DVD Review: The Mini-Skirt Mob (1968) / Chrome and Hot Leather (1971)

The Mini-Skirt Mob/Chrome and Hot Leather Midnite Movies Double Feature DVD includes two biker films that don't have a lot in common. The first movie is a fun and trashy film called The Mini-Skirt Mob (1968). The Mini-Skirt Mob is no classic, but it did have enough going for it to keep me entertained. In the movie, sassy bad-girl Diane McBain plays the leader of a female motorcycle gang called "The Mini-Skirts".

When she discovers that her ex-boyfriend has gotten married to another girl, she gathers up her gang and their cowboy-biker boyfriends to hassle the happy newlyweds. Things soon get rough and after one of the gang members accidentally gets killed, she decides to make her ex-boyfriend and his new wife the targets of her rage.

Director Maury Dexter shot The Mini-Skirt Mob in only seven days on a $100,000 budget, but he makes good use of the desert locations in the movie. Besides Diane McBain who really steals the spotlight as gang leader Shayne, the cast also includes a lot of popular American television actors from the period such as Jeremy Slate as Shayne’s ex-boyfriend Lon, Sherry Jackson as Lon’s wife and Patty McCormack as Mini-Skirt gang member Edie. Harry Dean Stanton also shows up in a memorable role as a cowboy-biker called “Spook” and the movie has a a nice groovy score by composer Les Baxter.

The second movie featured on the DVD is Chrome and Hot Leather (1971). Chrome and Hot Leather was made by American exploitation director Lee Frost and stars a rather stiff and uninteresting actor named Tony Young as Mitch. When Mitch returns home from the Vietnam war and discovers that a motorcycle gang is responsible for the death of his fiancee Kathy (Cheryl Ladd from the original Charlie's Angels TV series), he decides to ask some of his Green Beret buddies to help him take revenge. The soldiers band together and buy some motorcycles to start up their own biker gang and hunt down Kathy’s killers.

Chrome and Hot Leather is not as much fun as The Mini-Skirt Mob, but I think it's worth a look for a couple of reasons. B-movie regular William Smith has a memorable role in the movie as the leader of the Wizards motorcycle gang and soul/R&B legend Marvin Gaye appears as one of the Green Beret bikers named Jim.

Chrome and Hot Leather features Marvin Gaye’s only movie role and in the film you get to see the young Marvin ride his motorcycle and beat up up lots of angry bikers. Marvin Gaye’s acting is pretty forgettable in the movie, but so is the rest of the cast’s. It's still interesting to see Marvin act in this low-budget feature film.

Both of the movies included on the DVD don’t offer viewers much except a few explosions, cute girls in mini-skirts, some unintentional laughs and lots of vintage bikes, but if you’re in the mood for a biker double feature, you could do a lot worse then The Mini-Skirt Mob and Chrome and Hot Leather. The movies are currently only available from MGM on a Region-1 NTSC DVD.

For more information about the DVD please visit Amazon.

- Kimberly Lindbergs