Angels from Hell

(1968) Angels From Hell CRIME DRAMA

It opens with motorcycle bike rider, Mike Connery (Tom Stern) beating up a couple of racists who ganged up to beat up a young African American man wanting to use the washroom. And by the time he helps to carry him out, is when other African American guys riding motor bikes show up. After this was done, he then rides away to meet up with his former bike gang group "Madcaps" hanging out in a bar. And we find out Mike had just returned from serving in the military, and decides he want to upstart his own gang again. Except that the Madcaps have a current leader already, Big George to whom Mike has never met before. Big George then challenges him to a fight since he knows Mike has a long history with majority of the members, and wants to prove he is worthy. Once Mike takes over the Madcap group the movie then flips back and forth between righteous and chaos. It was routine until there was a single moment it became interesting is when two low ball cops became judge and jury and breaking the law themselves are and are worse than bikers themselves. The movie worsened as it continued, as if it forgot what it wanted to say as the makers was making it.

...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.

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.

After serving a tour in Vietnam, "Mike" (Tom Stern) returns to his hometown to discover that his old motorcycle gang has essentially been run out of town by the local law enforcement and that a new person named "George" (Jay York) has since taken over as the leader. Not happy that Mike is now muscling in on his gang, George initiates a fight with him which turns out quite bad--for George. As a result Mike becomes the leader and soon gets the attractive girl (Arlene Martel as "Ginger") as well. But rather than be satisfied with what he has, Mike has a grand plan for uniting motorcycle gangs across the country with none other than himself as the overall leader. Needless to say, this idea is fraught with difficulty. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that I thought this was one of the better "motorcycle movies" made thus far. I say this because the plot was realistic and the acting was pretty good as well. In any case, I rate this movie as slightly above average and recommend it to all enthusiasts of this particular sub-genre.

I worked with Tom in Angels From Hell. We worked together after the movie to produce our own biker movie. I had a lot of time and money in lining up the bikers for him. I got the bikers to really fix up their scooters 'cuz they were going to be paid well in the upcoming movie. After everybody had finished their bikes, I had them come together for Tom's inspection. For arranging all of the bikers, Tom had promised me a big part in the movie. On my last visit to Tom's office in Hollywood, he told me that he would contact me when he was ready to film. I waited until I found out the the HA were filming on location (Hells Angels 69). We rode out to location and talked with Terry The Tramp and Tiny. Tom had managed to get the real HA to do the picture and left me and my boys out. plus the HA weren't happy working with him at all.

Tom is a good actor but he is a user/manipulator. Whether this has kept him from going to the top, I don't know.

Dirty Denny