moonspinner55 B-grade "wheeler" has motorcycle gang infiltrating a small community, getting everyone riled up, especially service station attendant Jack Nicholson, who is introduced to us roughing up a middle-aged customer who just wants to fill his gas-guzzler with ethyl. Richard Rush is credited with the direction, however the real standout here is cinematographer Leslie Kovacs (aka László Kovács), whose attentive eyes and ears give us some provocative shots of the townspeople interacting with the biker hellions, aided by William Martin's editing. The juxtaposition of city squares and greasy rebels--the culture and the counterculture, if you will--is far more interesting than the 'plot,' which has Nicholson putting his faith in a fickle biker chick. Nicholson soon escaped from the drive-in movie rut, but co-star Adam Roarke never did. Handsome Roarke has panache and a moody, swaggering quality that mainstream Hollywood missed out on. Rush misses it, too, staging an unexciting final fight scene between Roarke and Nicholson that ends the movie with a thud. Stu Phillips' score is perhaps too perky for a picture like this. *1/2 from ****

Janus Høi Directors office 1967: "Let's make a cool movie.." "Yeah.. What kind of movie" "What about a road-movie?" "Mmm.. A road-movie with motorcycles?" "Sounds good.. With some bad boys?" "The baddest boys in the world.. HELLS ANGELS!" "Oh no.. Don't be kidding me.. Not the ANGELS?" "Oh yes.. With a lot of bitches too." "Sounds good. But.. How can we make those guys look very cool?" "Hey.. This is the late sixties.. It's very easy to look cool: Drink and drive, never change your clothes, smoke some pot, take bath in beer and grow beard." "This gonna be sooo cool!" No.. It was a big mistake, instead."Hells Angels on wheels" are a total waste of time.

MisterWhiplash Hell's Angels on Wheels, if you're into the biker genre, is not a second-rate vehicle for its promoters, the Hell's Angels (Sonny Barger, reportedly at the time, said it was the "most accurate" of the films on them). Going by the sort of Roger Corman standard (not just for biker movies but for his brand of 'fast-food' style films, not very good for you but it goes down fast), of a fight or some other form of action happening every 15 minutes or so, the film is hip in its period way, and isn't pretentious in the slightest. Even with the name of Jack Nicholson's character, Poet, nothing near the intellectual and philosophical realm of Easy Rider comes close (though Nicholson's main scenes are some of the best in the film, more comparable to Five Easy Pieces than the Wild Angels). It's about a guy, Poet, who is a gas station attendant who decides randomly to go along with the Angels. Some of the standard plot stuff happens; the hero's girl flocking to someone 'else'; shenanigans in a small town; beefs with the 'pigs'. Leading along the way, in a sense almost in an unintentional training form for a later triumph, Laszlo Kovacs is the DP and he takes down these images usually in more of a documentary form as they ride around, and there is an added (if of course all in good, violent biker fun) intensity to the fight scenes. Along with Nicholson, his usual brooding, cool self, is Adam Rourke, turning in not a bad performance as the leader of the gang.Is it trash? Sure. Is it worth watching once? Absolutely, at least if you're curious about/into the period and sub-genre (the music isn't very good, by the way, a sign of what was needed in Easy Rider). Does it give a little room for Nicholson to give a little of his great B-movie gusto? No doubt about it. And is the story paper thin? No doubt about it. Hell's Angels on Wheels is stupid, rollicking good drive-in style fun, with some technical flair and character actor hipness to cover the tracks of the many flaws.

eht5y This one is shelved in the 'cult' section of my favorite independent video rental shop, and for good reason. It's ludicrous!Jack Nicholson is 'Poet,' a bad-ass gas-station attendant who gets fired after mouthing off at a customer and then rides off with the Hell's Angels, chasing after a piece of the macho life and a shot at making it with Shill (Sabrina Scharf), who rides bitch behind club chapter president Buddy (Adam Roarke), the king bad-ass of them all.A confessed example of the B-movie 'exploitation' genre, 'Hell's Angels on Wheels' plays on every possible cliché: chair-smashing barroom brawls, bikers harassing carnival-goers and helpless drivers, cops harassing the bikers, heavy drinking and smoking of the evil weed by the violent Angels, etc. It's all too hilarious to be believed. The acting is adequate--Jack is great as Poet, making the most out of the stilted, silly dialogue, and Adam Roarke, a B-movie leading man if there ever was one, seems to be relishing every bit of his character's corny, macho posturing. Sabrina Schraff as Shill is a tough, sexy leading lady, though her hip outfits and perfectly coiffed bouffant don't much fit the look and style of an actual biker chick, even in 1967. As a matter of fact, the whole gang is a little too clean and well-groomed to resemble actual motorcycle outlaws, and the soundtrack consists of some of the most hilariously bad sixties-era 'muzak' you'll ever hear. Real Angels wouldn't be caught dead listening to such crappy pap.The film is most interesting for its trivia value: Included are brief appearances by a host of actual Hell's Angels led by Sonny Barger, who to this day remains President of the infamous motorcycle gang. Apparently the Angels traded the use of their name and insignia for a cameo and a mention in the credits (though one wonders if they would have agreed to do so had they seen the film's final cut beforehand). Sabrina Schraff, the main love interest, was a former Playboy Bunny and later appeared in 'Easyrider', which, of course, also featured Jack Nicholson in his breakout role. Schraff, interestingly enough, went on to become a California state senator.This is a silly little time capsule--a nice example of the sixties-era exploitation flick and a reasonable indicator of the widespread paranoia surrounding the motorcycle gang phenomena popularized in the early sixties. The Angels obviously enjoy being romanticized as fun-loving but fierce rebels against mainstream culture in the tradition of the frontier outlaws of the nineteenth century and the gangsters of the roaring twenties, but trust me, this movie is no history lesson.