Angels from Hell

...for cheesy biker movies like this. It's got it all: motorcycle clubs, a hippie commune, a disaffected Viet Nam vet, free love,(and brutal rape), a dive bar that takes Mastercharge (long before it became MasterCARD), go go dancers, skirts so short (and a wardrobe budget so tight) one girl takes a micro-mini dress she wore in a previous scene, tucks it in bell-bottom pants, and voila! It's a blouse; a generic rock score, hard for the bikers, soft for the hippies, chockfull of cliche' "Freedom" anthems, all with lyrics that are trite variations on the counter-culture slogan "Fight the Power!", and a script almost totally devoid of any standard English words, strictly hip "rap" LONG before it went gangsta. So chockful of 60's slang it should be in a linguist's historical archives.

Lead "actor" looks remarkably like porn "actor" Long John Holmes, and is given frequent opportunities to show off his hot bod to the ladies, to the point where the sheriff, his nemesis tells him to "button up:" i was thinking I'm sure he was speaking for the entire audience as well, Only real acting is done by Jack Starrett (Sheriff) and Arlene Martel, "Ginger", (the all-purpose "Hot Chick" name) the woman who owns the biker bar where she takes Mastercharge, best known as one of Captain Kirk's dalliances in the original "Star Trek" TV series. Nobody else of note, except that the Madcaps, the actual biker gang the movie's fictional one is based on, are mentioned in the closing credits, and its members fill up empty space onscreen as needed throughout.

Of course, on their miniscule budget, they can't afford to ride cross-country in search of America, so they hightail it from Bakersfield couple hundred miles to BEVERLY HILLS to become MOVIE STARS--I kid you not.

Absolutely belongs in a time capsule, for appreciators of ancient artifacts.

Although I'm usually a big fan of drive-in movies, I have to confess that motorcycle gang movies kind of leave me cold. So I might be writing this review with some prejudice, but I think that this particular motorcycle movie will be badly judged by other drive-in movie fans. The biggest problem with it is how slow and uneventful it is. In the first half of the movie, almost nothing of consequence happens. It's almost all padding. There's a bit more plot in the second half of the movie, but the movie still feels slow and lacking bite. Another big problem with the movie is that the main character (played by Tom Stern) is not developed very well; we never quite sense what makes him tick and what motivates him. By the way, while the movie got an "R" rating back in 1968, it's not very explicit by today's standards; it would get a "PG-13" rating at most if submitted to the MPAA today.

In 2015, it's a bit hard to imagine that evil biker flicks were so popular in the late 1960s. Although the films seem incredibly naive and silly today, at the time they were box office gold for American International--a studio specializing in cheap and trashy drive-in fare. But the films were wildly successful despite their many shortcomings.

Unlike many of the biker films which starred the likes of Joe Naimath or Peter Fonda, this one stars a relative unknown. Tom Stern stars as Mike--a newcomer to town who soon becomes the leader of the Madcaps biker gang after he breaks the leg of their old leader. Now with a taste of power, Mike becomes a bit of a megalomaniac--feeling invincible and drunk with power. So, when his gang goes too far, he does little to reign them in and it's soon war with the local police. And, when 'Nutty' murders a girl, instead of turning this psychopath in, Mike covers up the killing and continues to think he can do pretty much what he wants. What's next for Mike and the out of control and rather stupid gang?

So is this film any good? Well, yes and no. Compared to many other biker films it's a bit better---with a bit more realism and a great ending. But it's also very low-brow and not exactly a must-see film! Not terrible overall despite the title.

Mike (Tom Stern), a biker, returns to California after serving in Vietnam. He uses his war-hero experience to organize a new, united super outlaw gang. When one member is shot by police because he killed a girl at a pot orgy, an all-out cop versus biker war results.

I have no idea why there existed a period in time where all you had to do was throw bikers, hippies and cops in a film and it just wrote itself. This idea spawned some good films (notably "Easy Rider") and plenty of bad ones. And it seems like many of the bad ones were brought to life by American International Pictures.

This is no exception, and unfortunately they did not even manage to cast a single big star. Without the name talent or crew, this is a largely forgettable film from a largely forgettable genre. The most notable name is Von Dutch who designed the titles -- decades before the brand became famous.

AIP does what it does best, exploitation of stereotypes. Good fun though with the real bikers being used. The real actors aren't as good as them. Incredibly terrible soundtrack.