Angel Heart

Top 10 Fun Facts

1. The film broke even at the box office, making back its $17 million budget. Just imagine the profit margin if they'd spent a little less on chicken blood.
2. Cosby Show star Lisa Bonet caused quite a stir with her graphic sex scene in Angel Heart; just months after the film's release, Bonet's character Denise was shipped off to Hillman College - and her very own sitcom, A Different World. Maybe Dr. Huxtable was more progressive than we thought.
3. Angel Heart is adapted from the novel Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg. In the book, young Epiphany Proudfoot conceives a child with the devil at a voodoo ceremony. And the list of stuff you didn't know you had to warn your kids about gets longer...
4. Before Robert De Niro landed the role of Louis Cyphre, producers considered casting Marlon Brando. "I coulda been Satan!"
5. Meanwhile, Mickey Rourke earned the part of Harry Angel only after Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson and De Niro himself turned it down. What, Peter Falk was busy?
6. Many of the character's names have deeper meanings, like missing blues singer Johnny Favorite: Lucifer was known as God's favorite angel.
7. Louis Cyphre = Lou Cy Phre = Lucifer. Get it? Try giving that one out to the ladies next time you're in a bar.
8. Cyphre's lawyers are named MacIntosh and Winesap, both varieties of apple. The latin word for apple is "malus" - the root of which means "evil." Seriously, decode your lawyer's name. There's probably something in there.
9. When in doubt, go back to the classics: Cypher's line "How terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the wise" comes from Sophocles' Oedipus Rex.
10. Spoiler alert: Harry finds each character's murder weapon before his or her death. Suspicious, or just a very good gumshoe?

Cast

Crew