AVENGING ANGEL

(director: Robert Vincent O’Neil; screenwriter: Joseph M. Cala; cinematographer: Peter Lyons Collister; editor: John R. Bowey; music: Chris Young; cast: Betsy Russell (Molly “Angel” Stewart),Rory Calhoun (Kit Carson), C (Lt. Hugh Andrews), Ross Hagen (Ray Mitchell , hitman), Ossie Davis (Captain Harry Moradian), Paul Lambert (Arthur Garrard), Barry Pearl (Johnny Glitter), Susan Tyrrell (Sally Mosler); Runtime: 93; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Sandy Howard/Keith Rubinstein; Starmaker Entertainment (New World Pictures); 1985)

“There’s not much to get excited about in this unimaginative crime story.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

A sequel to Angel (1983). The script by Joseph M. Cala lacks an edge. The direction by Robert Vincent O’Neil(“Angel”/”Paco”/”Wonder Woman”) succeeds mostly in getting the mini skirt costumes right.

Angel (Betsy Russell) is the former Hollywood teen hooker who four years later is a gun-toting graduating law student. Betsy takes on the role of Donna Wilkes in the original film. She goes undercover as a hooker to avenge the death of her officer detective friend (Joseph M. Cala) in an undercover sting of hookers. He saved her from street-life and paid her college tuition.

There’s not much to get excited about in this unimaginative crime story. It seems to be made as an excuse to give us a few cheap thrills over nudity and some violence it softly promotes, and to show us that former western star Rory Calhoun has been at last located in a pic and is still alive.

REVIEWED ON 9/21/2015 GRADE: C