The Tormentors

Another weird film from the hand of David L Hewitt, this cool little exploitation flick may mark the height of the 'Nazi Biker gang' genre circa 1971. Discriminating genre collectors will recognize Hewitt as the unseen hand behind many interesting Z grade flicks from the 60's and 70's. This film lives up (or down) to the genre, with a variety of hackneyed concepts and scenes which are frankly laughable by modern standards. However, back in the 70's I guess this was considered state of the art exploitation fare. Hewitt revisits the Nazi theme in his final film to date, The Lucifer Complex, made in 1978.

I'd like to thank the mysterious folks at Platinum Disc Corporation of sunny La Grosse, Wisconsin for the DVD release of The Tormentors, saving this psychotronic treasure from oblivion. Maybe one day we will see a Collectors Edition of Hewitt's masterpiece 'Wizard of Mars'. Until then, I guess fans will have to be satisfied with no-frills DVD releases like this one.

Flower-power artifact that stayed on the shelf for 15 years, where some will say it still should be. A cycle-riding vigilante infiltrates a local biker gang of Neo-Nazis called the Fourth Reich. They order him to assassinate the Messiah, a vacant hippie prophet who mysteriously appears at love-ins, so the kids will get turned on to fascism. The Messiah escapes, and the town erupts in an all-out war between the cops, the freaks, and the Boot Boys. Features now-tame rape and torture scenes, bogus psychedelia from 'Rudy and the Love Slaves', and a fat Nazi whose German accent fades in and out and looks like Bob Cresse from Love Camp 7.

I was brought into the mess after the film had run out of money. I bought film, borrowed a camera, and hired a crew with no money. There was not enough of this film to make a story, so a fast re-write was done, using the film in the can.Most of the crew kept their real names off this thing. Filmed on week ends and all was done on a non cash basis. I think for a grand total of 1200 bucks we did pretty good getting 1/2 of a movie shot, and a print made. Then it was promptly forgotten from 1971 until Jim White managed to revive it and got some fools to distribute it. I must add, my investment was never recovered ( surprise ) and I wish well whoever did make a dime on this beast.

The things we do when we are young...

and the things that happen in making a movie will always amaze me.

This film begins with a small group of bikers robbing a bank and then abducting a female hostage before making their getaway. Having successfully evaded police pursuit, they subsequently stop off at an isolated location where the leader named "Bruce Kemp" (Bruce Kimball) proceeds to rape the woman and then strangles her to death. It is then revealed that these bikers belong to a neo-Nazi organization who have been known to cause trouble in the past. Be that as it may, not long after the victim's body is discovered, the deceased woman's fiancé, "Dan Ballard" (William Dooley) goes to the local police station and demands action against the suspected perpetrators. Unfortunately, with no real evidence to make an arrest, the local detective "Lt. Connors" (Anthony Eisley) tells him that there is nothing he can do at the moment. Needless to say, this infuriates Dan who then decides to go join the group with the hope of killing the person who murdered his fiancé. What he doesn't count on, however, is not everyone is convinced he is on the level and for that reason the situation is even riskier than he ever imagined. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that it was quite evident that this was a low-budget production and it clearly suffered as a result. For example, there are several scenes where Bruce Kemp is speaking in a German accent and then, for some odd reason, begins speaking perfect English. Not that it really mattered because his German accent seemed rather phony anyway. Admittedly, it did have several beautiful actresses to brighten the scenery with Chris Noel (as Dan's new girlfriend "Eve") and Inger Wegge ("Gretchen") probably standing out the most. But even then, neither of them was capable of saving this rather bad film and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

I've seen most of the films in the classic "biker film" genre, lasting from about 1966 to 1974. And this, my friends, is probably the most over-the-top crazy one ever put forward.

Badfilm legend David L. Hewitt, director of such trash as THE WIZARD OF MARS, THE GIRLS FROM THUNDER STRIP, and THE MIGHTY GORGA pulls out all the stops on this one, combining Neo-Nazi bikers, hippies, Jesus, and B-movie fave Anthony (nee Fred) Eisley. Hilarious! Goofy! Ridiculous!

Eisley's girlfriend is killed by a cycle-riding gang of neo-Nazis during a bank robbery. He vows to bring them down by infiltrating the gang as one of their fellow Nazis, biding his time until he can take them out.

My favorite bit is when Eisley goes undercover to apply to join the Nazi bikers, he goes to their headquarters, which seems to be a low budget Nazified Playboy Mansion! Bikini Madchens with phony German accents sashay around the pool as Nazis with phony German accents plot and scheme how they can gain control of the local Hippie culture (and improve their phony German accents).

Why the Hippies would allow themselves to come under the thrall of a bunch of violent thuggish Neo-Nazis , when they follow a guy dressed like Jesus, remains a mystery. I guess the Nazis believed that the Hippies were all unthinking sheep that were easily manipulated. I probably shouldn't give it too much thought. Analysis is bad idea for a movie like this.

Another great moment is when Eisley drops by the local psychedelic Head Shop to get "the skinny" from the owner, his very own Huggy Bear. LOONEY! I'm giving this movie a 5 for its preposterous entertainment value. As inept as it is, it's worth watching for the laugh value.

This was available on DVD for a period of time, but I think it's currently out of print. See if you can get your hands on a DVD copy of this demented celluloid wafer, BadFilm fans. Apparently, this film was made around 1968 or 1969, and sat on the shelf until 1981, when it was released on VHS home video! Wonder what people made of it back then. It's a shame this baby never saw time on drive-in screens; that would have been very appropriate.

UPDATE 2/24/2007: Spotted The Tormentors this week as a $1 DVD release in a cardboard sleeve at Fry's Electronics. Grab it before it vanishes again!