The Rebel Rousers

"Paul Collier" (Cameron Mitchell) is an architect who drives into a small town in search of his girlfriend, "Karen" (Diane Ladd) who is noticeably pregnant. He wants to marry her but she essentially wants to raise her child all by herself. As it so happens, a gang of motorcyclists known as "the Rebels" rides into this same town and begins causing trouble. Fortunately for Paul, the leader of the gang, "J. J. Weston" (Bruce Dern) is an old high school acquaintance of his and because of that they are on good terms with one another. Unfortunately, J. J. doesn't quite have as much control over some of the more violent members of the gang and when they take an interest in Karen things begin to turn extremely ugly. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that this film wasn't nearly as fun or exciting as it should have been due in large part to the chaotic script and lackluster direction. Additionally, I personally didn't care for the use of a pregnant woman as a sex object. But maybe that's just me. In any case, I would think that having a cast which included Jack Nicholson, Harry Dean Stanton and the aforementioned Bruce Dern and Cameron Mitchell would have been more than enough to ensure a somewhat interesting biker film. Apparently, the director (Martin B. Cohen) wasn't up to the task and because of this I have to rate this film as below average.

This late carefree, but crudely gruff low-cost b-grade biker exploitation (that was shelved for a couple of years before being released because of the fascinating performance of Nicholson in the 1969's biker flick 'Easy Rider') is nothing more than a minor curious piece for its well oiled cast, who would go onto better things. Namely Jack Nicholson and Harry Dean Stanton. Really they only have support parts. Stanton who engages with his little screen time (one of the rowdy bikers who are far from threatening with their clown-like appearances), looks totally out of place though. However there's something oddly captivating (strange in stupidly oddball and ditsy sense) about this feature, even though it's overly talky and demonstrates plenty of posing about to stall out the time. Watch as there's conflicting confrontations, trivial exchanges, more conflicting confrontations…. Again the usual conflicting confrontation rears its ugly head. Boy how exciting (well it would've been if there was some fiery interest inserted) and sometimes it just goes on for too long. Many of the dialogues are awkward, stiff (although a spirited Bruce Dern admirably tries his best to infuse life) with the padded nature only making the short running time meander even more. A sombre Cameron Mitchell could be mistaken for a wooden plank and Diane Ladd is there too look all worried. Nicholson (in some eye-boggling pants) laps it up as the low-brow, cruel biker, but his performance is pretty much on the fringe. An unhinged, funky-dory score hits its cues with force and there's a few striking scenic views. The story is quite sparse and scratchily old-hat. A couple is terrorised by bikers and the town's folk want nothing to do with it when the husband escapes looking for help. In the couple of action sequences, the scrappy direction is laughably staged when it does happen and it's the mugging filler that takes the spotlight. Maybe worth a geeze for the names, but the glaring problems are hard to digest.

Many times as I sat watching this god-awful film it sure looked like there really wasn't a script. In many places, it looked as if the director, if there was one, just told everyone to 'wing it'--and often the actors talked over each other, spouted gibberish or just talked to hear themselves talk. In addition, sometimes the actors did things that made almost no sense--giving further evidence to the idea that there was no script...or even plot. This is especially true for at least the first half hour of the film where most of it just involves a biker gang running amok. Amidst all this, there is a plot that keeps trying to appear that involves Cameron Mitchell trying to get his pregnant girlfriend to marry him. Eventually the two plots intersect as the two are eventually terrorized by the evil bikers--but in the interim there is still more rambling and pointless prattle. All this makes up the last 2/3 of the film. Not a whole lot more to it than this. Amateurish and silly throughout but not outlandish or silly enough to make it fun for bad movie buffs.

The Rebel Rousers a few times feels like it could be aiming for something more on its lunch-money used for a budget. It's got a very simple crux to the story- Bruce Dern and Cameron Mitchell as old school friends (hey, they may be oh two decades apart, but it was college I guess) say hello and go their separate ways at the start of the film, the former being a biker club leader and the latter a soon-to-be father of a possibly illegitimate child by Diane Ladd's character. Then, some of the bikers one day find the two in a car, take them down to a beach, and beat the crap out of him for just, well, being there. He slugs off to get help while the other bikers race to see who'll get their 'time' with her, with Jack Nicholson's Bunny (ho-ho) vies for the prize.

