User reviews

Sure, the first reason to see The Wild Ride (or, unfortunately as it sounds, the 're-cut' Velocity which for some insane reasons extends the story) is for Jack Nicholson. It's arguably his very first 'bad-boy' role in a career with more than enough to go around. He's still got a long way to go from here, but it's fun seeing him go practically method about his character Johnny (apparently Nicholson just started with Martin Landau at the time as his teacher), as he tries to sway Robert Bean's Dave from going the not-hip route with a girl who isn't part of 'their scene' as it were. There's tension, there's some fall-out, and in the end there's some overly high pitched melodrama following a chase down a road. Nearly embarrassing to admit it, but for those who will seek out the movie for that reason, as I did, it's not that bad (as in *as bad* as some of his other B-movie work like The Terror and Rebel Rousers).

Hell, I'll even give one-time-only director Harvey Berman some credit: for a picture that's main dramatic thrust is dictated mostly by the same beef between Biff and the McFly's in the Back to the Future movies ("What's wrong? Chicken?" "Nobody calls me chicken!"), the Wild Ride does provide the cheapest thrills necessary with a picture that (thankfully) doesn't even run an hour's length of time. It gives a halfway decent race-car sequence, and some nifty music in the end climax (if not, of course, throughout). There's even an oddly coincidental opening bit to the movie with that of Breathless, also released in 1960, with a rebel and a cop on his trail (albeit this on takes itself seriously, while Godard's parody).

It's a silly bit of teens-and-hot-rods exploitation that is still riding out whatever fuel is left from the 50s via the Wild One and James Dean. It's tender moments are like tender cuts of lamb, and its dialog is as pulpy as a moldy orange. And shame on me, perhaps, for almost liking this diddle of a B-movie; at the least it features something I've never seen before in another movie I can think of, which is a guy working at a liquor store asking if the young man Johnny has ID, he says yes, guy asks to see it, and Johnny says a simple 'No.' 5.5/10

Okay, this is not classic film-making. It has its moments though. Jack Nicholson is about as young here as I can recall seeing him - almost young enough to pull off the teenage-or-just-past delinquent role he plays. The dialog is pretty full of then-current clichés and words, so that part can be a little bit amusing. There isn't a whole heck of a lot to say about this movie, either you like late 50's teen/delinquent movies or you don't. I kinda like the '57 Ford convertible Nicholson drives in this movie. I guess they made tons of this kind of movie back in the day, because kids had little to do for evening entertainment other than to go to the drive- in week after week, and the theaters needed fresh fodder to keep the teens showing up. Well, it's a period piece, don't watch it for any great entertainment value, just watch it to see a somewhat exaggerated view of what life was like back when and let it go at that.

I picked this movie up cheap out of a bargain bin. It is a double feature disc with "The Little Shop of Horrors." When I started watching it I was shocked to find that "Velocity," which I knew was circa 1960, started off with a relatively new-looking scene of kids driving dangerously. It seems that Vina Distributor (who put out this double feature edition) or somebody decided to "update" the old teen flick with some footage of more relevant "street punks."

The bad "modern" teen meets a dude in a bar who looks a little like Jack Nicholson but doesn't sound anything like him (I guess Jack has better things to do these days, unlike these cutters) who tells him the story of his young life. THEN we get into "Velocity," which is all that the other reviews here promised.

Jack is so young that one might not recognize him at first. This was only his second role and he was 23 years old in 1960. It is pretty funny and I gave it two stars for the yuks, but it is atrociously dated. The version I have is colorized.

I see on IMDb that "Velocity" is the video title and "The Wild Ride" was the original name of the film. Maybe it was renamed "Velocity" after the bizarre framing segments were added.

While in 1960 Jack Nicholson was still relatively unknown here he gives his first leading man performance tho the movie was a quickly forgotten misfire. And that was reason enough for me for watching it last October.

Johnny Varron (Nicholson) is a larger than life punk that spends his nights organizing wild parties and his days racing on a dirt track and ending in trouble to the point of killing a policeman, kidnap the girlfriend of one of his friends and seeing another of his friends ending in tragedy.

The reason why this is a dud it's because in the first half was decent with Nicholson giving a decent leading man performance but in the last 20 minutes it became dull because of all the trouble his character caused. Besides, the race scenes weren't that exciting to watch as those seen in better race movies such as DAYS OF THUNDER.

