Angel, Angel, Down We Go | |
---|---|
Directed by | Robert Thom |
Written by | Robert Thom |
Produced by | Jerome F. Katzman |
Starring | Jennifer Jones Jordan Christopher Roddy McDowall |
Cinematography | John F. Warren |
Edited by | Eve Newman |
Music by | Barry Mann Cynthia Weil |
Production company | Four Leaf Productions |
Distributed by | American International Pictures (US) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 93 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Angel, Angel, Down We Go, also known as Cult of the Damned, is a 1969 American film directed by playwright and screenwriter Robert Thom, his sole directorial credit. Thom based his screenplay on an unproduced stage play of the same title that he had written several years earlier as a vehicle for his wife, actress Janice Rule. The film was produced by Sam Katzman's Four Leaf Productions and distributed by American International Pictures. [1] [2] [3]
The overweight, emotionally troubled daughter of an affluent but brittle Hollywood couple becomes involved with a charismatic rock singer and his friends. The singer proceeds to seduce and manipulate her entire family.
In August 1960, Thom, best known for writing the film Compulsion , announced he would direct a play titled Angel Angel Down We Go starring his wife, Janice Rule. It would be presented by Leland Hayward in December and was about a group of New York University students in Greenwich Village. [4] By November, Hayward halted production because he had been unable to find a director and a theater. [5] In August 1961, the play was acquired by Theatrical Interests Plan. [6] In September 1962, Shirley Knight was announced as the star. [7]
The Broadway production did not occur but Thom transformed his play into a film script. Film rights were bought by Sam Katzman, who procured financing from AIP. [8] Jennifer Jones signed in December 1968 and filming began on February 18, 1969. [3] [9]
The part of the daughter was played by Holly Near, who had not planned to be a film actress but was invited to audition after appearing at an awards event. "I got the part because I was beautiful and because I was fat," recalled Near in her memoir, adding that Thom had asked her to gain weight for the role. [10] Near said that Jones "was the grand dame that she deserved to be. I watched her struggle with her part, with her role, with her fear. I felt like an ugly duckling next to an aging swan." [11] Near felt that Thom "didn't have much compassion for my character ... I struggled to give her dignity where there was none ... I always wondered why Robert wanted to make this film." [11]
The songs in the film, "Angel Angel Down We Go", "The Fat Song", "Hey Hey Hey and a Hi Ho", "Lady Lady", "Mother Lover" and "Revelation," were written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and were sung by Jordan Christopher. [1]
The Los Angeles Times called the film "a pretentious mess" although "it can never be said to bore." [12]
The New York Times described the film as "an unmitigated financial disaster." [13]
AIP rereleased the film as Cult of the Damned in 1970. It was issued on a double bill with The Vampire Lovers . The Los Angeles Times called it "a terrible piece of trash." [14]
The fifth track on Morrissey's 1988 debut solo album Viva Hate is titled "Angel, Angel Down We Go Together." [15]
Jennifer Jones, also known as Jennifer Jones Simon, was an American actress and mental health advocate. Over the course of her career that spanned over five decades, she was nominated for the Oscar five times, including one win for Best Actress, as well as a Golden Globe Award win for Best Actress in a Drama. Jones is among the youngest actresses to receive an Academy Award, having won on her 25th birthday.
The Happiest Millionaire is a 1967 American musical film starring Fred MacMurray, based upon the true story of Philadelphia millionaire Anthony Drexel Biddle. The film, featuring music by the Sherman Brothers, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design by Bill Thomas. The screenplay by A. J. Carothers was adapted from the play, based on the book My Philadelphia Father by Cordelia Drexel Biddle. Walt Disney acquired the rights to the play in the early 1960s. The film was the last live-action musical Disney produced before his death.
James William Ercolani known by his stage name James Darren, is an American television and film actor, television director, and singer. During the late-1950s and early-'60s, he had notable starring and supporting roles in such films as Gidget (1959) and its sequels, The Gene Krupa Story (1959), All the Young Men (1960), The Guns of Navarone (1961), and Diamond Head (1962), and was briefly promoted as a teen pop singer. Later in the 1960s he became more active in television, starring in the short-lived science fiction series The Time Tunnel (1966–1967) and taking on the recurring role of Vic Fontaine in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1998–1999).