This crux is given some actors who actually say very basic lines of dialog with some conviction and faith in the material, but not much. Some of the acting, or at least casting, is a little strange though. Nicholson is given the top billing on most VHS releases of the film, but his is a supporting role that is like RP McMurphy from Cuckoo's nest with his wonderful sarcasm replaced by striped pants (which the director decides to use to block some shots). There's also the versatile Harry Dean Stanton among the pack, with possibly the most ridiculous get-up in his whole career. It all leads up to a climax that includes a fight, but also a letdown in not having the bikers square off against the Mexicans who show up with their pitchforks on the beach after finally being alerted.

All of this is up for good times in the B-movie guilty pleasure sense by the sound of it, and everything that can be made as 'surface' as possible is used for dramatic or just 'there' effect; Mitchell and Ladd's characters have not much else to say except the baby and marriage; the bikers, aside from Dern and possibly Nicholson (who when he does have a line or something to do is very funny), are hard to discern with any distinguishing characteristics; the police are (amusingly) very limited to a Deputy who's never around and a lummox with bricks for brains. There's even a very good scene where Mitchell gets no response from a bar full of patrons even in his beat-up, bloodied state. But the problem with all of the expended effort put into The Rebel Rousers is that it's too amateurish to be taken at all seriously as a fun time, if that makes sense.

Producer/writer/director Martin B. Cohen seems to understand point and shoot (and the previously mentioned stripe-pants blocking shots), and not much else. There is also the issue of lighting, to which it looks like the filmmakers didn't have enough money for or just didn't give a crap about- the climax is a letdown mostly for how you can't see a damn thing that's going on. It's ironic to think that Laslo Kovacs went from Easy Rider to this (or vice versa). His music choices are mostly awful, at least a few supporting actors brought on look like they're improvising on the set (and not for the better of the actual script), and any real guilty fun (ala Angels Hard as They Come) of seeing a bunch of bikers being really mean and ruthless is compounded by the Mitchell/Ladd moments which are un-evenly paced.

But even with all of this, as a pre-Easy Rider kind of spectacle (shot before it but not released till after it came out, a shelved movie for three years), it's not bad to look at as a curio piece for some of its main players. For fans of the actors who got their feet wet in these kinds of pictures it's of a little interest to see Dern as the unlikely protagonist and Nicholson as the grizzly heel, or Stanton in his sometimes whacked out state. That it leaves no real lasting impression is no surprise though, aside from being a mixed bag.

'The Rebel Rousers' sat in the can for two years before eventually being released to cash in on Jack Nicholson's success in 'Easy Rider'. It's awful, only good for some cheap laughs, and playing spot-the-character-actor. Nicholson is actually only one of the supporting players. His biker Bunny is mean and nasty but by no means the focal point of the movie. Bruce Dern plays the biker's leader, and as always he is good, even if the movie isn't. B-grade legend Cameron Mitchell ('Hombre', 'The Toolbox Murders') plays an architect who is trying to convince his pregnant girlfriend (Diane Ladd - 'Wild At Heart') to marry him. The two get caught up in the mind games of the anarchic Rebel Rousers. Harry Dean Stanton joins Dern and Nicholson as one of the bikers - quite possibly the strangest movie biker of all time! It's almost like he stepped in from a completely different movie and provides some cut rate surreal touches and comic relief, often unintentionally. The rest of the bikers will be familiar to b-grade exploitation fans, and keep an eye out for 'Forbidden Planet's Bob Dix as a Mexican no less. If you want to see a good 60s biker movie starring Dern try 'The Wild Angels', and Nicholson is much better in 'Hells Angels on Wheels'. 'The Rebel Rousers' is a watch once and file under forgettable trash kinda experience, that's about it.