Le Retour des anges de l'enfer

'Hells Angels on Wheels' is a surprisingly tough and entertaining b-grade 60s biker movie. Jack Nicholson plays a gas attendant named Poet who becomes involved with some Hells Angels. Their leader Buddy (Adam Roarke) takes a shine to Poet, and Poet is attracted to Buddy's old lady Shill (Sabrina Scharf). Nicholson went on to movie superstardom, Roarke to cult status and an untimely death, and Scharf a bit part in 'Easy Rider' and then a career in politics. Most people will probably watch this to get some cheap laughs out of early Nicholson. He is actually pretty good here, better than the material deserves, but the real star performance in the movie is from the seriously underrated Roarke. Roarke was often the best thing about the sometimes awful movies he had to appear in (see 'Dirty Mary Crazy Larry' for example), and he exudes charisma and intelligence here. Director Richard Rush obviously valued him, as he reteamed him with Nicholson in the hilarious 'Psych-Out' and even gave him a small role in his masterpiece 'The Stunt Man'. 'Hells Angels on Wheels' obviously isn't anywhere near as good as the latter, but it is much better than you'd expect and definitely worth tracking down.

Not to say I didn't enjoy this movie, I love the Hells Angels and all the books and movies about them. This was a good story, but it could have been told in 10 minutes. The other hour and 50 minutes, is silly, and boring. But it does have redeeming qualities, which makes it worth watching on late nite TV. Jack Nicholson is good in a very early role,(see what he was like before he started to take himself too seriously!) the girls were hot, hot, hot, and there is a great scene at the start, that shows Sonny Barger in his early days. But scenes of guys driving around in circles on their bikes, to the weirdest music I ever heard, shows that the director was a film school dropout!

I found "Hell's Angels on Wheels" on a disc containing three Jack Nicholson films. However, the print quality on "Jack Nicholson: Cult Classics" was pretty bad and I assume there must be better quality prints available somewhere--especially since at least two of the films (perhaps all three) are widely available from many different distributors.

The plot of "Hell's Angels on Wheels" is amazingly slim and it looks as if most of the movie was unscripted and the filmmakers just filmed these folks doing all kids of things--some illegal, some just annoying. At one point, an angry young guy (Nicholson) gets in good with the gang and is soon allowed to ride with them. During the course of the film there are quite a few fights and a lot of making out--though the level of violence and amount of skin you see is very, very limited and the film is pretty tame compared to some of the latter biker films. Now this isn't to say it's a family film--as there are a couple murders along the way. As for Nicholson, eventually he gets tired of the scene and it ends with a face-off with the leader of the pack. How it all ends is really stupid--so stupid you need to see it to believe it.

"Hell's Angels on Wheels" isn't a very good film but it is watchable. Directionless much of the time, of course, but oddly compelling in a voyeuristic sort of way. An odd glimpse into the 1960s, that's for sure and definitely NOT a film for the average viewer.

Always like Jack Nicholson and some how missed this picture when he was very young and starting on a great career of acting. For some reason I did not feel like he fit very well in his role as a recruit of the California Hell's Angels. Jack gets roughed up and beaten by a bunch of swabbies in a carnival, who made the fight a Three Against One sort of battle. When his newly acquainted friends of the Hell's Angels find out, an all out war gets into progress. As you can expect, there are plenty of hot to trot sexual gals with the gang who seem to go from one guy to the next in order to please and make them comfortable, no one woman for each guy. However, there is an exception, a couple wants to make there love making official and practically drive their bikes right into a church near Las Vegas, Nevada. Just remember, this film was produced in 1967 and it was a big shocker in those DAYS !

This Richard Rush biker film is better than the Wild Angels, Angels Unchained, Devil's Angels, Cycle Savages, The Glory Stompers, or The Savage Seven. First of all it has the beautiful and talented Sabrina Scharf (from Easy Rider) who later became a Senator or some such thing. Adam Roarke was always a good addition to low-budget films and Nicholson shines as the Poet (a somewhat reluctant biker to begin with).

None of these films is high quality, but this one has some refreshing scenes that stand out. A 6 out of 10. Best performance = Jack Nicholson. If you can find it, it's worth your time. Richard Rush was always been a good director.