Overall, a very limp film of interest probably only for three types of viewers: 1) Nicholson completists (2) fans of old movies (3) fans of bad movies because they can get a kick out of it.

Jack Nicholson has done better and most likely not done worse.

He's a punky teen hot-rodder exhibiting all the characteristics of a 1959-1960 juvenile delinquent. He's sore at his best buddy for hooking up with a girl who's not into the beatnik punk-kid scene and not eager to let her new guy stay this course to disaster. Best buddy is waffling between going straight and staying with the witless crowd. Nicholson exhibits a weird sort of subconsciously gay relationship with best buddy by trying to place a wedge between the gal and the pal.

Ending is totally out of context with the morals of this leader of the pack, but necessary for the film to have sociological value. Lots of fun to watch just for the wild slang.

This is an exploitation flick meant to entertain and perhaps teach us about the dangers of angry young beatniks with fast cars. Jack Nicholson stars as a larger than life punk who has a group of loyal young idiots who follow him with almost cult-like devotion. And, when one of the members DOESN'T, it ultimately spells disaster.

"The Wild Ride" was very low budget throughout and looks it. Aside from a very good performance by Nicholson as an angry jerk, the rest of the cast are uniformly bland. Also the story suffers because it is neither florid and 'racy' enough to be salacious nor is it ever especially believable. So, if you are a bad movie fan, it's just not bad enough to be especially entertaining and everyone else would just be pretty bored by it. But, on the positive side, it's not an embarrassment for Nicholson or any of the rest of the cast to be in this rather limp film.

This film is another in a long line of movies showing reckless youths with their fast cars and fast women. This film features a young Jack Nicholson as the leader of a gang in California. When a young woman gets between Jack and his best friend things go downhill for all concerned. This film is recommended only for fans of Jack Nicholson.

1960's "The Wild Ride" features legendary Jack Nicholson in one of his earliest roles and yet as it would become so common later on thru and during all of his career it is a rebel and rebellious type one. Jack is Johhny Varron a young punk of a teen type that loves to drink, party, and stir up trouble. Johhny is the leader of a California gang and he has a main passion for drag racing and just all out pure fun. Yet when his buddy Dave(Robert Bean)differs from the life of fun to please his loving girl Nancy(Georgianne Carter)a bitter and personal war is then directed at the female. This film then takes a predictable turn of the pedal to the medal with the chases of good against bad as the cops get involved in this wild ride. Overall this film is nothing great it's a very short work yet it's probably a must see and watch for any fan and enthusiast of the legendary Jack Nicholson since this being one of his early works it was good to see him portray a rebel type role that he would later become so instantly famous for.

Has to be one of the worst movies of all time. Only partially redeemed by Nicholson and the hot rod roadster driven by one of his gang members and the "hipster" dialogue that is so laughable. The dirt track race is the lamest movie race ever put to film.

The Wild Ride is the original (B&W) non-modified version. I have watched it several times and believe it is one of the best cult classics available. "Velocity" however, is a butchered color version that splices in new scenes lacking in any sort of continuity and ultimately destroying the mystique and integrity of the original film. Whoever had the idea for Velocity needs to be shot in the head because they turned a truly beautiful virgin classic film into a cheap prostitute with too much makeup. This is a true testament to the "less is more" adage. If you get to view both films you will see the ultimate travesty of how a great film was destroyed by a greed driven marketing attempt to update a true cult classic. In summary.... "The Wild Ride" GOOD............."Velocity" BAAADDDD!

Before the term "Speed Kills" referred to drugs it was for souped-up fast cars: There weren't any protests under the influence of psychedelia just yet; the 1950's and early 1960's were about hot rods and youth and the latter's misuse was the subject of many films, mostly cautionary tales but this one's a bit more ambiguous and peripheral...

THE WILD RIDE stars a young Jack Nicholson as Johnny Varron. He's mostly alone and, with a jovially jazzy soundtrack, every now and then grooving smoothly into a vibe-laden skeletal strut, he's cool to watch driving along a rural road, somewhere in California. Having caused the death of a cop by driving too fast, and winning at "chicken," if more money went into the already anemic budget there'd at least be some urgency involved...

