Angel Unchained

Angel Unchained tells the story of Angel, the loner who leaves his club for the hippy commune. Local townies (actually cowboys in dune buggies) are out to drive the long hairs away, so Angel asks his biker buddies for protection. It's The Seven Samurai on choppers, but these warriors aren't in it for honour, money, or prestige...they only want the potent 'wammo' that the hippie's medicine man puts into chocolate chip cookies(presumably it's Peyote, but the script takes care not to be too descriptive). Acting honours go to Don Stroud as Angel, there's a young Tyne Daly on hand to 'do her thing', Luke Askew is good as commune leader Tremaine, and Aldo Ray has about five minutes of screen time--most of it reclining in a chair--as the local sheriff. Plenty of action, and a lot less profanity and nudity than you would expect from one of these AIP quickies.

obviously "biker gang" and "hippie commune" are terms of pure fantasy ... the fantasy of enjoyment that the workaday world had about '60s subculture. so this film is mildly interesting in that it manages to represent both with (what I imagine to be) some degree of accuracy. bikers, with the promise of extra enjoyment, act as enforcers for peace-loving back-to-the-landers against hostile hick "townies" who harass them at every opportunity. it is a bucketful of cliché and ends in a big dune-buggy hack-em-wack-em fireball, but there's some meaningful representation of (what I imagine to be) the cultural conflicts of the era.

Angel (surfer Don Stroud, "The Amityville Horror") is a biker who joins a commune of hippies near a small town. When the town rednecks attack them, Angel calls up some of his bad biker buddies to exact revenge.

This is more or less exactly what you would expect from a movie that combines hippies with bikers. They simply do not get along well, despite both of them being anti-establishment and pro-drug. (We saw a similar yet different encounter in "Easy Rider".)

Was this a good film? Maybe. I mean, I am not going to go out and tell people to watch it. But as far as some good old-fashioned American International Pictures fun goes, this is another AIP film that you can just relax to. No thinking involved.

Released in 1970, "Angel Unchained" features Don Stroud as an Arizona biker who decides he's had enough of the biker lifestyle. He roams off and ends up at a hippie commune where he hooks up with a young Tyne Daly. It doesn't take long for redneck cowboy dune buggy riders to enter the picture (I'm not making this up). They try to chase the hippies away so Stroud goes back to his biker buddies to enlist them to help stave off the rednecks.

"Angel Unchained" is definitely a low Grade "B" flick. You'll observe this right off at the silly carnival brawl sequence. This is not top-notch filmmaking, that's for sure. Despite this, after about 30-40 minutes I strangely started getting involved in the story; I actually started caring about the characters and what would ultimately happen, even though I shouldn't have. The bikers are depicted as wild outcast revelers who drink and use drugs, but they're generally likable at the same time. The scenic Arizona locations are a highlight.

The end credits showcase each actor individually in that dramatic way that used to be popular (e.g. "The Dirty Dozen"); all it did for me was make me bust out laughing. NOTE TO THE FILMMAKERS: It wasn't a good or serious enough film to warrant this type of venerable closing.

BOTTOM LINE: "Angel Unchained" wasn't made very well or very seriously; however, if you make the necessary psychological adjustments and give it a chance (i.e. 30-40 minutes of your time), it's fun, likable, entertaining and even a mite engrossing. I shouldn't like it, but I do. Go figure.

The film runs 86 minutes.

Grade: C+

PS: If you want to see a great late 60's/early 70's biker flick, catch the very first one, the infamous "The Wild Angels" from 1966 starring Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, Nancey Sinatra and Diane Ladd. "The Wild Angels" is simultaneously shocking and profoundly brilliant (yes, even though it's essentially a Roger Corman 'B' film). See my review for full details.

Jack said the rednecks are on "Go-Carts". I own the movie and watch it every few years or so. They are driving dune buggies. A far cry from go carts. I think the movie is great! Very unrealistic which helps make it great. I collect cheap biker movies and this well qualifies. Unrealistic is letting a fellow club member leave so he can get his head together. You gotta have a better reason for leaving any outlaw club. Usually it's prison or death. Just taking off don't cut it. Having a tripping Indian with trippy cookies is a first. Usually outlaws will do some things for cash. These "Bros" go for "cookies"! God bless 'em! Next they will be killing for apple pie. Yes, you could find better things to do with your time than watching this. Usually crushing your fingers in a vise or sticking your face in a fan is more entertaining. If you love cheap biker movies (and vintage dune buggies) you will LOVE this pile.