New World's "High school honor student by day, Hollywood hooker by night" gets her due in Vinegar Syndrome's THE ANGEL COLLECTION Blu-ray boxed set.

ANGEL: Fifteen-year-old Molly (Donna Wilkes, SCHIZOID) is an unassuming high school honor student at a Los Angeles private school. She keeps to herself because she has secrets. She looks after her invalid mother who no one ever sees – not even her closest friends: butch sculptor landlady Solly (Susan Tyrell, NIGHT WARNING), maternal crossdresser Mae (Dick Shawn, IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD), and old-timer western actor Kit Carson (Rory Calhoun, THE RED HOUSE) – and she assumes the identity of hooker Angel to prowl Hollywood Boulevard by night. She's not the only one prowling, however, since a mother-obsessed, necrophile serial killer (John Diehl, MINDRIPPER) is slashing his way through the city's prostitutes, including two of Angel's friends. When Molly and her john (Peter Jason, PRINCE OF DARKNESS) discover the cut up body of another of Angel's friends in the shower of the bungalow they share to turn tricks, Molly attracts the attention of Lieutenant Andrews (Cliff Gorman, THE BOYS IN THE BAND) as well as the killer since she may have seen his face.

Directed by Robert Vincent O'Neill whose earlier films included the sleazy erotic thriller BLOOD MANIA and the fun spy thriller WONDER WOMEN, ANGEL makes for quite a contrast in his filmography. While there is sex, nudity, and gore, Wilkes' Angel is a surprisingly chaste hooker who is never seen taking off her clothes or actually having sex with a client. That is not exactly a fault since she, Gorman's cop, and the script make up for it by delivering the emotional pain behind Molly's dilemma with conviction, from her feelings of abandonment, estrangement from her carefree classmates – including rape-happy jock Ric (David Underwood, LIAR'S MOON) – and her anger at law enforcement's jaded response to hookers getting murdered on a daily basis. Although he has no dialogue, character actor Diehl makes for a menacing presence, also seeming to put more into the role than required. Although Calhoun, Shawn, and Tyrell provide some comic relief, the film manages to keep it tone compelling grim while also being the best in the series at depicting the appeal of the carnivalesque atmosphere of Hollywood Boulevard in the early 1980s that might have been as much a draw for Molly to play dress up as her more practical motives. The film's slick look and feel are the contributions of cinematographer/director Andrew Davis – who shot and directed the wilderness slasher THE FINAL TERROR the same year – and the synth scoring of Craig Safan (LADY BEWARE).

AVENGING ANGEL: It's four years later and Molly (Betsy Russell, TOMBOY) has started law school with the support of her guardian Andrews (Robert F. Lyons, PLATOON LEADER). She has left her old life fully behind until Andrews along with a cop working undercover as a prostitute (Karin Mani, ALLEY CAT) are gunned down. Returning to Los Angeles, Molly reunites with Solly and street performer Yo-yo Charlie (Steven M. Porter, LEPRECHAUN 5: IN THE HOOD) along with Kit (Calhoun) after they bust him out of the sanitarium. The police, led by Captain Moradian (Ossie Davis, DO THE RIGHT THING), have no clue about the perpetrators but Angel thinks she has a lead in a possible witness: street performer Johnny Glitter (Barry Pearl, GREASE) who has gone into hiding. They are not only ones hunting for him, however, as Angel and company come up against a pair of gunmen (NIGHT SHIFT's Tim Rossovich and WONDER WOMEN's Ross Hagen who had a smaller role in the first film) who work for modern day land baron Arthur Gerrard (Paul Lambert, PLANET OF THE APES) and his twisted son Miles (Frank Doubleday, ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13) who are not content to just buy up all the small businesses along the boulevard to consolidate the real estate; they also want to take control of all of the areas vice including the prostitutes.

Although the film does manage to bring back O'Neill, writer Joseph Michael Cala, and actors Calhoun, Porter, and Tyrell, AVENGING ANGEL does not manage to make lightning strike twice. The more conventional action plot drags along while this film's more gentrified Hollywood Boulevard is a bland backdrop. Tonally, the film is also all over the place, with too little drama – Andrews is soon forgotten along with Molly's college boyfriend (Richard DeHaven, SAVAGE STREETS) who knows nothing of her past – and too much comedy. Although she was an engaging presence in TOMBOY, Russell is a bit wooden here, particularly when required to deliver legalese, and Doubleday is not given much of an opportunity to go off the rails. Lambert at least gets to demonstrate his character's combination of ruthlessness and cravenness by threatening a baby during the finale which is exciting staged in the Bradbury Apartments last seen in BLADE RUNNER. The photography of Peter Lyons Collister (THE REPLACMENT KILLERS) and the scoring of New World regular Christopher Young (HELLRAISER) are slick but merely serviceable. The supporting cast, on the other hand, has some welcome faces like ALF's Liz Sheridan, HERE COME THE BRIDES' Hoke Howell, FRIDAY THE 13TH: A NEW BEGINNING's Deborah Voorhees, and FIVE THE HARD WAY's Robert Tessier as a tattoo artist.

