Des filles à moto

"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!.

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.

I didn't think this movie was so bad. They had no set, no props really, and yet it served to be an entertaining story til the end. I thought Shayne was a well done evil lead lady, though she didn't seem to confident on a motorcycle, that's for sure. She did a good job at making you hate her. Her little sister was good too.

For a lot of the film, I felt sorry for the bride. But at the same time, you have to remember that she and the groom only knew each other for 3 weeks before they got married. She seemed really out of place, and that was intended.

It's the first time I had seen rodeo guys mixed with biker gangs, but I guess it makes sense. The scenes where people fell off cliffs were pretty painful to watch, I thought they did a good job staging those stunts.

All in all, the movie was entertaining and simple. I was thinking there would be more women kicking ass involved, but really it's just one woman who bosses some dudes and her sister around. It's not about a mob at all - just one evil, overly hair-sprayed lady. However, I wouldn't want to watch it again.

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.

I am a fan of Sixties motorcycle flicks, and I've seen many (but not all) of them. This is certainly one of the lesser efforts. The plot bears more than a few similarities to SATAN'S SADISTS (q.v.). In this case, it's Shayne, the psychotic female leader of The Mini Skirts (Diane McBain and her hair-do) stalking the innocent young couple along with her flunkies. It seems that the man she's after used to be "her guy," but he got wise, dumped his rodeo/biker buddies and married some hot brunette wimp from the local bank. But such treachery could not stand! First the couple is stalked, then assaulted, and the whole thing just escalates from there until finally Molotov cocktails enter the picture, leading to one of the ubiquitous gags where a stunt man wears a fire suit and runs around the desert while flaming away.

Most of the actors were totally unconvincing. I found myself thinking "these aren't real bikers, these are bourgeois middle-class Hollywood types just playacting." They didn't seem threatening at all. These chicks wouldn't have time to menace society as maintaining their giant hairdos and false eyelashes probably required a lot of effort. Yes, Harry Dean Stanton is in this, and he exhibited his usual sleazy charm. The character of the wife was annoying. I know she was supposed to be a little flitty hummingbird, but her whining became like fingernails on a chalkboard almost immediately. Plus, what real biker gang rode TRIUMPH MOTORCYCLES?! Yeah, right! I can only recommend this highly if you have a burning desire to see hot Sixties chicks in mini-skirts, go-go boots and huge hair.

Look, you people need to get way down the list of biker movies before this one comes up. Start off with THE WILD ANGELS, try HELL'S ANGELS '69, or THE CYCLE SAVAGES. SHE-DEVILS ON WHEELS is also a good pick. THE TORMENTORS is probably the most outrageous and entertaining one, if you can find it.