The Cycle Savages

Bruce Dern stars as Keeg, a real slimeball who runs a prostitution racket for his brother. Everything is going perfectly except when Romko, the new artist in town begins drawing pictures of Keeg and his gang, he wants to break his hands using a vice. That basically sums up the whole movie, I'd just see it to watch Bruce Dern.

The problems do abound in The Cycle Savages, but it could have possibly been a better movie. I did get into the sheer artificiality, and unbelievability, of the movie at times just on the basis of kinda, sort of buying into it. But it's also got a central problem in that there is really nothing 'there' in the side of the 'good guys'. Not that this is a totally bad thing really, for it is the mean dirty rat-bastard bikers that really are the show for anyone seeing the film today. And it's almost luck that first time writer/director Bill Brame has Bruce Dern to fill the part of Keeg, one of the sleaziest of the kind of totally immoral, however with a kind of Little Alex ala Clockwork Orange style of immediate intelligence. Even in all of his occasional mania and outright outbursts getting into the over-dramatic, Dern has this character completely down. It's actually best in the scenes where he ends up being most provoking by having the most controlled, almost calm voice. A lot of his 'wit' in the film is scabrous, and not really funny, but on the side of giving a convincingly deranged sociopath with a penchant for intimidation and girls it makes the film usually watchable.

It's a shame then that Brame isn't able to match him up with more competent actors. Or even, despite having a couple of good 'exploitation' style scenes of violence and nudity and rape, having not enough for what the rest of the material is asking for. The group, Hell's Chosen Few (strange for a half biker/half prostitution ring club), spends a lot of the movie waiting, and carrying on with side-stuff, while the main story involving the artist who previously drew the bikers who now gets drawn into the deceiving clutches of the decoy is weak and unconvincing. The motives most of the time, even for a B-movie, seem to shift and not seem very solid aside from the man's 'I love you' phase even after fighting with a slashed abdomen wound. The ending (coming all too quick and with a lackluster climax) and the musical accompaniment (likely the most annoyingly generic riff repeated in any film from the period) are along with some of the acting the weaker points of the picture, sometimes embarrassingly so.

So it does say a lot, however, that I could possibly recommend it on a bad movie level, where some parts become so crazy it's hard not to enjoy it. And Bruce Dern helps bring a good, tiny change of pace to the proceedings of the very typical ten-cent biker production, which by the way doesn't have a big abundance of throughout the film. In a career full of playing antagonists, this one is unnerving and realistic enough to be of note.

Another low-budget "biker" film; not top-notch except for Bruce Dern who is incredible as always. As Keeg, the woman-hating leader of a pack, he constantly makes bad dialogue sound realistic with his character. There are some interesting scenes: the blonde chick (post-party) wandering the streets in search of help. Scott Brady (Lawrence Tierney's younger brother pops up as a vice cop) and is authentic.

This is pretty standard stuff (except for Dern). A 4 out of 10. Best performance = Bruce Dern. Melody Patterson is terrible as always as the main actress (even with nudity). Interesting plot, but terrible dialogue. Not on par with Hell's Angels on Wheels with Jack Nicholson and Sabrina Scharf.

Wow, is just one of the many words used to describe this movie. A terrific 60's independent sound track that make you want to take the nearest drug available. Also, the supporting cast is amazing. So amazing, that it makes the leads in this film terrible. Melody Patterson makes her first feature since leaving her days on F-Troop as the beautiful Wrangler Jane. Yes, she gets naked, but we don't see much. This may be one of the biggest reasons why people actually paid money to see this back in 1969. Then again, we see Bruce Dern's talents as a wonderful actor in this movie. One of the most original and outrageous characters in independent cinema, Dern's performance gives the audience another reason to keep watching.

'The Cycle Savages' is 60s biker exploitation trash par excellence! Future 'Bold And The Beautiful' soap star Chris Robinson plays Romko, a nice guy artist. Cult legend Bruce Dern ('The Wild Angels', 'Silent Running', 'The Trip', 'Psych-Out') plays Keeg, a sadistic noogoodnik biker type. Keeg takes offense at Romko sketching him and his fellow bikers and roughs the guy up. Becoming obsessed he declares he will destroy Romko's hands if he ever catches him drawing again. Romko recuperates from his injuries with the help of nice girl Lea (Melody Patterson, who sent many a pre-pubescent boy's heart a flutter when she played Wrangler Jane in 'F-Troop'). Meanwhile Keeg and the boys carry on with what comes naturally - enticing local high school girls to their pad, dosing them with acid, gang raping them, and passing them on to his pimp brother (played by DJ Casey Kasem, who also co-produced!). Romko begins to fall in love with Lea not realizing that she is being intimidated by Keeg into spying on him. Remember just one more sketch and it's bye-bye to his hands! 'The Cycle Savages' is a cut above similarly trashy biker exploitation movies from this period (e.g. 'Hells Angels On Wheels', 'The Rebel Rousers') because of the memorable performance by Bruce Dern, one of the nastiest of his whole career! If like me you can't get enough of vintage Dern action then 'The Cycle Savages' is a must see! On top of that, Melody Patterson is easy on the eye (and has some very subtle nude scenes which sadly reveal virtually nothing), and there is a goofy fuzz guitar driven score that sounds like some old square geezer pretending (unsuccessfully!) to be Davie Allen. Great stuff!