Especially as a cop appears at random youthful hangouts, from burger joint patios to backyard parties (to the longest scene at a lakeside rocky-terrain locale), where Johnny wastes time with his friends: who don't like him very much... but nothing really scares or matters to this kid...

The other characters matter very little, to him or the audience, but there are a few: Johnny with his put-upon, uptight crony Dave's even more uptight girlfriend, Nancy, played by conservatively cute Georgianna Carter, take up most of the dialogue, which doesn't include very much exposition since very little happens overall...

Other than Johnny preparing for a big race, or breaking up with (as we never see him spending lustful time or hooking up with) a married thirty-something suburbanite, THE WILD RIDE is best known for and works best as a visual vehicle of a young Jack Nicholson at the crest of a decade under Roger Corman (LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, THE TERROR, THE RAVEN, THE ST. VALENTINE'S MASSACRE), Richard Rush (HELLS ANGELS ON WHEELS, PSYCH-OUT) or Monte Hellman's direction (BACK DOOR TO HELL, THE SHOOTING and RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND), until accidentally "being discovered" in Dennis Hopper's EASY RIDER...

It's too bad Rush or this film's co-editor, Hellman, didn't helm this picture, that does look pretty neat as these screen captures, resembling portraits of a sparse, antique, faded-grain tinted yesteryear, proves. Just beware of a 1990's patchwork titled VELOCITY with edited-in scenes of an old Jack Nicholson imitator thinking back upon this movie's present time as a flashback.

At almost 60 minutes, you won't suffer long through this dog.

Picked up this jewel for $1.

The "hipster" talk comes rapid fire -- "man", "far out", "dig", etc.

Are you digging this so far?

Seeing Jack Nicholson 45 years ago was not as interesting as I thought it would be.

I checked most of the rest of the cast, and only a couple were in anything but "B" pictures of the early 60s.

And the director is "so far out" he can't be found after something called "Sextet" in 1964.

##### Spoiler #####

"Highlight" of the movie -- outside a diner, one of the teens mentions Marlon Brando's "The Wild Ones" to Nicholson.

Almost enough to make you forget "The Wild Ride" -- certainly not the worst movie of all time. But it must rank somewhere in the top 100.

Dig?

That's about all I learned from this film.

Jack plays Johnny, the leader of the pack. His scene is driving racing cars, and running people off the road. As the film opens, he is playing chicken with a motorcycle cop; the cop loses. Johnny's pal Dave is dating a new chick, Nancy. Dave and Nancy play chicken with Barny and Joyce. (Don't worry about the names; there won't be a quiz later.) Dave goes shallow, and ends up in a ditch. Johnny tells Dave to dump the chick, because she doesn't dig their scene, and she has Dave mixed. I have no idea what I am typing.

Johnny enters a road race and wins the trophy, mainly because he forces other drivers off the track. Johnny apparently went to the Lindsay Lohan Driving Academy. Johnny takes Nancy for a ride, but Barny drops a dime on him and alerts Dave. Dave comes flying down the road (don't ask me how he knows where to go), sees Johnny fondling Nancy, and splits. Johnny yells that he was just trying to scare Nancy. Johnny takes off after Dave. Somebody has an accident (besides audience members, who were probably soiling themselves). The End.

Except for Nicholson, I have no idea who any of these other people are (were). The chicks, especially Nancy, are not that good looking; in fairness, neither are the guys. Someone needs to tell the filmmakers to look up the words "editing" and "continuity." The only interesting idea is that Nicholson was apparently fooling around with an older, married woman, whom we see in a few brief scenes. She is a woof, and wears a pyramid-like hat which appears to be made of limp porcupine quills. The background music is the same as in "Hot Car Girl," which is to say, it stinks. Nothing happens until around the 59-minute mark, which, coincidentally, is when the words "The End" appear on screen.

What a bore following the antics of the teenage guys and gals as they wander aimlessly around. Whoops! I mean what a trip digging the scene with the super studs and their hot chicks. Hey man, it's real cool eyeballing head stud Nicholson laying rubber down the road or on the track. Too bad about his buddy Dave 's wanting to go suburb with his nowhere chick, uptight Nancy. But our head man will straighten him out. That is, if the fuzz don't nail him first.

