This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

disgusting, overrated, pointless

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

In her next to last film Jennifer Jones plays once again a decadent over sexed sultry figure in Angel Angel Down We Go. In the film she did a few years back The Idol Jones plays an older woman who flips for her son's friend who just looks at her as someone he wants to nail. But The Idol was classic next to this one.Jennifer Jones and Charles Aidman play a rich power couple who have a daughter Holly Near who's no Miss Junior Miss. Still her status requires she be given a coming out as any débutante must have. At that party she meets Jordan Christopher who is a second hand version of Christopher Jones's character Max Frost from Wild In The Streets. He hangs out with a group of Manson like followers that include Davey Davison, Roddy McDowall, and Lou Rawls. With her millions they welcome Holly into their group all the while Christopher takes aim on Jones.We learned here that Jeanne Crain showed uncommon good judgment in turning this film down. Watching Charles Aidman I thought he was imitating Jason Robards and maybe Jason was who was originally thought of to play the father. I guess that Aidman was having his own little joke knowing he was in a Thanksgiving Day special.The Idol and Angel Angel Down We Go were both made after the death of David O. Selznick, Jennifer Jones's second husband and career Svengali. Selznick sure had his faults but there ain't no way he would have let his wife appear in those two films, especially Angel Angel Down We Go.Jones was apparently no good at charting her own career, but her final film was The Towering Inferno where she played the part of a respectable widow who stays respectable.Jordan Christopher was imitating Jim Morrison in his role and I can't believe that they didn't give the genuine talent of Lou Rawls a song to sing.Fans of Jennifer Jones will not like Angel Angel Down We Go.

This must be one the greatest, least recognised trash films of all time. It has such a strange mixture of truth and pretentious phoniness that it is in a class of its own. What Hollywood film of the time (or now even) would dare show anything as pornographic (for Fat Amerika) as Holly Near's binge eating scene at her birthday party? Yet the incredible tackiness of it all perfectly illustrates the tackiness of late 60s rock culture, even if it gets all the details wrong, oh so wrong. I love it, it's one of my top ten all time favourite films.

**Spoiler Alert**I've been watching Jennifer Jones since I was in grade school. I clearly remember the Saturday night I watched "The Song of Bernadette" with my grandmother on television. As a kid in Catholic school, taught by nuns, it left quite an impact. I mention this mostly cause I've had a life-long respect for Jennifer Jones and have made every effort possible to see as many movies of hers as possible. To say I was curious about "Angel, Angel Down We Go" would be the understatement of the year. I appreciate trash as much as the next movie-lover..but this one really tested my patience. Its mean-spirited, its long-winded, its cinematic nonsense. I can't imagine what in the world possessed Jennifer to do this movie cause its, by light years, the worse movie she's ever been involved in. I have a feeling she was having one of her parties and Roddy McDowall and maybe even Lou Rawls was there and someone spiked the punch with acid and they all made a pact to do this movie as a lark. Either that or she lost a bet or owed on the landscaper but there had to have been some unexplicable reason why this movie...maybe Lana Turner was there was said that doing the "The Big Cube" wasn't worse than some of her marriages and so Jennifer figured what the hell, no one will ever see it. A biography I have of hers said she clearly did it for the movie, since AIP was paying stars like Vincent Price a lot for doing the movies he was making for them, and let's face it, you gotta eat..I got a laugh or two. She mentions "Gone with the Wind" and it IS one of the only movies I can think of where the hairdresser, Sydney Guillaroff, is mentioned. But her death scene was just as unpleasant as her death scene in "The Towering Inferno", and its just not bad enough to be good. I forgive you, and I think Showtime Beyond for unearthing it, and I am very glad I got to see it, but obviously it was not a lot of fun for me.Speaking of "The Big Cube"..hey Showtime, how about it?

Strange as it may seem, the '60s didn't end in the '70s, as is evident with "Angel, Angel, Down We Go" and neither did empty symbolism nor whacked-out stories.Seems poor little rich girl Tara (Near) is bored with her poor little rich life and spices it up after meeting decadent rock star Bogart Peter Stuyvesant (Christopher) and his equally decadent pals, who make it their mission in life to teach all a downbeat, yet mod, lesson in life. That lesson? I wasn't tripping out while watching this, so I missed it.Too bad they had to involve names like Jones, McDowell and Rawls (!!) in this insipid, drugged-up mess. Maybe they figured that would draw attention away from such story points as Jones jumping out of a plane (sans parachute) to save her thrown-out jewelry or Tara's daddy (Aidman) being whipped on a pool table or "rock sensation" Stuyvesant singing that all-time hit "She's Fat" to Tara or everyone taking time out from the story to stare blankly into space and mouth dialogue that probably sounded good to the writers when they were dropping whatever they dropped to write this or....Forget it, baby. I'm Austin Power-less to be further incensed and peppermint-ed at this psychedelic shack of uncool aura.No stars. Not even good for laughing at. This "Angel" will make you feel like the devil.Un-groovy, baby.