Smashing il racket del crimine

Hell's Bloody Devils is a real "Hell" to watch. It's really sad to see academy-award winning actor Broderick Crawford is a small role in this stink-bomb.

With a surprising cast of veteran actors such as Crawford, Kent Taylor, Scott Brady and John Carradine, you'd think that at least this movie would be watchable; it's not.

The texture of the film is terrible. The sound-track is messed up and in some scenes the actors are talking and nothing is coming out; maybe that's a good thing because the lines are so stupid and childish. I think I would only see this piece of worthless garbage if I was a fan of Broderick Crawford. Than again, I think I'd rather remember him in his hey-day in All The King's Men; how the mighty have fallen!

Wanting to reestablish the Nazi Party in Germany, a rich and influential militarist named "Count Otto Von Delberg" (Kent Taylor) has acquired some extremely precise counterfeit plates and in order to fund his political ambitions has initiated a process to launder large sums of fake money through certain connections he has with the American mafia. One mob boss in particular named "Joe Brimante" (Keith Andes) is so impressed with the counterfeit dollars that he sends his most trusted lieutenant, "Mark Adams" (John Gabriel) to not only buy some of the fake dollars but to also inquire about purchasing the plates themselves. However, what nobody counts on is the fact that there are other organizations who are fully aware of these plates and they also want to get their hands on them as well. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that, although it may have been marketed as a "biker film" and certainly has its share of rough-and-tumble bikers, this particular picture turned out to be more of a "spy movie" than anything else. To that end, there were several twists and turns along the way which were quite intricate. Be that as it may, this was a complicated and rather confusing movie which had its good points here and there and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Ye Gods! First off, this isn't a biker film, in spite of the packaging of the DVD (2005 release). What is it really? A mess.

Like Adamson's "Dracula Vs. Frankenstein," "Blood of Ghastly Horror" or "Psycho-a-Go-Go" this is really parts of two (or more) movies that were started and never finished, and patched together in whatever manner would supposedly make sense.

News flash: it actually doesn't make any sense.

Instead, we're cutting back and forth between footage of a biker gang riding around and making out with random chicks, and an FBI agent involved in a plot to infiltrate "The Syndicate", who in turn are helping "The New Nazi Party" (leader played by Kent Taylor, not attempting a German accent) by buying counterfeit bills from them, reportedly made from counterfeit Nazi plates left over from World War II (then 25 years in the past -- hmm, passing tons of crisp $20 bills dated 1942 wouldn't be suspicious, now would it??? ).

Throw in an undercover (female) Israeli agent on the trail of the Nazis, Broderick Crawford as the FBI boss mumbling into his cigarette, and John Carradine in a hilarious bit part as a wacky pet shop owner, and you have a hilarious jumble of insanity.

Just about the only thing that kept my interest were the rich late Sixties fashions (no Hippie wear, except for the bikers, instead all the men and women are dressed very formally in the manner of a major-studio Hollywood production, like a James Bond film).

I have found out that the "James Bond" part of the film was shot under a different title, "The Fakers" (now the theme song, "The Fakers" makes sense). This part was shot in 1967, apparently also by Adamson and crew (all their names are in the original credit sequence), and then, I guess shelved because there were no takers for The Fakers. (Sorry.) After sitting on the shelf for a while, the biker gang part was shot in 1969, I suppose with Adamson attempting to market what he had as a biker opera. That's why the fashions change abruptly throughout the film.

The other positive of note is the really good musical score, by Nelson Riddle! Lushly orchestral, with bongos going crazy and a dash of intense fuzz guitar. Where's the soundtrack for this? Unless, of course, they licensed needle-drop production music. Even if they did do that, I don't care, I still want a copy of this music. It's awesome.

The music and the costuming (in the earlier "Fakers" footage ONLY), are so good that for a second Al almost fooled me into thinking this wasn't a low-budget mess. But only for a second. It probably helps that the budget on "The Fakers" was probably somewhat higher than the budget on the later segments Adamson directed.

