The Mini-Skirt Mob

The name of the production company - whose product nowadays regularly features in Incredibly Strange film festivals - alone should be enough warning as to what to expect in this silly, unintentional parody. "The Mini-Skirts" consist of four girl bikers, the brevity of whose skirts is compensated by the length of their eyelashes - plus, it seems, an equal number of chromosome-challenged boyfriends. The plot mostly consists of them "terrorizing", with varying degrees of enthusiasm, the pack leader's ex-boyfriend because he is now on his honeymoon in a caravan with another gal. Much of it naturally is an excuse for shots of the females riding around the wilds of Arizona on their Triumph motorbikes. Hmmm. Wouldn't it be rather cold dressed like that, how long would those hair-do's last? You also get regular glimpses of panties. As Leonard Maltin says in his movie guidebook, those who like the title should like the film.

The Mini-Skirt Mob - sounds like the coolest girl punk band you ain't heard of, or just another AIP biker movie. It's the latter. This isn't that terrible, one guesses. No, it's knowable: this is a gosh-darn B-movie if I ever saw one. Why the gosh-darn? The movie deserves one: it's a western in biker-movie skins, and it shows a sign, oddly enough, of where its director Maury Dexter would be headed a year or so later when he made a very good low-level-action biker movie called Hell's Belles.

It's set mostly out in the desert, where the leader of the Mini-Skirt Mob, the bossy Shayne (Diane McBain rockin the hard-to-frazzle blonde-top look), is after a former cowboy who left her to settle down and marry with an ordinary girl. She and the gang and some other rodeo-party-down type guys (such as Ross Hagen and Harry Dean Stanton) basically chase after these guys till they strand them in the desert, rip their tires, and force a stand-off... a long one, that'll need some beer, and relationship drama!

There's some time during the movie where the writer tries to make this less about the bikes and more about the characters, and this is where things get a little shaky. Sometimes it's just plain hysterical trying to see these guys emote, or try to have any kind of connection. The fact is what makes the movie so entertaining is that practically everyone, even the two leads (and especially that little lady) are just stupid. Shayne might just be sadistic or mean, but there's still a level of not knowing all where its at and is only a minimal bad-ass. The keeper though is Harry Dean, always dependable in a fix for a supporting role, who is a "dumb redneck" among the group, but also isn't much in the way of being a killer. He just wants to hang out and party, and that's where the other girls in the 'Mob' want to be at. You'd think they'd go off and have crimes or party down. Nope. Have a chick as the leader, bound to have some man-drama.

If you like a biker movie way past your bedtime, you could do worse than this. Its action isn't staged too well and the acting by the two leads (Slate and Jackson) is so stiff you can feel the strain in trying to make an argument scene look halfway convincing, but some laugh out loud moments are to be had, like when we see a shot of the bikers arguing about something and a pan of the camera shows boy-scouts hearing their every word! Goodness! This is actually fairly safe stuff, nothing too dangerous actually in the way of much violence and sex.... actually, I take that back, there is one semi-awesome explosion, a couple of awesome cheesy deaths by incredible launch-off-bike, and a person runs out on fire! Nothing exciting, but its... what it is.

"The Mini-Skirt Mob" is no classic (which, given that title, should come as no surprise) but it delivers enough action to make it worthwhile. Diane McBain stars as the leader of a female motorcycle gang, who is determined to punish the guy who jilted her. With the aid of her companions, including biker film veteran Jeremy Slate and future cult actor Harry Dean Stanton, she proceeds to harass both her ex-boyfriend (Ross Hagen) and his mousy new bride (Sherry Jackson). Along for the ride, and good in a sympathetic role, is ex-child star Patty McCormack, as McBain's little sister. The photography is excellent as is the color, and the movie doesn't take forever to make it's point. McBain is terrific as "Shayne". Very watchable. Incidentally, McCormack sang the title song, but, on the ''MGM Midnite Movies''DVD, her vocals have been re-dubbed by an unknown male vocalist. Nevertheless, picture and sound are both excellent, and the companion feature ''Chrome And Hot Leather'' (1971) while not as good a film,looks and sounds fine, too. And since it's soon to go out of print, now's the time to grab it!.

For 5 years "Jeff Logan" (Ross Hagen) has been a member of a rodeo circuit which features a number of men who ride motorcycles and hang out with like-minded females who have formed a club known as the "Mini-Skirt Mob". Although the leader for the entire group is a man named "Lon" (Jeremy Slate) it turns out that a woman named "Shayne" (Diane McBain) is quite skilled at manipulating those in the group to get whatever she wants. This becomes even more pronounced when she is dumped by Jeff a few weeks earlier to marry an outsider named "Connie" (Sherry Jackson). As a result, Shayne becomes furious and decides to do whatever is necessary to break up the marriage between them--and she knows no boundaries. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this turned out to be a satisfactory biker film which contained good amounts of both action and drama. Likewise, the addition of several attractive actresses like Patty McCormick (as "Edie") along with the aforementioned Sherry Jackson and Diane McBain certainly didn't hurt the picture either. In any case, those viewers who enjoy movies of this type could definitely do worse and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Our story concerns a pack of females known as "The Mini-Skirts" and their accompanying rough riders in mountain terrain looking for trouble against an innocent trailer couple. The only things you'll appreciate from this hopelessly dated film are some nice pairs of legs and an appearance by Harry Dean Stanton as one of the rodeo rednecks. Everything else, the bad lighting, the fragmented story, leaves an awful lot to be desired, and even the title of this "biker" picture doesn't fully live up to anyone's expectations. To add even more scorching embarrasment is the opening theme song by Patty McCormack, also one of the gang members. Those who are looking hard to find this hidden cult movie will see the light as a limited cable TV offering, but remember, you get what you deserve! RATING: *