Angel Baby

Evangelist faith-healer Paul Strand (George Hamilton) travels the American south with his wife Sarah (Mercedes McCambridge), Mollie Hays (Joan Blondell), and Ben Hays (Henry Jones) to preach to the masses in a tent. Angel Baby (Salome Jens) has been mute since childhood. She is drawn to the meeting where Paul somehow heals her. The group takes her under their wings and turns her into an orator. Her boyfriend Hoke Adams (Burt Reynolds) gets jealous.

It is interesting that the film starts with text saying this may not be suitable for impressable children. I can imagine some blowback from the religious community. Many characters are drawn too broadly. Burt Reynolds is in his first movie and he is probably one of those broad characters. I would like less of the romantic melodrama. There are some interesting elements, but the film does struggle in the mix.

About 1970 friends and I were on our way back to Sydney following a 2-weel driving vacation to Queensland. We stopped overnight in the small 'bush' town of Bourke (New South Wales). It was there we set up camp for the night and then decided to seek out a movie theater. We found such a theater in a beautiful outdoor garden setting . . .I can't recall its name.

Anyway, the movie showing that night was 'Angel Baby' which we hadn't heard about before. I remember the title not appealing to me at all but the theater setting was gorgeous as well as the night itself. The three of us (me, a friend and 11 year-old Peter) positioned ourselves on blankets on the lawn. Then, for the first time, we saw 'Angel Baby'. It impacted greatly on the 3 of us and we thought about it and talked about it for weeks after. We couldn't get out of our minds the miraculous healing of the cripple boy at the movie's conclusion.

Years later I became a Christian and had the opportunity to see that movie again on TV just a couple of years ago. I'd love to be able to thank the movie cast and particularly Salome Jens for having inspired me (us) back in 1970 and even today. Thanks!

Angel Baby was originally bought by Columbia in 1960 and shelved for a year to insure the success of that studio's similar "Elmer Gantry." On its own merit it is an outstanding film with Oscar worthy performances by the leads, Salome Jens as Angel Baby, and George Hamilton as the evangelist who heals her. Mercedes McCambridge slightly overacts as his jealous wife and Burt Reynolds is a stinker as Angel's ex-boyfriend. He even requested his part in the picture be larger, adding a scene where he almost rapes her, one of the films demerits. The outstanding photography by Haskell Wexler who shot the film with a mini-camera while he roller skated on the set is by far his best effort. Henry Jones and Joan Blondell do fine in their supporting roles as Angel Baby's true believers.

Judging by this movie, you never would have guessed what lay ahead for Hollywood legend George Hamilton and future number one movie star in the world Burt Reynolds.

Plot In A Paragraph: A woman who believes she has been chosen by God to heal people is taken in by a greedy promoter and his wife to make the rounds of the rural South - she to save souls and heal the sick, he to make as much money as he possibly can.

I was not very entertained watching this, and I only made it all the way through because of George Hamilton and a young Burt Reynolds.

This was Burt Reynolds first role and I found the movie less interesting when he was not on the screen. Even if his character Hook Adams was the local thug in the picture.

That said Reynolds fight with Hamilton is awfully staged, and you can see their youthful inexperience.

In the wake of the success of Elmer Gantry in the previous year, Angel Baby with a considerably smaller budget came out in 1961. This story is a good deal trashier and it introduces Salome Jens in the title role of a faith healing evangelist who is sincere, but surrounded by sharks.

Young evangelist George Hamilton after healing her dumbness at a meeting falls big time for her. It was a hysterical dumbness after a traumatic experience. Jens decides that evangelism is for her.

Hamilton falls for her, but he's already married to much older woman Mercedes McCambridge. Jens has this good ole boy young Burt Reynolds panting after her. When she strikes out on her own in the evangelical profession Jens has her two leeching parents, Henry Jones and Joan Blondell. She also has a real snake for a manager in Roger Clark.

Angel Baby is pretty trashy stuff. But a good cast makes it interesting.