"Angel's Ladies"
Mack Moore, a cemetery kingpin in Eugene, Oregon, and his second wife, Angel, a widowed funeral director, sold it all and moved to the frontier hamlet of Beatty, Nevada, located halfway between Death Valley and the Nuclear Weapons Testing Range. The couple purchased the local brothel, Fran's Star Ranch, and shifted careers from caring for the dead to servicing the living in the documentary film, "Angel's Ladies."
The idea of "Angel's Ladies" is an interesting one. A middle aged couple, he 70 and she 55, pick up their long-established roots in the damp northwest and plunk themselves down right next to the hottest place on earth to run a cat house. There is ready made interest in why they did it, what their plans are, who are the women working for the Moores and why are they there.
Things start off in a pretty straightforward manner with a succession of talking heads and panoramic view of the scrub brush of the desert and the ticky-tacky brothel building. But, it becomes obvious very fast that the video makers have not learned their craft too well. In this day of inexpensive, high quality video and audio equipment, there is no reason for poor camera work and bad sound from a so-called professional filmmaker. Both of these quality problems are rampant through the entire film. I have seen local cable access programs that have better production values. The cheesy production also extends to the lousy use of music to bridge many moments in the documentary.
The subject matter is intriguing, but the execution of it is not. What starts out as a document of the Moores and their unusual business in the middle of nowhere, Nevada, turns into a rather strange tale of misperceptions, labor problems and Angel taking an active part in servicing the brothel's clients. Moore, at one point, claims that he never "dates" his girls. The ladies counter his claim saying, sure, he always hits on them. Mack and Angel say that the women are totally loyal to the couple. Then, we hear about the labor problems from the hookers. As the docu progresses, we become increasingly confused as to the point of the film and why we are here.
The docu glosses over any in-depth investigation, like the impact of brothels on the local community. This is glossed over with a few interview shots of town officials telling us that the brothel tax pays for the town's emergency services and it's all a good thing. We don't get into the heads of Mack and Angel (nor would I want to be) or really learn much about the why and wherefore of the women working at Angel's Ladies Brothel. When the film ended, I wondered about the point of the film and the time I wasted watching it.
I give "Angel's Ladies" a D-.
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