Angel, Angel, Down We Go

Holly Near, now a singer and activist, but once an actress, plays Tara Steele, "18-year-old Virgin Americanus." Chubby and insecure, Tara has little to do but wallow in strange fantasies about her parents-Dad, an out-and-out tycoon but a closet gay; Mom, a former stag-film star, now an arid aristocrat. Eventually, she meets cocky Bogart, lead singer of The Rabbit Habit, a delirious rock group that includes Roddy McDowall and Lou Rawls. Then down the rabbit hole we go into a rowdy realm of seduction, mayhem, betrayal...and song. You see, Angel, Angel, Down We Go is also a musical with such winning tunes as "Mother Lover," "Hey Hey Hey and a Hi Ho," and the oddly uplifting pudge paean, "The Fat Song." Director Thom (Wild in the Streets) uses ditsy flashbacks, artsy-fartsy collage, and some surrealist treacle to explain the havoc surrounding tony Tara. But strangest of all is seeing the once-majestic Jennifer Jones, as Tara's mother, utter nuggets such as "I made thirty stag films and I never faked an orgasm."Pleased be warned: Print is in fair condition.

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