterwards, it becomes completely obvious that the actress is dead and a heartbeat could not be present, as the shot later shows her ripped-out heart.
- Harry Angel pours Epiphany half a glass of whiskey, but in the next shot, she has a full glass.
- The scene of Harry and Cypher's conversation in the church was filmed in St. Alphonsus Church, but the real priest refused to help organize the mass, so they had to use the services of a former clergyman who had been defrocked.
- During close-up shots, it can be noticed that the train Mickey Rourke's character travels on to Louisiana is a prop, meaning it is non-operational, and that a real locomotive is pushing the train from behind.
- According to director and screenwriter Alan Parker (1944-2020), Robert De Niro played his role so convincingly that during filming, Parker felt uncomfortable near him and tried to stay away from the actor.
- In the film, Harry Angel travels to Louisiana during the investigation, while in the original novel the entire story takes place in New York.
- When working on the script, a significant change was shifting the timeline: instead of 1959, as in the novel, the film is set in 1955. The reason for this was the director’s belief that 1959 overlapped with the 60s, while 1955 still belonged to the 40s.
- Robert De Niro initially declined the role of Louis Cypher. He later changed his mind.
- Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, and Al Pacino all turned down the role of Louis Cypher.
- For several years, the film rights to "Fallen Angel" changed hands, eventually with Elliott Kastner suggesting Alan Parker take on the project.
- Shirley Stoler (1929-1999) was originally cast as the wife of the character played by George Buck, but she left the project after nearly drowning during the filming of a scene at Coney Island. She was replaced by Judith Drake, who impressed Parker even more than Stoler. Stoler's voice can still be heard at the end of the scene, singing "I Cried For You."
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