Kidding aside, it's an ultra-cheap teen flick with Nicholson and a no-name cast, filmed entirely on anonymous location. I'd be surprised if it took more than five days total. Moreover, the scenes never depart from the kids and their antics; at the same time, there's no real plot except for a conflicted Dave feeling a need to go conventional. Nonetheless, it's rather competently directed and performed for a bunch of no-names. Heck, there's not even much campy about the 60-minutes, just a lot of aimless wandering around. Looks like the producers understood Nicholson as an up-and-comer and fashioned a drive-in quickie around him. Anyway, the dialog amounts to little more than what's supposed to be cool hipster lingo of the day, so be prepared, man.

Produced by Roger Corman's Filmgroup, 'The Wild Ride' is a surprisingly talky drama that provides the historical interest of seeing a rangy young Jack Nicholson in a very early lead and lots of vintage cars being driven with far less respect than any of them would be receiving today if they were still in one piece.

Nicholson plays Johnny, a bullying alpha male who presumably doesn't remember or didn't learn from what happened to Buzz in 'Rebel Without a Cause' - or to James Dean himself - since (like Stoffer in Lars von Trier's 'The Idiots') he bullies his gang into treating it as a badge of manhood to drive like a jerk. The chicks all dig him, but he seems more interested in Dave, whose relationship with Joyce he does his best to beak up, with results that please no one.

This early Jack Nicholson film sees him playing Johnny Varron; a would-be motor racer who, when he isn't on the track, likes nothing better than playing chicken on the public highways. If others get hurt he isn't concerned. In the opening scene he causes a police motorcyclist to crash; he is fairly casual about it as the police can't prove he was involved. He hangs out with friends who share his attitudes however tensions in their group is rising because they think Johnny's friend Dave is dating the wrong girl. Inevitably their actions will have consequences.

This isn't a great film; it was never meant to be. It is an exploitation film centred on some fairly unsympathetic characters and the plot is far from deep. That isn't to say it is bad though; there are some exciting scenes, most notably the race sequence. The interaction between Johnny and his friends feels a little forced; perhaps because the sixties language feels dated or perhaps because it is what the writers thought young people spoke like. Jack Nicholson does a solid job as Johnny; it isn't his best work by a long way but he has the right attitude for the character; there is a sense of danger about him which fitted the role. The rest of the cast are more mixed; some good some rather less so. Overall this is a decent film that I'd recommend to those who are interesting in older films that aren't classics.

These comments are based on watching the original black and white, sixty minute version of the film not the longer, colourised 'Velocity'.

This may be my favorite "JD" flick. Nicholson is great as Johnny, the kid who constantly gets into trouble, and who is the "big man" of his gang of troublemakers. Of course there's one guy in the group who is getting a bit tired of Johnny being the leader (especially since his girl seems to be falling for Johnny) but he is still too scared of Johnny to do anything about it.

Johnny does have a friend he is a little soft with, Dave, who is getting on Johnny's nerves still because he is dating a "lame chick." But Johnny always defends Dave to the other gang members, even when Dave loses a game of "chicken" with an oncoming truck.

Johnny definitely has attitude, like with a cop: Cop (getting a folder on Johnny): Here's your record. Johnny: Did I make a record?

Or when Johnny is buying booze... Clerk: Do you have ID? Johnny: Yeah. Clerk: May I see it? Johnny: No.

Virtually every single line in this film has some kind of "hip slang" of the times in it, which makes it non-stop fun and absolutely hilarious. You have to pay attention all the way through as not to miss another classic line.

Nicholson is a complete blast to watch. These are the kind of JD films that are worth viewing, not overrated stuff like "Rebel Without A Cause."

Simple pot-boiler finds a group of rebellious teens challenging the establishment and each other, risking their lives and those of others for the trivial kicks of speed. Leader Nicholson is borderline psychotic in his disdain for law & order, and his self-destructive behaviour threatens group cohesion as rivalries emerge in the face of reluctant newcomer Carter.

Nicholson is rehearsing for his future of unhinged characters, allied here with a cohort of relative amateurs (film students) and occasional Corman stable leading lady Carter playing a fragile outsider whose presence Nicholson opposes.

Taut anti-establishment teen tragedy distinguished by Nicholson's acting chops, elevates this minor Corman-classic beyond its rebellious youth cliche.