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Satan's Angel: Queen of the Fire Tassels
USA 2012
produced by Joshua M. Dragotta, Anthony Marsico for Retrograde, Hound Dog Inc, Swingomatic Films
directed by Joshua M. Dragotta
starring Angel Walker (= Satan's Angel), Vic Crotwell, Connie Lobo, Angie Pontani, Anna Bells, Audrey DeLuxe, Baby Doe Von Stroheim, Bamby Galore, Big Fanni Anni, Cinnamon Britches, Dennis Constant, Dixie Evans, Gia Nova, Ginger Lynn, Kitten Deville, Francesca 'Kitten' Natividad, Miss Kitty Baby, Lady Monster, Lilli Von Schtupp, Michelle L'Amour, Miranda Colclasure, Pyrrha Sutra, Scarlett James, Shannon Doah, Tara Mi Sioux, Terry Earp, Tiffany Carter, C.W. Norman
music by Anthony Marsico
documentary
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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At the age of 67, exotic dancer Angel Walker aka Satan's Angel is still
taking her clothes off on stage - but what sounds like the beginnings of a
very sad story definitely is not, because Angel is proud of what she does,
what she has done for over 45 years, and what she does is not just getting
naked in front of a bunch of horny strangers but making a performance out
of it, with nuances, with endless teasing, with surprises like setting her
tassels on fire and the like - because Angel is not a mere stripper (and
hasn't been for the longest time) but a burlesque artist, one of the last
(and best) of her time - which is why, even if she doesn't have the body
of a 20 year old anymore, she still manages to bring down the house, which
is why she's still doing shows all over the country, and which is why she
still pops up at conventions regularly. Told mainly via interviews with
Angel, her mother Connie Lobo and her girlfriend Vic Crotwell as well as
many burlesque performance young and old, the film takes us back to
Angel's early days as a(n underage) stripper, to when she started to move
from mere stripping into burlesque, to when she entertained numerous
sugardaddies despite being a lesbian - which she had to keep a secret
though because even behind the scenes of the strip clubs, homosexuality
still was an issue in the day - to the days when burlesque went out of
style and straight porn performances took over in the mid 1980's ...
something Angel simply wasn't into. After a two year long cocaine binge
and a fall-out with a biker gang, Angel found herself managing a handful
of small bars, adding elements of burlesque to all of them to increase
business, before she was rediscovered and reinvited into the world of
burlesque, as a performer /fearless as ever) and a teacher ... and also as
a treasure trove of anecdotes from long gone days ... Satan's
Angel is a rather fascinating documentary about a subject most
historians won't touch with a stick even, while on film it too often
becomes the target of cheap jokes: The burlesque, and with it, the art of
striptease as such (including its downfall in the 1980's). And while the
film definitely doesn't block out the dark sides of the business - and of
Angel's career -, it also does show a woman who's taking pride in her job,
who does what she does with dignity, and who amazingly is at peace with
herself after strutting her stuff for almost 50 years. What the film
sadly lacks is footage from Angel's early days, and there's very little to
see from her at the height of her career - and that said, this footage
might just not exist, so the last comment might be as true as it is
unfair, really. At the end of the day, this is just a really interesting
film about a rather uncharted piece of history that serves for something
completely else than to just give you a boner - but in its best moments,
it's pretty sexy nevertheless ...
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