Angel Heart [1987]

Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Mickey Rourke	Harry Angel
Robert De Niro	Louis Cyphre
Lisa Bonet	Epiphany Proudfoot
Charlotte Rampling	Margaret Krusemark
Brownie McGhee	Toots Sweet
Stocker Fontelieu	Ethan Krusemark
Michael Higgins	Dr. Albert Fowler
Elizabeth Whitcraft	Connie
Eliott Keener	Det. Sterne
Charles Gordone	Spider Simpson, Bandleader
Dann Florek	Herman Winesap
Kathleen Wilhoite	Nurse
George Buck	Izzy
Judith Drake	Izzy's Wife
Gerald Orange	Pastor John
Peggy Severe	Mammy Carter, Herb Store Proprietor
Pruitt Taylor Vince	Det. Deimos
Dave Petitjean	Baptism Preacher
Rick Washburn	Cajun Heavy #1
Neil Newlon	Cajun Heavy #2

Director	Alan Parker
Producer	Robert Dattila; Mario Kassar; Alan Marshall
Writer	William Hjortsberg; Alan Parker

Set in Harlem and New Orleans in 1955, this supernatural thriller stirred a brief controversy in the US when released in 1987 because some scenes featuring Lisa Bonet (then a popular cast member of The Cosby Show) were considered too sexually explicit to be rated R. The plot follows the fortunes of a sullen detective (Mickey Rourke) who is hired to find a missing person by a shady client with pointy fingernails named Louis Cyphre (Lucifer, get it?), played with subtle menace by Robert De Niro. Rourke's investigation leads him into an underworld of voodoo and forbidden desires, and as the mystery unfolds director Alan Parker fills every scene with conspicuous style and atmospheric excess, compelling critic Pauline Kael to observe that "Parker simply doesn't have the gift of making evil seductive, and he edits like a flasher". And yet, this movie does casts a spell of its own (Roger Ebert's review was considerably more charitable), and the performances of Rourke, De Niro, Bonet and Charlotte Rampling are well suited to the ominous mood. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com