ANGEL III: THE FINAL CHAPTER: Molly (Mitzi Kapture, THE VAGRANT) has once again left her old life behind and is working as a freelance photographer in New York, getting the scoop on police raids by arrangement with Lt. Mellin (Floyd Levine, DEATH WISH). While working a gallery opening, she witnesses a skirmish between Nadine (Maud Adams, TATTOO) and Gloria Rollins (Anna Navarro, TOPAZ), a woman Molly believes is the mother who abandoned her when she was fourteen years old. She follows Gloria back to Los Angeles where she reveals that Molly has a younger half-sister Michelle (Tawny Fere, ROCKULA) who is in great danger. Gloria is killed by a car bomb before she can tell Molly exactly what kind of trouble her sister is in, and police lieutenant Doniger (Richard Roundtree, SHAFT) seems to consider Molly more of a suspect than a concerned relative. Assuming that Michelle is working as a prostitute, Molly hooks up with former hustler turned street performer Spanky (Mark Blankfield, JEKYLL AND HYDE... TOGETHER AGAIN) who introduces her to filmmaker Neal (Kin Shriner, VENDETTA) who has recently made a documentary about prostitutes. Instead of finding Michelle in the raw footage of his interviewees, Molly hits upon Nadine who turns out to be a big porn agent whose work is a front for drug smuggling and sexual slavery. Molly once again assumes the mantle of Angel and infiltrates the world of Los Angeles porn filmmaking in search of her sister.

Made four years after the first two films without any of the original talent involved, ANGEL III: THE FINAL CHAPTER is actually the better sequel; but that does not necessarily mean it is a great film. Kapture makes for a better Molly replacement, Adams is a better villain, Roundtree actually makes an impression in only a few scenes, and giving Molly a love interest and family actually gives the plot some needed momentum. Director Tom DeSimone (HELL NIGHT) makes some nods to his past as an adult filmmaker by casting his brother Bob (CHATTERBOX) as a porn producer and casting the porn-film-within-a-film with Ashlyn Gere (THE PINK PUSSYCAT). Comic relief is kept to a minimum, the sleaze is amped up, and the warehouse showdown is suspenseful and exciting. The cast also includes guest appearances by Toni Basil as a gallery owner and Dick Miller (A BUCKET OF BLOOD) as Molly's newspaper editor. A fourth film ANGEL 4: UNDERCOVER followed six years later with Darlene Vogel (SKI SCHOOL) in the lead and is completely unrelated apart from the basic premise.

Released to New World Video VHS and Image Entertainment laserdisc, the ANGEL films have pretty much always been available on home video, following up the original releases with Starmaker LP sell-through tapes and DVD boxed sets from Anchor Bay in 2003 and Image Entertainment in 2011. Vinegar Syndrome's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray of ANGEL comes from 4K scan of the original 35mm interpositive while the sequels come from 2K scans of the interpositives. ANGEL's transfer cuts through the eighties haze with nicely saturated wardrobe and colored gel lighting and the many formerly flat backlit interiors and night sequences have nice depth. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono soundtrack (and Dolby Digital 2.0 backup track selectable only via remote) boast clear dialogue and scoring while optional English SDH subtitles are also included. The photography of AVENGING ANGEL generally looks more flatly lit apart from the climax, but that means that the 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 encode is never really taxed by the look of the film. The photography of Howard Wexler (OVER THE WIRE) – a regular of low budget and direct-to-video fare throughout the eighties up to now including plenty of Charles Band titles and nineties erotic thrillers – on ANGEL III: THE FINAL CHAPTER is more adventurous than the second film lighting-wise and in terms of color choices in the wardrobe and set dressings, and the 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen encode looks crisp throughout with only a couple flatter-looking shots during the New York night location shots under the credits opticals. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track (a Dolby Digital 2.0 track is also included) also reveals a better mix than the second film in terms of music and sound effects (particularly the balance when the two overlap). Optional English SDH subtitle are also included.

ANGEL's extras start with "Discovering an Angel" (30:14), an interview with director O'Neill in which he discusses the origins of the story in a real life "Angel," working with producer Sandy Howard (VICE SQUAD), and how New World met the challenge of marketing a film about a prostitute who does not strip, drink, or have sex. More interesting than his discussion of the film is his earlier talk about his beginnings as a set dresser and how Richard Rush (PSYCH-OUT) entrusted him with looking through the camera lens for ideas about how to place props, furniture, and other materials within the composition. Wilkes is interviewed in "Playing Both Sides" (12:09) in which she recalls her audition, doing research with Hollywood Boulevard prostitutes, her admiration of her co-stars (most of whom are no longer with us), and her trepidation about shooting the climax where she walks down the boulevard in front of real people carrying a gun. She also discusses her international promotion of the film and turning down the sequel.

"A Change Meeting" (16:48) is an interview with screenwriter Cala who recalls getting into the business, running into O'Neill by chance, and patterning the film's story after THE WIZARD OF OZ with Angel as Dorothy. "Angel's Theme" (9:50) is an interview with composer Safan who has only vague memories about the job since he was replacing another composer, but he does discuss his general way of working back then on such projects. A selection of deleted scenes and outtakes (6:35) set to Safan's score have nothing particularly revelatory, just expansions of dialogue scenes, and not the body double nude scenes Wilkes mentions were shot but not used in the film. The film's theatrical trailer (1:48) is included along with trailers for the two sequels.

AVENGING ANGEL's extras include "Chasing an Angel" (8:44), an interview with O'Neill and Cala. O'Neill recalls not realizing that he had signed a contract to do a sequel to the film and castigates producer Howard for not paying Wilkes more money to get her to accept the role. Cala felt it made sense to do a sequel based on the first film's success but he and O'Neill wrote it with Wilkes in mind and the pace of pre-production left it underdeveloped. They both speak kindly of Russell while acknowledging that she was wrong for the role as written. Russell appears in "Street Smarts" (10:01), admitting to having no formal training and learning on the job but praising O'Neill for working with her. She also discusses the petering out of her career and starting a family with then-husband Vincent Van Patten (SURVIVAL RUN) and how it was producer boyfriend Mark Burg's idea to create a small role for her in SAW III which was expanded into four of the sequels. The disc also includes the film's theatrical trailer (2:36) along with trailers for the first and third film.