ANGEL

Title: ANGEL Year: 1984 Cast: Donna Wilkes, John Diehl, Rory Calhoun Rating: ****

Honor student by day, hooker by night... And both sides of Angel (Donna Wilkes) has a heart of gold. But not John Diehl, a Jack the Ripperesque psychopath making Hollywood Boulevard a place to avoid.

Don't tell that to the locals: for street dwellers like Rory Calhoun (a Kit Carson impersonator), Dick Shawn (a female impersonator), and Susan Tyrrell (a lesbian landlord), this Hell is home.

Like most New World Pictures, we're taken right into the action: feeling like a documentary mixed with seedy melodrama. Co-starring Cliff Gorman as the cop guarding Angel from herself and the killer... but like all exploitation foxes, she's out for her very own revenge! And like all great revenge flicks, you'll be drawn in from beginning to end.

Yet through all the exploitation style action and ensemble of great veteran actors, the real focus is Donna Wilkes, who balances tough and vulnerable perfectly: making for one of the best vixens of exploitation cinema.

Year: 1985 Cast: Betsy Russell, Susan Tyrrell, Rory Calhoun Rating: ***

Bombshell Betsy Russell, resembling a bionic Donna Wilkes, takes over as the hooker/honor student from the exploitation original; now in law school,  Angel returns to the streets to find those responsible for slaying her cop father-figure (a Cliff Gorman replacement).

Instead of a lone madman, it's Angel and streetsavvy pals Kit Carson (Rory Calhoun) and Sully (Susan Tyrrell) versus gun-totting mobsters in bed with the vice squad. Some hijinks humor's thrown in with the blood and guts, and since our gorgeous heroine does a good enough job seeking - and getting - revenge on the baddies, this flawed sequel holds its own. [AND REST IN PEACE for character-actress Susan Tyrrell]