Streetwise and Book Smart: <i>Avenging Angel</i>

Streetwise and Book Smart: Avenging Angel

"One more step and I'll blow your balls into outer space."

That immortal line is delivered with extreme chutzpah by our tough-talking protagonist Angel (real name, Molly Stewart), played with a disarmingly effective nonchalance by '80s dream girl Betsy Russell, in Avenging Angel (1985). I'm always on the lookout for memorable cult classic, and with this one, I've struck exploitation gold. I don't know where this movie has been all my life, but thank goodness we finally found each other.

First, some facts. Avenging Angel, directed and co-written by Robert Vincent O'Neill (who worked in the art department on Easy Rider), is the middle installment in the Angel trilogy of films. One day I'll have to run the series, but I can't imagine anything else being quite as entertaining as this one. The plot: a former Hollywood Boulevard prostitute turned law student goes back undercover as a prostitute—but steadfastly avoids schtupping any Johns, to the chagrin of horny B-movie fans everywhere—and teams up with a ragtag crew of street urchins to track down a killer who murdered the police office that helped get her off the streets and into law school. Did you follow all that?

If you spend too much time trying to make sense of this, you'll lose your mind. As any exploitation aficionado knows, there's no need to bring logic into this equation. So a law student who used to be a hooker takes it upon herself to go undercover as if she was a police detective? Of course she does! And of course she suddenly knows how to handle various firearms—from big shotguns to a tiny pistol that she conceals in a garter belt under her extremely short skirts.

So, while it's temping in today's peak Internet film nerd era to over-intellectualize '80s exploitation fare like Avenging Angel, the movie's appeal is basic, and will ring familiar to any retro movie fan: there's just something fun about a female vigilante with a gun, out for vengeance. It's as simple as that, really.

Avenging Angel works so well largely because Russell turns in the sort of strong silent type hero role typically played by men. Sure, she's sweet and smiles a lot, but ultimately she's a badass with almost no fear of danger. She's also more than she seems. Just like the movie she's in, which is equal parts gritty street crime thriller and zany lighthearted comedy, Angel is a woman of action and a dedicated scholar. Streetwise and book smart. Characters are constantly misjudging Angel because of her glamour model-turned-street-walker appearance, but really she's a serious student of the law with a plucky can-do attitude who never gives up. A perfect example would be the scene where she's been wrongfully imprisoned and from behind bars delivers a lecture on California penal code law to the police. It's completely ridiculous and ridiculously awesome.

Angela keeps getting in over her head, but it never phases her one bit. She's determined to bring down the killers, so she suits up in her best halter tops, micro-minis, and high heels, then charges out into the streets, ready for trouble without a care in the world for her own safety, and always packing heat—even when she isn't carrying a gun, if you know what I mean.

Rory Calhoun is a riot as Kit Carson, Angel's sexagenarian partner in crime. Kit dresses like he's late for work at the rodeo, but the old geezer and our nubile heroine make for an enjoyably oddball duo. Kit lays down cover fire for Angel as she dodges bullets, tottering along on her stilettos, plus he always makes her laugh. It's actually sweet. They're fairly adorable together.

As with any cult classic that I highly recommend, Avenging Angel will be most appreciated by viewers with an open mind to the offbeat and wildly over the top charms of B-movies. For devotees of the exploitation genre, I enthusiastically say, check it out.

In that outfit, I have no idea where she hides that cannon and I don't care because Betsy Russell is very distracting and I've completely forgotten what this sentence was even about.

When it comes to kickass, take charge women in '80s B-movies, Betsy Russell reminds me a bit of Lucinda Dickey from Ninja III: The Domination. Together they might have the best '80s hair, too.

That has to chafe the upper thigh area, no? Angel makes these sorts of sacrifices, though, in the name of fashion and undercover vigilantism.

Like a scene straight out of an Old Hollywood screwball comedy. Angel and Kit are totes adorbs.

Betsy Russell spends almost the entire film in tiny little outfits and sky-high heels but geez if only they could've squeezed her into a hot nurse outfit too...oh, my. Never mind! Also, Kit's attire here is everything, isn't it?

Somebody please make a poster, a t-shirt, a coffee mug, and a bath towel out of this shot, pretty please. I will buy all of them! It's so gloriously '80s and I love it.

Part of the movie's appeal is how this oddball group of losers, cast aside by society, join forces with the uber-babe Angel to (just barely) save the day. Sure, they often charge into trouble without a solid plan, and even almost get a baby killed (spoiler: no babies were harmed in the making of this movie), but they're such a lovably wacky quartet that you can't help but root for them. It's like if the popular girl in school suddenly started hanging with the geeks from the AV Club—hilarity is sure to ensue!

This might be my favorite scene. While sexy Silk Stalkings style slow jazz blurts out over the soundtrack, Angel confidently struts into the Hall of Records and requests access to some records, in her most serious, lawyerly voice. Russell's delivery is deliciously droll, which completely works for Angel: she's a no-nonsense, straight shooter who just wants the facts, ma'am.

Cut to Angel posing on a step stool in a very short skirt, stretching to pull down some records from the tippy-top shelf. It's absolutely gratuitous and of course entirely essential to any exploitation movie worth its salt. Then she saunters over to a study room and studiously pores over the papers, jotting down notes along the way, completely oblivious to the other people in the room gawking. High-brow comedy it ain't, but it's chuckle-inducing nonetheless.

The Hall of Records scene sums up Angel and the movie pretty well: looks can be deceiving. Angel's not just a pretty face...or a pretty pair of legs...or a pretty—okay, okay, you get the point, which is that Angel is also (mostly) a smart cookie. The movie's not just a seedy thriller, but also at times a weird little comedy. Does the comedy always work? Nope, but that's part of the charm. Above all, Avenging Angel simply does what any good exploitation movie must do: it entertains.

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