Bury Me an Angel

Dixie Peabody ("Night Call Nurses") plays "Dag", a young female biker utterly destroyed by the killing of her brother Dennis. She sets out on the road with two male sidekicks, Bernie (Clyde Ventura, "'Gator Bait") and Jonesy (Terry Mace, "Sixpack Annie"), toting a shotgun and coldly determined to get revenge.

"Bury Me an Angel" is oft-promoted by cult movie aficionados as a rare "feminist biker movie", given that it's written & directed by a woman filmmaker (Barbara Peeters, "Starhops" and "Humanoids from the Deep") and features a strong female character in the lead. Having seen it now, I *can* safely say that the script is actually pretty good, and occasionally insightful. Of course, being a product of Roger Cormans' New World Pictures, it serves as both female empowerment *and* exploitation, with the statuesque Peabody removing her clothes for a skinny-dipping scene. Still ... it sometimes meanders and just marks time, with maybe a little too many shots of the main trio riding down the highway. The big fight scene in the bar comes off as perfunctory and overly silly. (Then again, that may have been Peeters' point: to show how silly she thinks scenes like this are.)

But the cast is good: Peabody leaves a memorable impression in the main role, and she & Mace & Ventura have decent chemistry. The supporting players include Joanne Moore Jordan ("Faces"), Gary Littlejohn ("Badlands"), Beach Dickerson ("Attack of the Crab Monsters"), and Dan "Grizzly Adams" Haggerty in an engaging bit as a struggling artist who takes a liking to Dag. Film director Richard Compton ("Macon County Line") plays one of the pool players.

Overall, "Bury Me an Angel" packs a pretty big punch with its bombshell of an ending, showing just how troubled our anti-heroine was and once again proving that revenge is not what it's cracked up to be.

Seven out of 10.

You can complain all you want about low budget production values, but BURY ME AN ANGEL is a lot better than most biker pictures of the age, telling a "revenge-on-the-go" story that satisfies. Best of all, it defines both revenge and attitude at the same time! This is as solid as it gets with writing a feminist statement into an exploitation movie that doesn't require a single damsel going under a lot of painful distress. Many drive-in movies have copied off this tiring idea numerous times before (like the women-in-prison idea), so this movie was obviously going into a new direction. The key word is revenge, and it defines exactly what this movie is about, not withstanding the pressure of most filmmakers who still haven't learned how to make good exploitation.

This damsel, by the way, falls under the name of Dixie Peabody, certainly knowing how to show who's boss throughout the whole film. Her style of character stands out extremely high and sticks with it. You can tell that she has that mean, emotionless personality inside, and never gives up trying. And you know what she's going after. Revenge, and nothing short of sweet! It's not bad to have two accompanying buddies to join her for the ride. It would almost be certain that it rips off EASY RIDER, but thank goodness this one isn't exactly an action film carrying the "femme fatale" label. Who needs it, anyhow?

Bottom line: this IS serious biker hash that doesn't need to go over the border with lousy creativity demonstrated in SATAN'S SADISTS. You wouldn't want to miss Dan "Grizzly Addams" Haggerty in a movie like this, a guy reasonable in a dark-haired beard that Nu-Hart later hired. As obscure as BURY ME AN ANGEL has become, so does the actress Dixie Peabody who should have been best remembered for her solid performance on both motorcycle and turf. Where is she today? An overlooked (and perhaps lost) drive-in experience could someday rediscover itself again, if you took my word on this page.

It is interesting to note that the three main actors in this movie - Dixie Peabody, Terry Mace and Clyde Ventura - all seemed to have vanished from sight proximal to starring in this film, with each of them only making a handful of movies combined in a short time frame. While they weren't the best actors ever to grace the screen, they did approach their roles with a certain verve and raw energy that helped offset some of the occasionally overall amateurish production values. The recent success of " Easy Rider " had a profound influence on much of the visual context of this film, as the three bikers similarly wend their way through western landscapes backed by a rock soundtrack. However, the attempt to capture and recreate the magic of that classic film falls short in comparison, lacking both the brilliant cinematography of Laszlo Kovacs, as well as the backing score provided by some of the best contemporary music created in that era. Instead, we get a fairly mediocre and generic sonic collection that could have been supplied by any halfway decent bar band, while the cinematography here remains relatively strong, with its vivid color and solid compositional components as envisioned by Sven Walnum. The movie as directed by Barbara Peeters is a valiant effort to enter the male dominated biker genre by positing a powerful female lead, bent on vindication, and unintimidated by the traditionally masculine world of biker gangs, even if the overall directorial effort can be considered dilletantish at best. Dixie Peabody is a first rate choice for her role, considering her imposing stature and modelesque beauty. Why she faded from view is anybody's guess, considering her potential as a strong female protagonist that seemed poised for some amount of fame, even if only limited to modest success as a character actress. " Bury Me An Angel " probably deserves to be unearthed for a viewing, notwithstanding its shortcomings.

The movie is about a biker chick who wants revenge for the murder of her brother. She goes on a quest with two guys, which is good, because they're somewhat more interesting than she is. Not that they're "angels", or even "mature", but they're "kids", so it is understandable that they're immature.

The movie seems to be full of "slices" of little parts of the journey. It's supposed to show character, and it does to some extent.

In 1972, there were some characters that you see here, but there are some stereotypes, especially at the school where adults cower to the bikers.

It's obvious that the film maker wanted to have a mix of "stereotypes scenes" like the bar room brawl and the pool hustling, but those are the weaknesses of the movie. However, the powerful punch of the film makes this weakness fit in a bit.

Using a "witch", although a very modern witch, to show the "wisdom" also makes this weak, and smacks of propaganda. The "witch" is the "mouthpiece" of the work.

However, the "witch" is the sane character in this mix.

Though it is obvious the lead woman is a maniac, the movie does a good job of leading the more naive viewer into the final outcome, where that becomes blatant.

There are many saving graces to the movie. The ending reveals much that some more sophisticated viewers will suspect much earlier, but it probably isn't obvious to the more naive. The ending will be sure to disappoint the kids who think vengeance is "cool". And the ending will even be a pleasant surprise, though a sad one, for the sophisticated viewer.

The two sidekicks are more interesting than the lead, as are some of the people she meets along the way. In a way, these two are the film, as they represent what "somewhat saner" people do when their friend is a psychopath.

This could have been a memorable film. In fact, the climactic scene does make it worthwhile. A good turnabout. Look for this film to some day be one of the classics of this era, for the very reasons it is unpopular with IMDb today. It dares. It is the ultimate in the iconoclastic.

Despite its much-discussed feminist slant, this film is a slow-moving, amateurishly-made bore whose trailer is all you need to see of it. Nearly everything worth watching in the full-length movie is found in the trailer, and its punctuated by some of the most hilariously overripe narration in history. BURY ME AN ANGEL sucks out loud, but I give it a 3 out of 10 solely for its idiotic and horrendously-staged bar fight that's less exciting that watching two eight-week-old kittens slapping each other around with their paws. That fight may be pitiful, but it inspires a certain awe when one considers the balls it took to put something so pathetic onto the screen and actually expect people to shell out good money to see it. And let us not forget the incredible turn by star Dixie Peabody; her loony expressions and acting when she gets crazy while reminiscing about her murdered brother are amazing in a way that calls to mind a fusion of Edy Williams and Susan George at their most over-the-top.