Sometimes Adamson's brand of slop is entertaining. Check out "Satan's Sadists" or "Blood of Dracula's Castle." Even "Dracula Vs. Frankenstein," as messed-up and weird as it is, is more entertaining than this mess. If you have to watch Hell's Bloody Devils, keep in mind, it isn't a biker movie. It's a bad James Bond rip-off tarted up to look like a biker movie so it could be sold to drive-in theaters. Thanks a bunch, Al.

I hope when you see it, you see it with the great preview for this film--the one that warns the faint of heart to go to the snack bar instead of watching the depravity and violence! It's really campy and rather funny--and is better than the rest of the film. In fact, it really looks like a totally different film, as the preview makes it out to be a biker film whereas the thing turns out to have almost nothing to do with these bikers!

The opening credits you then see are really rather cool--but also have a lot of nudity. You can certainly tell that this is NOT a movie for the kids! And, when you see the name Al Adamson, you know that the film will truly suck--he's the king of schlock film of the 1960s and 70s. His films, if it's possible, are every bit as bad as Larry Buchanan's and, Ted Mikels' and Hershell Gordon Lewis'--and so you realize that despite the interesting credits, the rest of the film will only get worse--so enjoy the credits while you can! And, when you learn that the film is about a group of neo-Nazis uniting with biker gangs and Communists, you know that Adamson is up to form! And, in a very, very tack move, an Israeli agent is out to get the evil Kruger (the Nazi war criminal) because he killed her family at Auschwitz! Using Auschwitz as a plot point just seemed...gross and rather exploitative.

Here is where the film just gets even more weird. At about 40 minutes into the film, the male lead asks a lady to lunch. They go to Kentucky Fried Chicken and out of nowhere, in walks Colonel Sanders---THE Colonel Sanders! He asked them what they thought of his chicken and then just stood there staring at them as they ate!!! Why? I dunno--nor did the Colonel apparently! It was like a free ad for his chicken! In the middle of the movie! And it had nothing, really, to do with the plot! How strange and cool is that?! And, in many ways, this weird and irrelevant appearance by the Colonel is EXACTLY like the rest of the film. Many scenes are irrelevant and seem to be tossed in randomly and almost every type of character shows up in this strange melange of a film! By the way, in addition to Commies, Nazis, mobsters and the such, there also are government agents. However, one of the agents is a sexy lady and the other is Broderick Crawford--who mostly sits around and does an imitation of a giant talking carbuncle. I am actually surprised that zombies and perhaps Count Dracula didn't show up--nearly every other type of character did!

In a curious little scene, check out the twins in the pet shop. They might look familiar. They are Alyce Andrece and Rhae Andrece. They starred as two of the robots on the original "Star Trek" series (the "I, Mudd" episode).

Overall, a strange and confusing concoction. While a few elements aren't terrible, the over experience is. For example, while the theme music is pretty good, it's repeated again and again and again until you are ready to scream! Bad....just plain bad.

One of Al Adamson's rarer features and the print I saw was worn out with Portuguese subtitles. I got it for Greydon Clark's appearance but he's in it for all of about five minutes and with two different hair styles. That's because, just as with Adamson's MEAN MOTHER, this film appears to have been started and never finished and then scenes were added years later to make some sort of assemblage of a plot. The problem is, it is hard to gather what is going on. Characters appear out of nowhere, the aforementioned change in hair styles sometimes makes them unrecognizable, Hell's Bloody Devils - the biker gang - serve less purpose in plot structure than the Russ Tamblyn led crew did in DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN, and the print was so choppy that whole bits of dialogue were missing. Nevertheless, it's still quite enjoyable to watch, with John Gabriel as a FBI agent posing as a member of the syndicate who gets involved with counterfeit money and in the end comes to blows with a surviving member of Hitler's inner circle as well as a flirtation with the high ranking Nazi's daughter. Broderick Crawford and John Carradine appear in small roles and the music is even catchier than Harley Hatcher's score for SATAN'S SADISTS. The camera work and direction seem more than competent and one can only imagine how solid the film would have been had it not ended up as a salvage job. Well worth checking out for the Al Adamson/Greydon Clark completist or if you are interested in movies with Colonel Sanders cameos (he has less screen time here than in THE BLAST-OFF GIRLS though).