Angel Heart

Alan Parker wrote the script from William Hjortsberg’s 1978 novel Falling Angel, changing three things on purpose. The novel stays in New York City throughout; Parker moved the second half to New Orleans and the author approved. He pulled the period back from 1959 to 1955: 1959 was tipping into the sixties, 1955 still looked like the forties. In the book the detective is framed for the killings; in the film he is the killer. Parker first wanted Robert De Niro for Harry Angel; De Niro asked instead to play Louis Cyphre. Jack Nicholson was approached and passed. Rourke suggested Charlotte Rampling. An open call for local musicians was held in New Orleans, and the blues guitarist Brownie McGhee, who plays Toots Sweet, joined after shooting began. The first cut was rated X in the United States. The appeal board voted 8 to 6 to keep it, so Parker removed 10 seconds from a sex scene and the R came days before release. At the 15th Saturn Awards it took three nominations and won none. A good fit if a detective story can pull you through place, music and texture rather than its solution, and the slower New Orleans half is no obstacle. Not for viewers who avoid bloody and sexual scenes; the contested one was shortened, not taken out.