Some questions for Don, who I believe is knowledgeable about this film:

(1) Did this get a theatrical release at the time?

(2) The print I watched on YouTube ends abruptly, followed by a repetition of the opening credits. I assume that is a problem with the existing material? The movie once ended more conventionally?

(3) The IMDB offers this nugget: “Crown International's TV version was re titled SHOCK HILL, and featured new wrap-around segments featuring original cast member William Thourlby, in which his character looked back upon the events of the original ANGEL'S FLIGHT film.” Do we know any more about this? Year it happened?

(4) Is there any likelihood of a restoration? Jim Dawson mentions the existence of a 35mm negative.

Dawson’s book on Bunker Hill discusses how the waning years of this neighborhood were self-consciously elegiac, and that is certainly true of this movie, with its discussions of how the Hill needs to be memorialized in print. The use of the locations along with the frequently fresh camera angles builds a convincingly realistic world on-screen.

I noticed that this is by far the most Bukowski-esque film I have ever seen, and in fact one can easily imagine Charles as an extra in the bar scenes; he was in his mid-40s at the time and haunting just such places.

The isolation and loneliness on display are of a piece with other early Sixties independent films such as Blast of Silence and Carnival of Souls. They all share a mood. Angel’s Flight pushes towards roughie territory without perhaps quite arriving there.