The Wild Riders will be dismissed by the casual viewer as Mr. Crown's Drive-In Schlock. Actually it is a deeper commentary on the Sixties period, a period that began on January 1, 1963 and ended on March 31, 1973 when the last US Combat Troops came home from Vietnam. This movie is also a commentary on the Manson Family. The Sixties being an era of free love, free movement and free wheeling, kids were hitchhiking all over creation. At the beginning of the movie, our protagonists Stick (Alex Rocco) and Pete (Arell Blanton) crucifying a hippy girl played by Linda Johanesen for sleeping around on Pete. This gets Pete and Stick exiled from their Biker Gang. The two drift out to California and while bullying a nerd at the Griffith Observatory, Pete looks through the telescope and sees two young women home alone. He then plans a trip to their home. He and Stick arrive where Pete comes onto Rona (Porn Actress Elizabeth Knowles). He then decides to break into the back patio/pool area and does. Rona's friend Laure (Sherry Bain) immediately realizes things are going from bad to worse, but is too scared to leave the house or call the cops. After a few days of rape and torture, the man of the house (Ted Hayden) returns and exacts a fatal revenge. The movie is a comment on the Sixties culture, showing the ugly underbelly of it. The movie also is a commentary on how lax the wealthy in Los Angeles and in most areas were with security. Up until the Tate-Labianca murders, stuff like this could easily happen, some Hollywood stars didn't even lock their doors. This movie also showed the fear the wealthy and Hollywood had of the bikers, black radicals and the hippies of invading their privileged spaces. A good time capsule.
