Sheryl Lee naked in Angel’s Dance

Perhaps you’ve never heard of this crime comedy. Few people have. It has only 1,500 votes at IMDb. Its obscurity makes it an underrated and well-hidden treasure.

I kinda think Jim Belushi himself has always been underrated because people expect him to be like John, and he isn’t. Jim is a perfect representation of the cynical, down-to-earth, working-class everyman from Chicago. John was as far as possible from “down-to-earth.” You might have believed that he was from Chicago, since he was, but he didn’t seem to be from anywhere, not even from Earth. He was a once-in-a-generation icon, and he was an original. Jim is neither an original, nor very much like John, so he always seemed to disappoint critics and audiences for one reason or another. But I think he was terrific in this film, as was the equally underrated Sheryl Lee.

Belushi is acting again, most recently portraying Ken Kesey, the legendary hippie leader of the Merry Pranksters, and the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The film is The Chronology of Water, a biopic co-written and directed by Kristen Stewart. (I have not seen it, but it rates 93% at RT, and received a lengthy “standing o” at Cannes.)

Belushi was credited in Angel’s Dance (and other films) as “James” Belushi, but let’s face it, he is not a James kind of guy. James Earl Jones was a James. People did not call him Jim or Jimmy. But Jim Belushi is a Jim. He’s too tough to be Jimmy, too informal to be James.

If I ever had had the privilege to work with the great James Earl Jones, a hero of mine, I would have called him “Jimbo” just to see his reaction. That’s not quite as outrageous as when my friend and I constantly called Senator Eugene McCarthy “Joe” at a dinner party. (Senator Joe McCarthy was his political enemy, and the two McCarthys once faced off in a famous debate.) It’s a long story. I tell it in my book. The short version is that he never realized I was kidding, although it was obvious to the dozen or so others at the table who kept trying to hide spit takes every time my friend and I thanked him for getting those Commies out of government, inevitably followed by his clueless correction. Eugene McCarthy was reputed to have a good sense of humor, but obviously not about himself. (And I found him arrogant and dismissive, which naturally made me dig the needle in deeper and deeper. He, too, was once a hero of mine – until I met him and found him to be a total douche.)

Anyway …

I discussed Angel’s Dance at great length, some would say excessive length, here. I say “excessive” because I spoil the ending and several of the jokes. OK, I admit it, it’s also excessive because it is the written equivalent of “too many notes, Mr. Mozart.” I got carried away, as I sometimes do when I really love (or really hate) a project, and like Mozart, I didn’t know which notes to remove.

See? I’m doing it again.

Sheryl Lee is 58 now and had not been seen on screen for several years until this year, when she made a comeback with a supporting role in an obscure horror film called I Live Here Now, or so says IMDb.

Also naked in Angel’s Dance, Gisella Peters, whoever she is.

IMDb says she is now known as Darlene Colaiuta, whoever she is.

If you are interested, she has her own website.

Videos of both women here