Michele Ann Marie "Shelley" Fabares is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her television roles as Mary Stone on the sitcom The Donna Reed Show (1958–1963) and as Christine Armstrong on the sitcom Coach (1989–97), the latter of which earned her two Primetime Emmy Awards nominations.
Susan Elizabeth Strasberg was an American stage, film, and television actress. Imagined to be the next Hepburn-type ingenue, she was nominated for a Tony Award at age 18, playing the title role in The Diary of Anne Frank. She appeared on the covers of LIFE and Newsweek in 1955. A close friend of Marilyn Monroe and Richard Burton, she wrote two best-selling tell-all books. Her later career primarily consisted of slasher and horror films, followed by TV roles, by the 1980s.
Sam Katzman was an American film producer and director. Katzman produced low-budget genre films, including serials, which had disproportionately high returns for the studios and his financial backers.
Leonard Katzman was an American film and television producer, writer and director. He was most notable for being the showrunner of the CBS oil soap opera Dallas.
Kitten with a Whip is a 1964 American crime drama film directed by Douglas Heyes, who co-wrote the screenplay with Whit Masterson, a pseudonym for writers Robert Allison “Bob” Wade and H. Bill Miller, who also wrote the novel on which the film is based under the name Wade Miller. The film stars John Forsythe, Ann-Margret, Peter Brown, Patricia Barry and Richard Anderson.
Boys of the City is a 1940 black-and-white comedy/thriller film directed by Joseph H. Lewis. It is the second East Side Kids film and the first to star Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, and Ernest Morrison.
Who Was That Lady? is a 1960 black and white American comedy film directed by George Sidney and starring Tony Curtis, Dean Martin, and Janet Leigh.
Charles Hirsch Schneer was an American film producer, best known for working with Ray Harryhausen, the specialist known for his work in stop motion model animation.
Half a Sixpence is a 1967 British musical film directed by George Sidney and choreographed by Gillian Lynne. The screenplay by Beverley Cross is adapted from his book for the 1963 stage musical of the same name, which was based on Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul, a 1905 novel by H. G. Wells. The music and lyrics are by David Heneker.
The Billy Barnes Revue is a 1959 musical comedy revue with music and lyrics by Billy Barnes and sketches by Bob Rodgers. The revue premiered in Los Angeles in 1959 and went on to be produced both on Broadway and Off Broadway.
When the Boys Meet the Girls is a 1965 American musical film directed by Alvin Ganzer and starring Connie Francis and Harve Presnell based on the musical Girl Crazy and a remake of MGM's 1943 film Girl Crazy.
Hold On! is a 1966 American musical film directed by Arthur Lubin and starring Peter Noone, Shelley Fabares, Herbert Anderson, and Sue Ane Langdon. The film features performances by Herman's Hermits and stars the band as fictionalized versions of themselves. The soundtrack was released as an album, also called Hold On!.
Your Cheatin' Heart is a 1964 American fictionalized biographical-musical directed by Gene Nelson and starring George Hamilton as country singer Hank Williams. It co-stars Susan Oliver and Red Buttons.
O-Lan Jones is an American actress, composer, and theater producer. She played religious fanatic Esmeralda in Edward Scissorhands.
A Demon for Trouble is a 1934 American black-and-white action/adventure/romance short film directed by Robert F. Hill and produced by A. W. Hackel for Supreme Pictures. It stars Bob Steele, Don Alvarado, Gloria Shea, and Nick Stuart and was released in the United States on August 10, 1934.
The Prince of Thieves is a 1948 American adventure film nominally inspired by Alexandre Dumas' 1872 novel Le Prince des voleurs. Produced by Sam Katzman for Columbia Pictures and starring Jon Hall as Robin Hood with stuntwork by Jock Mahoney, the film was shot in the Cinecolor process that features an inability to reproduce the colour green. Sequences were shot reusing several of the sets of Columbia's The Bandit of Sherwood Forest and at Corriganville. Patricia Morison and Adele Jergens co-star.
Love in E-Flat is a 1967 comedy play by Norman Krasna.