Descending Angel

Last updated
Descending Angel
GenreDrama
Thriller
War
Teleplay by Robert J. Seigel
Grace Woodard
Alan Sharp
Story byRobert J. Seigel
Grace Woodard
Directed by Jeremy Kagan
Starring George C. Scott
Diane Lane
Eric Roberts
Music by James Newton Howard
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Producer Freyda Rothstein
Production locations 952 Green Valley Crescent, Ottawa, Ontario
Montreal
Cinematography Lajos Koltai
Running time98 minutes
Production company HBO Pictures
Original release
Network HBO
ReleaseNovember 25, 1990 (1990-11-25)

Descending Angel is a 1990 television film that aired on HBO starring George C. Scott, Diane Lane and Eric Roberts.

Contents

Plot

A recently engaged man (Roberts) comes to visit his fiancée (Lane)'s future father-in-law (Scott) and gets to know him better, when he unearths clues that the man may have been a Nazi collaborator and mass murderer.

Michael is repeatedly accosted on the street by Bercovici, who claims that he is a survivor of the massacre in Romania that Florian took part in. Michael seeks comfort in the apparently benevolent advice of Bishop Dancu, who takes Michael into the bowels of the church to show him a "secret report" that Florian had been investigated and cleared by the FBI.

Looking up Sam Murray, the reporter who wrote old expose' stories on Florian; Michael discovers he had been brutally beaten and crippled by unknown assailants. Murray snorts that ex-Nazi's had an easy time getting into America after WW2 as long as they claimed they were "Anti-Communist",citing scientist Verner Von Braun as an example.

Michael also discovers that Florian's wife(Irina's mother) had discovered the truth and Florian had her placed in a mental institution; where she eventually commmitted suicide.

Irina, who had been told her Mother deserted the family,refuses to accept the truth. Hoping to convince her, Michael uses the cover of a church meeting to break into Bishop Dancu's file room to search for evidence; with Sam Murray as getaway driver.

Michael is discovered,and armed bodyguards fire at him; hitting and killing Irina. The police arrive and arrest the bodyguards. Florian, even if he escapes prison, has experienced something even his tiny conscience cannot ignore.

Cast


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