A

 

 

 

Angel Heart(1987)

Rated R (which generally goes without saying on this list.)

113 Minutes.

Budget - $17,000,000

Box Office - $17, 185,632

Director - Alan Parker (Mississippi Burning, Midnight Express, and Pink Floyd's The Wall)

Reasons that it's a Frank movie:

1. Best performance of DeNiro's career.

That's right. Not Jake La Motta. Not young Vito Corleone. Louis Cyphre in Angel Heart.
I would hope from the name that you can infer his character's identity. The best part is, he played the role by imitating Martin Scorsese. That is ironic and foretelling, simultaneously.

Here is a small sample.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQfiuHK_U84


2. They had to edit a sex scene to get the rating dropped from "X".

This was Lisa Bonet's first film role, and an attempt to distance herself from her clean-cut role as Denise Huxtable on The Cosby Show. She swung for the fences. Her sex scene was so graphic with Mickey Rourke that it had to be edited down to avoid an X-rating. 
Not because of the strong sexual content or the nudity, but because of the blood.
I shit you not.
If you're able to, find the unrated version.

 

 

 

3. There's a character named Toots Sweet.
The film starts off in Harlem in 1955, and makes its way south to Algiers, Louisiana. It is a period piece, but it feels just like New Orleans today. Maybe not as filthy.

 

 

 

If you're interested, here's what Roger Ebert had to say about it (which is shockingly kind):

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/angel-heart-1987




Runner up:  April Fool's Day (1986)

89 Minutes.

Budget - $5,000,000 (I can't believe that it was that much.)

Box Office - $12,947,763


Reasons that it's a Frank movie:

1.  The hotties. 

It doesn't stand the test of time, but there was some grade A 1980's tail in this flick.  It has Deborah Foreman, who makes another appearance later in this list, Deborah Goodrich, who makes a later appearance in this list, and Amy Steel, who was famous for her work on daytime soaps, but also for playing Ginny on Friday the 13th Part 2.

 

Oh, and lots of post-teen angst.

2.  Biff Tannen, only better.

You may know Tom Wilson as Biff Tannen from Back to the Future.  But, before that, he was even better as Arch.  His character also had to be the inspiration for Steve Sanders on Beverly Hills, 90210.  Classic.

Here's the original trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjT58KaVI3s


Honorable Mentions:  Alien (1979), American Anthem (1986), and Amongst Friends (1993)