classicsoncall I've always held Dennis Hopper in high regard as an actor but he must have literally been starving to take part in this picture. As Chino, the leader of the Black Souls biker gang, Hopper consistently goes over the top to the point of embarrassment, as demonstrated when he reacts to his brother Paul's (Jim Reader) death in the latter part of the story. It's actually quite hilarious if you get to see it.And knock me over with a feather, but I couldn't get over the idea of Casey Kasem as the mouth behind The Mouth, another Black Soul with maniacal tendencies. He mostly tag-teams with a character called Bones who isn't identified on the credits list, so at least that actor's name doesn't suffer the indignity of being identified with this flick. Actually, it got a little difficult to pinpoint the movie's genre at one point when the outlaw bikers rode into a love fest including hippies and flower children with a body painting in progress.Then knock me over double when one of my childhood fave's rides into view, good old Range Rider/Wild Bill Hickok himself, Jock Mahoney as a former Glory Stomper. The picture utilizes him to at least offer a semblance of normalcy to the proceedings when he advises Stomper Darryl (Jody McCrae) to leave the group and become a 'citizen'. But gee, if girlfriend Chris (Chris Noel) couldn't convince him, I don't know how Smiley would have. Just not in the cards.What makes the picture even more surreal if you watch for them, are the numerous continuity lapses between scenes when Darryl's facial bruises go away and reappear again, the same with Magoo's (Robert Tessier) right eye and the discoloration on Chris's forehead that's evident when she reunites with Darryl but is gone as soon as they kiss. At least the tear on her shirt remained intact for the entire picture, someone was paying attention to that one.Well I guess if you go for this stuff there's a lot here to keep one entertained. I can watch just about anything once, so at least now I can say I saw a Dennis Hopper motorcycle gang flick. A heck of a way to go though with a knife to the neck by a girlfriend's erratic knife throw. That was almost as gross as Clean Cut brother Paul spit-cleaning Chris's bloody lip. Eeeuuwwwww!

tavm With the death of Casey Kasem having occurred about a week ago, I decided to check out some of his films on the internet starting with this one-his first live-action appearance playing a character and one he was associate producer on. He plays a member of a motorcycle gang named Mouth and while his beard didn't make it easy to recognize him, his voice was unmistakably his! Dennis Hopper is the leader of this gang who kidnaps a girlfriend (Chris Noel) of a rival gang member left for dead. Jody McCrea-son of legendary star Joel McCrea-is that rival gang member. Another Hollywood son that appears is Lindsay Crosby-offspring of Bing. He eventually killed himself in 1989. This movie was quite cheezy and cringe-inducing, especially whenever Ms. Noel nearly gets raped, but never boring, that's for sure! Oh, and Ms. Noel wasn't the only gorgeous blonde here, get a load of Astrid Warner when she strips to her bikini! As for Kasem, he's quite amusing whenever his familiar voice says such unintelligible lines! So on that note, The Glory Stompers is worth a look.

videorama-759-859391 The Glory Stompers is what I love about old movie making, especially bikie films. This is one which has probably gone under the radar to a lot of bikie fans, but it's one I urge to see, although of course it's no masterpiece, or not really even good. But it's what I call, "Something worth it's watch". But I am I hard, when it comes to judging bikie films, which doesn't help more, when coming out of the late sixties and seventies. This is a movie, legendary Hopper did before Easy Rider. I was quite impressed by how well this movie came off. After seeing Chrome And Hot Leather (what a waste of viewer's time-don't remind me) and Werewolves On Wheels, I mean really, this bikie film was refreshing. Hopper, plays Chino, the lead of this badarse motorcycle group, you've guessed it, The Glory Stompers, preferably known as The Stompers, who clash with a much friendlier and more chilled out motorcycle gang, The Outlaws. When two lovers of the outlaws are a having a private moment, following this beef, the boyfriend is beaten up, and thought to be dead, while the girlfriend is snatched, and on her way to soon be sold a a sex slave, once the Stompers cross the borders. It doesn't take much to work out the outcome or, the situations that pop up in between, if seeing other bikie movies, with Hopper's lady getting jealous of course, and the snatched outlaw is quite delicious, while playing Hopper's younger brother against Hopper. Featuring a kick arse title song, the film retains a good above average quality about it, and if those other two dire bikie movies don't cut it for ya. May'be give this one a go, you might be surprised. Robert Tessier as a Magoo, a dirty, crass, and repugnant sort, and a member of the Stompers.

phillindholm ''The Glory Stompers'' is hardly a classic-even in the ''Biker'' genre, but it's a decent, entertaining little flick from AIP. Dennis Hopper stars as a member of the ''Black Souls'' motorcycle gang, who beat up rival ''Glory Stompers'' member Jody McCrea,leave him for dead, and kidnaps his girl, Chris Noel. He and his gang (who include ''Born Losers'' alumni Robert Tessier, Edwin Cook and Paul Prokop) plan to sell Chris to a Mexican flesh peddler somewhere south of the border. However, McCrea(once he recovers) joins up with ex-Stomper Jock Mahoney and sets out to rescue her. Complicating matters is Hopper's psycho ''Momma'' (Saundra Gayle, a LONG way from ''The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm'') who can't wait to dispose of Chris. And so it goes.The Widescreen photography is very good. The acting is decent all around. Hopper, despite his limited vocabulary (he says ''man'' in almost every sentence) is OK until the climax, when he screams, shakes, whimpers, whines, froths at the mouth and seems to be auditioning for a summer stock tour of ''Hamlet''. And, when all else fails, they toss in a ''Love-In'' along with a brief fight between a couple of tough looking'' Biker Chicks''. The soundtrack, which features, among others, ''The Arrows'' who were a Biker Film staple by now, is good, if somewhat overdone.Mike Curb, former Lt Governor and Motorcycle Music specialist, (The Wild Angels'' ''Devil's Angels'' etc) produced and wrote most of the music-even adding a song called ''Black Souls'' for future ''America's Top 40'' DJ Casey Kasem, who is seen in a bit part as one of the ''Souls''. Fortunately, this one didn't make it into the film's final cut, though, in all probability, it was just intended to help fill up the quickie tie-in soundtrack album.However, the title song ''The Stompers Ride'' did-though it was just a recycled version of Curb's ''Wild Angels Theme''. In fact, much of the music in the AIP biker films was used more than once for their other exploitation titles. Nevertheless, the Sidewalk Recording from the movie is now a highly prized collectors item, which goes for big $$$ whenever it surfaces on EBAY. Ironic, considering that back in the early ''70's, these and other Sidewalk/Tower exploitation soundtracks could be found in discount and drug stores for as little as (Gulp!) three for $1.00. MGM and Twentieth-Century-Fox have just released a nice DVD of this title. The print shows it's age from time to time, but it's in Anamorphic Widescreen with nice color and a sharp image.(the Widescreen process used was probably ''Panavision'', but here it's called ''Colorscope''). and the sound quality is also very good. As a ''Limited Edition'' DVD-R, there are no extras, but it's still nice to have an ''Official'' release at last. Incidentally, of AIP'S many Cycle Sagas, only two others were made in the ''Scope''process -''The Wild Angels'' and it's follow-up ''Devil's Angels''.All of them should have been filmed this way, because, like this one, most of the others feature a lot of footage with the Bikers zooming up and down the highway. And that sort of thing was ideal for the format. Catch a ride with the Stompers and hang on!.