Hells Angels on Wheels

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 !

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!

Although this film doesn't do much, it accomplishes everything that it set out to do. It successfully exploits just about everything in order to fulfill its duties. Sex, drugs, and violence are king here. The plot is like the women in this film: loose. There a lot going on but nothing much gets done to further a story. However, a romance is at its center. There are some scenes of bikers running amok set against hippy music that work well. The acting was very good from the entire cast, not just Nicholson (who, as always, was superb). I'm not going to give anything away, but the ending could have been better. It was a little cheesy. This is a pretty good biker exploitation flick although I would recommend Russ Meyer's Motorpsycho if you're in the mood for motorcycle chaos.

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.

This one is shelved in the 'cult' section of my favorite independent video rental shop, and for good reason. It's ludicrous!

Jack Nicholson is 'Poet,' a bad-ass gas-station attendant who gets fired after mouthing off at a customer and then rides off with the Hell's Angels, chasing after a piece of the macho life and a shot at making it with Shill (Sabrina Scharf), who rides bitch behind club chapter president Buddy (Adam Roarke), the king bad-ass of them all.

A confessed example of the B-movie 'exploitation' genre, 'Hell's Angels on Wheels' plays on every possible cliché: chair-smashing barroom brawls, bikers harassing carnival-goers and helpless drivers, cops harassing the bikers, heavy drinking and smoking of the evil weed by the violent Angels, etc. It's all too hilarious to be believed. The acting is adequate--Jack is great as Poet, making the most out of the stilted, silly dialogue, and Adam Roarke, a B-movie leading man if there ever was one, seems to be relishing every bit of his character's corny, macho posturing. Sabrina Schraff as Shill is a tough, sexy leading lady, though her hip outfits and perfectly coiffed bouffant don't much fit the look and style of an actual biker chick, even in 1967. As a matter of fact, the whole gang is a little too clean and well-groomed to resemble actual motorcycle outlaws, and the soundtrack consists of some of the most hilariously bad sixties-era 'muzak' you'll ever hear. Real Angels wouldn't be caught dead listening to such crappy pap.

The film is most interesting for its trivia value: Included are brief appearances by a host of actual Hell's Angels led by Sonny Barger, who to this day remains President of the infamous motorcycle gang. Apparently the Angels traded the use of their name and insignia for a cameo and a mention in the credits (though one wonders if they would have agreed to do so had they seen the film's final cut beforehand). Sabrina Schraff, the main love interest, was a former Playboy Bunny and later appeared in 'Easyrider', which, of course, also featured Jack Nicholson in his breakout role. Schraff, interestingly enough, went on to become a California state senator.

This is a silly little time capsule--a nice example of the sixties-era exploitation flick and a reasonable indicator of the widespread paranoia surrounding the motorcycle gang phenomena popularized in the early sixties. The Angels obviously enjoy being romanticized as fun-loving but fierce rebels against mainstream culture in the tradition of the frontier outlaws of the nineteenth century and the gangsters of the roaring twenties, but trust me, this movie is no history lesson.