Angel in Red Reviews

ANGEL IN RED, which was released on video as UNCAGED, is an example of the slice-of-lowlife genre, in which pimps and whores and drug dealers go about their sordid business in a manner that goes heavy on the skin but redeems it all with a message, usually involving self-reliance and/or respect. Other examples of this genre include STREETWALKIN', ANGEL, STRIPPED TO KILL, STREETS and the outstanding VICE SQUAD, with Wings Hauser and Season Hubley. Released in 1982, VICE SQUAD is one of the earliest examples of the genre and perhaps the best. That's probably why ANGEL IN RED borrows liberally from its plot. Unfortunately, Jeffrey Dean Morgan can't hold a candle to Wings Hauser in the psychotic-killer-pimp-on-a-rampage department, so ANGEL IN RED lacks the urgency that makes VICE SQUAD so disturbing. Micki (Leslie Bega) is a prostitute, working the streets of Los Angeles for her unstable pimp Sharkey (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) so she can support her brain- damaged brother Robby (Jason Oliver). Sharkey, who's tormented by his own abusive upbringing, loses his temper one night and savagely beats another girl, leaving her on the brink of death. Micki accepts the help of another pimp, Silk (Gregory Millar) in getting her to the hospital and agrees to work for him, since Sharkey's outburst has shattered her sense of security. Sharkey is arrested, then escapes, vowing to get Micki for her betrayal. Unaware that she's in danger, Micki goes about the evening's business, picking up johns, drinking and hanging around with her friends on the street. When Sharkey finally tracks her down, she and the other girls must fight back for the first time in their lives. They kill Sharkey and, as day breaks, walk slowly away to an uncertain future. Directed by William Duprey and written by Catherine Cyran from a story by Joan Freeman Alden and Robert Alden, ANGEL IN RED is, like most movies of this kind, deeply schizophrenic. It opens with a group of girls in jeans and tee shirts watching a movie and talking girl talk; they could be a bunch of college students hanging out in a dorm room, but they're not. They're streetwalkers, and within minutes we're treated to a montage of the girls getting themselves into their working gear: red lips and long eyelashes, silky teddies, stockings and garter belts, merry widow corsets and short, short skirts--there's no such thing as a skirt that's too tight, one tells another sagely. It's a great trying-to-have-it-both-ways juxtaposition: first we hear the girls talking about their hopes and dreams, then (before that gets too dull) we get to see them turn into standard issue pornographic dreams--ever-ready sex machines in peek-a-boo lingerie. ANGEL IN RED tries to balance a story about prostitutes and their troubles (broken homes, drug addiction, financial responsibilities, psychological problems) with titillating footage of the girls at work, stripping, talking dirty and doing the wild thing. Naturally, the sleazy stuff comes out on top and the human interest material is relegated to the background. After all, why would anyone want to see a movie about working girls if not to see them hard at work? ANGEL IN RED is an exploitation film that breaks no new ground, but tries to give viewers more than a feature-length strip show, whether or not that's what viewers want. (Violence, profanity, sexual situations, adult situations, nudity.)