Angels Hard as They Come

A pretty good standard biker flick made by the fact it was written and produced by the guy who would go on to direct such hit Hollywood films and The Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia. It was also one of the first films released on Roger Corman's own New World Pictures for which it turned a pretty impressive profit for. Scott Glenn isn't the most charismatic lead, but, he moves the films very western style plot onward with the help of the guy that plays "The General" who throws in some fun evil overacting. Theres some boobs towards the end and Gary Busey cameos as a young hippie leader, so what's not to like.

During the end of the 1960s/beginning of the 1970s there was the vogue of the biker movie genre. These movies where made with cheap budgets, actors who were making it big and directors who have only these as their only credits. I am not a fan of the genre as you probably can guess from the summary, but I gave it a try once it was on TV.

The Angels motorcycle gang has a feud with the Dragons and things get worse after they invite the Angels in the desert town of Lost Cause. The Angels' leader Long John (Scott Glenn) is challenged by the Dragons' leader General (Charles Dierkop) to a race and loses. Soon after that John meets a young hippie woman and it's infatuated with her. The leader of her gang Henry (Gary Busey) is not happy about the Dragons. After some races and some imprisonments, the Angels will have their victory.

The acting by Glenn and Busey was decent, and it was surprising since they were unknowns, but the pacing was dull and after a while the plot got stale. Apart from the acting, the music was the only good and memorable asset. A must see only for biker movie fans.

I mistakenly watched this DVD thinking it would offer something slightly different from the usual Hell's Angels road movies. The fact that the title suffixes "As hard as they come" I was literally expecting a proper blood & guts flick-instead I got a 2nd rate movie length version of a staple A-Team story line! The basic premise is Long John (Scott Glenn) is seen arranging a shady drugs deal out in the desert with his buddies Juicer (Don Carrera) and Monk (James Inglehart). They get tailed by the police but eventually lose them and end up at a petrol station.

Here they meet fellow road warriors "The Dragons" and are invited to a hippy commune that the Dragons have gatecrashed-for a party.

Basically, we discover that the Dragons are a little heavy handed with the hippies, climaxing in the attempted gang rape of one of the hippy chicks that Long John has taken a liking to. Long John intervenes and in the melee the hippy chick gets stabbed.

After a Kangaroo court presided over by the Dragons leader "the General" (Charles Dierkop) the Angels are found guilty and sentenced to "fun & games" (dragged around on the back of the Hogs) and eventually death.

Monk escapes and alerts the rest of the gang and the Hippies finally get some backbone to help the Angels. The movie's finale is of the Angels whupping the Dragons and everyone going their separate ways.

The "violent" scenes are marred by terrible lighting and really bad 70's fisticuffs, the movie is clichéd and doesn't work on any level-it's not even amusing from a nostalgia point of view.

Rent/Buy this movie at your peril!

Also known as Angel Warriors. This is Jonathan Demme in his exploitation days for Roger Corman. Long before his independent movie days with Orion Pictures.

Demme did not direct this. He co-wrote this with Joe Viola, the latter is the director. Viola went on to have a strong track record writing for episodic television shows.

Scott Glenn is Long John. Part of a counterculture drug dealing biker gang. They party with a group of hippies in a old ghost town after hooking up with another biker gang.

When a hippie chick is raped and murdered. Long John and his gang are blamed by the General (Charles Dierkop.) He plans to torture them and then kill them.

They escape which then leads to a showdown with the General. Also find out who did kill the girl.

The movie is really a western with biker gang tropes. You know Long John is a good guy at heart, one of his gang members is black.

The General wears a German pointy helmet, some of his members have names such as Lucifer.

This is not a great movie. It follows the low budget exploitation genre. Violence, women dancing topless. Fight scenes.

Glenn has charisma is an early role. Gary Busey features as a hippy.

Scott Glenn and Roger Corman would later join Demme in the Oscar winning The Silence of the Lambs.

I, John Hand, was the editor of CUSTOM CHOPPER Magazine in 1971 and I had a car and bike painter friend named Bill Carter who was appearing in the movie with his Harley. So I went out to the desert and watched them shoot some scenes. I put a report of this movie in my magazine but I have to admit that I never saw the movie later. Mr Demme the director sent me a letter with some clarifications about the movie and I put the letter in my magazine. Jonathan Demme, the director also told me to keep my eye on Scott Glenn, because he was going to go places. Well, as it turned out, they both went on to make and star in the big blockbuster and award winner SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Who would have thought?