Hell's Belles

A 1969 B remake of Winchester '73. Jeremy Slate wins a race and receives a new bike as the prize. He wants to sell it for cash but of course, it's stolen. His personal quest to "get my bike back so I can buy a ranch" is the plot.

3 reasons to watch this curio:

1) If you're into bikes.

2) Filming locations all in Arizona 3) Jocelyn Lane!

After Tickle Me with Elvis, I feel for Jocelyn having to put up with low grade projects. She's the best part of this film.

Film has its moments with some nice Arizona desert locations shots. Have I mentioned Jocelyn Lane though? My goodness she's easy on the eyes.

Quasi-comedy biker flick with western-genre elements has motocross champ Jeremy Slate (as the one decent character, and convincingly so) plotting his vengeance on the Arizona biker gang who stole his prized cycle. He catches up to them but is beaten badly, and for compensation the scurrilous pack leaves him scowling chopper chick Jocelyn Lane (an attractive cross between Nancy Sinatra and a post-teenage Hayley Mills, but a bit too refined for this kind of movie). "Hell's Belles" isn't much, nor does it strive to be, but the desert locales are interesting, Les Baxter's score is campy, and the performances aren't bad. Adam Roarke, a fine actor who made more than his share of groaners, plays the leader with admirable finesse, and the growing relationship between Slate and Lane is intriguing. The final showdown is well done, as is the closing scene. American International Pictures, having had huge success with "The Wild Angels" in 1966, had a tough time getting out of the biker rut, and by 1970 it was all starting to look like rehashed goods, but this entry has some modest surprises up its sleeve, and leaves you with more than just a quick biker fix. ** from ****

The late '60s were the era of biker movies. The "Citizen Kane" of this genre was obviously "Easy Rider", while "The Wild Angels" might get called the second-best.

Released on DVD with the latter was "Hell's Belles". The simple plot - a racer's motorcycle gets stolen, so he sets out to reclaim it - holds second place to the sight of Jocelyn Lane in a miniskirt. I guess that she got relegated to potboilers while other actresses of the era got the highbrow roles. Even so, she was certainly a sight for sore eyes.

So, it's nothing special. I understand that the director later directed episodes of "Little House on the Prairie" (which I've never seen). The main thing here is the chance to see Jocelyn Lane looking sexy.

This is one hell of a fun movie, and probably the best motorcycle flick of the '60s after Easy Rider. The is actually an update of the old Jimmy Stewart movie Winchester '73, except a motorcycle is used in place of the rifle. Jeremy Slate, always great in these '60s flicks, is the lead and is supported by a wonderful exploitation movie cast. Les Baxter's score, next to that of Easy Rider is about the best heard in a biker flick, a perfect artifact of the period, and lots of fun.

The late-60's biker sub-genre take on the James Stewart Western, WINCHESTER '73, which is about a cherished gun, won in a contest then stolen from the winner before winding up in several different hands...

Only here it's a motorcycle that modern cowboy type Jeremy Slate loses the night of the race by his jealous rival, who then loses it to the token gang led by sixties' biker staple Adam Roarke, fresh from HELL'S ANGELS ON WHEELS and THE SAVAGE SEVEN...

So Roarke (with bulky sidekick William Lucking) is as comfortable in a biker flick as director Maury Dexter is at Westerns, since, earlier in the decade, he turned out a bunch for 20th Century Fox along with Neo Noir thrillers, and, like those entertaining and economical programmers, he moves an otherwise plodding exploitation decently enough for the viewer to remain semi-intrigued throughout...

But the true scene-stealer is the extremely gorgeous Jocelyn Lane, who Roarke trades Slate for the stolen vehicle and that he doesn't want (God knows why), and the title HELL'S BELLES is misleading since it's not about the other biker molls, all but passive commentators on their men, fighting with fists instead guns and riding bikes instead of horses, while Slate eventually thaws out from his initially reluctant relationship with Lane... Who wouldn't?