Les démons de la violence

This movie begins with two brothers by the name of "Chuck" (Tom Stern) and "Wes" (Jeremy Slate) who mysteriously decide to head out west in order to meet the Oakland branch of the Hell's Angels. Donning a jacket with their own motorcycle club logo they manage to partially ingratiate themselves with the group and then proceed to coerce them into riding to Las Vegas. What the Hell's Angels don't realize is that these two brothers have a secret plan which carries a great amount of risk for all concerned. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that it had a bit more mystery than most "biker films" out there and tended to get better as the movie progressed. Admittedly, the acting wasn't exactly top-notch but even so it was adequate enough. Likewise, there were a couple of scenes toward the end which seemed a bit too unbelievable but that's typical of Hollywood I suppose. In any case, I thought that this was a solid biker movie and because of that I rate it as about average.

The Orson Wells of Motorcycle films, Tom Stern, turns in one of his best performances. For nothing more than a "B" film, this turns into a highly enjoyable robbery heist flick in the nature of Ocean's 11.

Stern teams up with his buddy Jerome Slate to play spoiled,bratty, millionaire brothers who decide to rob a Vegas hotel while posing as members of the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club. The story plot is surprisingly good and the acting and action scenes are very well done.

The Vegas of 1969 is captured, and boy has it changed! Hell's Angel leader Ralph "Sonny" Barger steals the show simply by playing himself. Overall an impressive effort by Tom Stern.

I saw this in a theater when it came out, but I wasn't sitting with the audience, I was running the projectors. Every other biker film had come through there so I had seen them all. I didn't notice it at the time, but the dialog in this one is pretty well written. Jeremy Slate, that B movie bad guy who would show up in a big production once in a while, wrote the screenplay and he did a pretty good job.

The acting is hit or miss, since some of the important roles were played by people who weren't professional actors. A few of them spoke some funny lines which may have been improvs by the players. Those players were famous in their own right since they were Oakland Hell's Angels. The line by Tiny, "You know what? Mark it onna map fo'us" cracked me up and that was the second funny line he had spoken. Earlier in the story, he said of his aunt, "She thinks I'm still matriculatin' at Stanford."

The story and the dialog were quite a cut above what is usually on display in biker flicks. I liked this one better 54 years later when I saw it for the second time.

Tom Stern and Jeremy Slate are swing bachelor's planning to hijack a casino, ala "Ocean's 11", and pin it on the Hell's Angels. Bad move. For a film with the words Hell's Angels AND the number 69 AND featuring actual Hell's Angels, this movie is surprisingly tame. The Hell's Angels truly deserve a better film to be centered around them. Not this snoorefest. Luckily this is one of the DVDs that features commentary by Joe Bob Briggs so the pain of having to sit through it is greatly alleviated. If you watch it any other way, let me recommend something to you. DON'T!!

My Grade: D

DVD Extras: Joe Bob Brigg's commentary; Conny Van Dyke's message to her fans (she has more than one?); Photo gallery; Theatrical Trailer; and Trailers for "Blood Shack", "Hell High", "Samurai Cop", and "The Hollywood Strangler"

After the success of Roger Corman's Wild Angels in the mid sixties, there were probably a hundred or so biker movies flung out to the masses. Most with Hell's Angels or some rip off version of The Angels' name. All shared some degree of low budget schlock value. This movie is completely different from the rest!

First, it has a decent and interesting plot and even some back story subtext between the two brothers in the movie. Secondly, it has an original soundtrack that, although slightly dated, isn't that bad. A sort of psychedelic garage band plays at the party at the beginning of the movie. Also the movie seemed to have a decent budget spent in all the right places. Lastly, The actual Oakland Hell's Angels appear in the movie as not only extras but speaking and acting roles and their actually not too bad.

So I highly recommend this to motorcycle movie and crime caper fans. If nothing else, it's got the most real Harley's and choppers you will ever see in a 60's/70's biker flick.