The Tormentors

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.

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 had long admired the bad film work of David L. Hewitt ever since seeing The Wizard of Mars, Journey to the Center of Time, and the Mighty Gorga, but I have never heard of this masterwork until checking under his name on this database. Because, then I learned he "Directed" this film under another name, "Boris Eagle" and I suspect he was also the "Director" of photography "Charles Hawk" (bird thing going). I was so happy when I found a used DVD on ebay (it had a limited release in 2001 from a DVD label in Wisconsin). My life has been much richer since I have seen this late 60's masterwork of twisted bad cinema (the box says its from 1971, but given the EXTREME low budgets used by Hewitt it could have set on the shelf for awhile before release, my best guess is that it was shot a couple of years before that in 1969 around the time of the Mighty Gorga). It features cast members also used in the Mighy Gorga including the witchdoctor, Bruce Kimball (aka Kemp)and grade Z star Anthony Eisley (also from 1969).

The plot is world class twisted. A gang of Nazis, lead by "B. Rockwell Kemp" (George Lincoln Rockwell was a famous American Nazi in the 1960')played by Bruce Kimball (aka Kemp). For more cliche effect the Nazis ride motorcycles and rob a bank. They kill a young girl (by strangling her with a Swastika arm band) and her fiance finds out and wants revenge. He goes to a really funny head shop and is told he can find the Nazis hanging out at the local love in (of course, where else?). Also hanging out at the love in is a badly dubbed Jesus character named "The Messiah." He gives some "hip" sermons and the hippies all follow him much to the anger of the Nazis and B. Rockwell Kemp's boss (a drunk looking) James Craig (who was a real actor and must have needed money). He decides the Nazis must kill Jesus because then all the hippies would follow the Nazis instead (makes sense, right?).

The avenging fiance of the girl killed in the Nazi bank roberry joins the Nazis, finds out about the Jesus murder plot and calls his friend at the police. The police arrest Jesus for safekeeping but the Nazis bale him out and kill him on a conveniently located cross. The fiance continues to pose as a Nazi but eventually they find out and the whole thing ends in battle. Meanwhile we are treated to scenes of wild Nazi parties and orgies in their compound which is full of young Nazi babes. Music is by Rudy and The Love Slaves. This film a master piece of its kind. A great find for a bad film lover. Will all the attention going to someone like Ed Wood, remember there were others whose work was on that level and like Wood, Hewitt has a twisted style which can be strangely endearing. If nothing else its worth watching for Bruce Kimball's (aka Kemp)incredible performance as B. Rockwell Kemp. Marvel at his ever changing "German" accent (check him out in the Mighty Gorga and you will be sold). This film is bad classic and should received more attention. It made a significant impression on me.

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.

...if you can look past its weaknesses, the story's actually kind of interesting and there are quite a few highlights to make it worthwhile.

"The Tormentors" (1971) is more of a biker film in spirit than in reality since there are only a few motorcycle scenes, but it contains all the trappings of that infamous genre that started with the excellent "The Wild Angels" in 1966 (see my review for details) and fizzled out by 1974. This film is like an early 70's comic book come to life and reminded me of Gary Friedrich & Ross Andru's short-lived "Hell-Rider" from 1971, which was inspired by the popular biker films and was the precursor to Friedrich's better-known comic "Ghost Rider."

The story revolves around a well-dressed neo-Nazi group in Monterey, California, who rob banks on motorcycles. In the opening hold-up they do something that provokes the vengeance of a formidable cop (Anthony Eisley), who goes undercover to join the Nazis. Testing his authenticity, they order him to assassinate a charismatic Jesus freak called The Messiah who is preventing youths from turning to fascism.

It's a wild plot and sounds better than it actually is, mainly because of the film's low-budget failings. In fact, they ran out of money at some point and hired Kimberly Hyatt to finish the project. She bought some film, hired a crew with no money, did a quick rewrite and finished it on the weekends. The "failings" include the bad dubbing, which can be observed early on, especially the dubbing of The Messiah, a blond white dude, with the voice of a rousing black preacher. It's so bad it's funny. There are other funny moments, like Bruce Kimball as the overweight Nazi leader and his campy German accent that mysteriously disappears at certain points. There's also some bad editing and continuity.

Despite these glaring flaws, the film's strangely hypnotic. Comic booky or not, the story kept my interest and the film IS entertaining, and isn't this the main goal of filmmakers, to entertain? The rockin' score by Rudy & the Love Slaves is a huge plus as it has that genuine late 60s/early 70s hippie vibe and showcases a compelling percussion performance.

The women are another highlight, including voluptuous Inger Wegge as the evil Nazi blonde (spelled "Inga" in the credits), Chris Noel as Eve and a few more, like the redhead Marianne and the cop's blond fiancé. There are a couple of scenes of gratuitous top nudity, but it's pretty tame if you're older than early-teens. I think the long make-out sequence at the Nazi party was an excuse to showcase the groovy score more than anything else.

The Monterey locations are another highlight and, say what you want about Anthony Eisley, but he makes a fine protagonist here.

Although the film is copywritten 1971, another reviewer shared evidence that it may have been made in 1969 around the time of director David L. Hewitt's "The Mighty Gorga", but I can't verify if this is true or not. It definitely LOOKS like it was shot no later than 1970. In any event, "The Tormentors" was not actually released in 1971; it sat on the shelf until the early 80s when it was released on video.

FINAL WORD: One reviewer said this film has NO redeeming qualities, but this simply isn't true; it has a number of redeeming aspects. If you have a taste for micro-budget hippie/biker flicks from the late 60s/early 70s "The Tormentors" is a must. Yes, some elements are so bad they're funny, but all-in-all the movie's somehow entertaining, and that's the name of the game.

The film is short and sweet at 1 hour, 18 minutes.

GRADE: C (it's a "D" due to some lousy filmmaking here and there, like the dubbing, but a solid "B-" in overall entertainment, so "C" is the medium)