Angels Hard as They Come

What an awful movie ... A bunch of "hip" motorcyclists invade a California ghost town called "Lost Cause". There, they confront a rival gang of bikers and some hippies. The story has no real point to it, nor any theme that I could detect.

There are way too many characters. And none of them are interesting. But they sure are "tough". They drink lots of booze. They smoke. They swear. They fight. They kiss their babes. They kick up a lot of ruckus. They emit dialogue like: "Lay it on me man" ... "I don't want a beer now, man" ... "Let's dig it, man" ... "I hope this works, man" ... "Make it good, man". They all act like rowdy ten-year-olds on a school playground.

And that playground is not the least bit interesting. Lost Cause looks like the back lot of some movie studio. The film's color cinematography is dreadful. Some of the images are either blurred or out of focus. Interior lighting is too dim. You would think that the filmmaker could have at least inserted some good music from that era; alas, no.

Just because it's a biker movie doesn't mean that viewers will tolerate a shabby screenplay, bad acting, or poor quality visuals. There are good biker films out there. "Angels Hard As They Come" is not one of them. At least the ghost town has an appropriate name. It's a good metaphor for this film.

During the end of the 1960s/beginning of the 1970s there was the vogue of the biker movie genre. These movies where made with cheap budgets, actors who were making it big and directors who have only these as their only credits. I am not a fan of the genre as you probably can guess from the summary, but I gave it a try once it was on TV.

The Angels motorcycle gang has a feud with the Dragons and things get worse after they invite the Angels in the desert town of Lost Cause. The Angels' leader Long John (Scott Glenn) is challenged by the Dragons' leader General (Charles Dierkop) to a race and loses. Soon after that John meets a young hippie woman and it's infatuated with her. The leader of her gang Henry (Gary Busey) is not happy about the Dragons. After some races and some imprisonments, the Angels will have their victory.

The acting by Glenn and Busey was decent, and it was surprising since they were unknowns, but the pacing was dull and after a while the plot got stale. Apart from the acting, the music was the only good and memorable asset. A must see only for biker movie fans.

I, John Hand, was the editor of CUSTOM CHOPPER Magazine in 1971 and I had a car and bike painter friend named Bill Carter who was appearing in the movie with his Harley. So I went out to the desert and watched them shoot some scenes. I put a report of this movie in my magazine but I have to admit that I never saw the movie later. Mr Demme the director sent me a letter with some clarifications about the movie and I put the letter in my magazine. Jonathan Demme, the director also told me to keep my eye on Scott Glenn, because he was going to go places. Well, as it turned out, they both went on to make and star in the big blockbuster and award winner SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Who would have thought?

Also known as Angel Warriors. This is Jonathan Demme in his exploitation days for Roger Corman. Long before his independent movie days with Orion Pictures.

Demme did not direct this. He co-wrote this with Joe Viola, the latter is the director. Viola went on to have a strong track record writing for episodic television shows.

Scott Glenn is Long John. Part of a counterculture drug dealing biker gang. They party with a group of hippies in a old ghost town after hooking up with another biker gang.

When a hippie chick is raped and murdered. Long John and his gang are blamed by the General (Charles Dierkop.) He plans to torture them and then kill them.

They escape which then leads to a showdown with the General. Also find out who did kill the girl.

The movie is really a western with biker gang tropes. You know Long John is a good guy at heart, one of his gang members is black.

The General wears a German pointy helmet, some of his members have names such as Lucifer.

This is not a great movie. It follows the low budget exploitation genre. Violence, women dancing topless. Fight scenes.

Glenn has charisma is an early role. Gary Busey features as a hippy.

Scott Glenn and Roger Corman would later join Demme in the Oscar winning The Silence of the Lambs.

On the one hand, after watching Angels Hard as They Come, I could understand why it's not higher rated or even been seen anymore than the common garden-variety B-movie biker flick, as it is true shamelessly Corman-style. On the other hand, I ended really liking how it was executed. The collaborators, Joe Viola and Jonathan Demme, wring out plenty of dirty fun out of such violent and twisted material without 'softening' it up like some biker movies of the period.

It's got almost no characters from the 'outside' world, just bikers, and maybe a few hippies (and yes, one of them an out-of-place and amusingly one-note Gary Busey). So part of the entertainment comes from bikers just being as rough and crazy as possible. But with this the writers come up with some unexpectedly funny moments, some more harsh than others, and sometimes even commenting on some of the absurdities of the Dragons. This is done dialog-wise many times- as Viola's style isn't nearly as strong or affecting as Demme provides- and sometimes through ideas shown and it all being realistic even as its crudely artificial.

One such scene, as a quick example, is when the leader of the pack General (Charles Dierkop as a well-played maniac) is seen from the waist up having short moment of pleasure, then as the camera pans down his motorcycle is getting a cleaning (pun intended, but then the title itself is almost there just for a goof). Or in having one of the side characters, the one black character of a story, adrift in the desert, almost putting to a stop the Corman rule of there being almost constant danger &/or fights &/or sex/nudity/et all.

Other ideas abound in the crazy extremities that the Dragons go through against the three Angels (one being Scott Glenn in maybe the best 'acting' of the film), including a final idea that never does come to fruition. All through, the filmmakers basically acknowledge what kind of film they're making, and don't skimp out on the early biker movies might not have dealt with, at least as much. Rape, racism, torture, pure decadence and decay in the devastation. But the factor of it all having practically a Western-movie element to it, a B-Western at that, is not thrown away for a story without focus.

It's arcane and simplistic in music, usually exploitative in themes and character, and it's got the cinematic flavor of a beer soaked ashtray. But to hell if it isn't one of my favorites of its kind, if only on the most guilty-pleasure level.