Angel of Death (1987)
Marc Logan (Antonio Mayans) works for a group of Nazi hunters looking for Dr. Mengele (Howard Vernon). When Marc discovers Mengele in South America he forms a team to try and capture the notorious Nazi doctor. His team is comprised of Mr. Agility AKA Jose, the acrobat, Garcia, driver and demolitions expert, David, technology wizard, and Roger, martial arts expert. Marc also teams up with Eva (Suzan Andrews), the doctor’s ex-mistress, who goes undercover inside Mengele’s Nazi fortress. Once inside, Marc’s team discovers, to their horror, just what Dr. Joseph Mengele has been working on all these years.
The Odessa File? No. Marathon Man? Uh uh. Boys from Brazil? Not even close! Filmed in Uruguay by Andrea Bianichi (credited here as A. Frank Drew White) and written by Jess Franco (Oasis of the Zombies, Vampyros Lesbos), Angel of Death AKA Commando Mengele entertains a part of your brain that modern science hasn’t even discovered yet. Jump cuts and post dubbing loops abound in this fast paced junky action classic. The off camera Nazi commanding the training soldiers to: “Try harder! Harder! Move it! Move it! Get the lead out!” and “Shuffle! Shuffle! Move around!” is looped four or five times in the same scene. The plot is a maze with no twists or turns (okay so maybe it’s more like a hallway) and the dialogue will induce both giggly hysteria and ennui equally. Rarely has a synthesizer pummeled the ears of viewers quite like Norbert Verrone’s score for Angel of Death. He composed at least 3 pieces of nearly distinct music for the movie: attack synth, there’s no evil synth, and carnival music thing.
Antonio Mayans (Revenge in the House of Usher) has this concerned/bewildered look stapled to his mug throughout the movie even while riding dirt-bike #27. Marc’s brief grieving when his girlfriend, Rachel, is killed by the Nazis gave me one of those “oh snap, it’s on now!” chills up my spine. Jess Franco regular, Howard Vernon, makes some impressive faces while playing Dr. Mengele and Fernando Rey (Companeros) spends a great deal of time on the phone as the leader of the Nazi hunters. And of course, you can’t f with the g-damn Jack Taylor (Eugenie, The Ghost Galleon). Christopher Mitchum (Faceless) is here as well playing Dr. Mengele’s right hand man, Wolfgang von Backey, with slow mo ferocity. The rest of the cast are either a million miles away from the script during their screen-time or trying to tear apart the rift between themselves and the audience watching at home. This film is not safe.
I need to stop and talk about Suzan Andrews before my heart bursts out of my chest and blows up a helicopter. Andrews (whose comeback as an actress is still marked on my calendar) plays Eva, a fiery phoenix pregnant with Nazi hormones. Not only does she risk her life by using her feminine wiles to trick Dr. Mengele into taking her back but she also uses her face to make me forget all of my troubles. Who can do that? Damn you, Wolfgang von Backey for stealing Eva’s heart with your fabulous sports car and fancy friends!
Oh, you have to watch Angel of Death; it is so goddamn important. Once you see Roger and Mr. Agility AKA Jose in action you’ll probably join the simple circus or start your own ADD dojo. You’ll never be the same once Eva’s face enters your life. It doesn’t matter that they reuse the same footage of her emoting to the camera in completely unrelated scenes three or four times, you’ll be shaken to the core. Dr. Mengele’s experiments turning people into half-monkey creatures will have you running to the mirror to check your uni-brow. Do I have a monkey ear? Oh, don’t look at me. Don’t look at me!
“Listen, I’m an acrobat. Might come in handy. And a gypsy. The Nazis gassed my father. If you need any help with those bastards, count me in.”