I'm sure the term 'style over substance' was thought up to describe Girl On A Motorcycle.
The style aspect is indisputable - a cast led by Alain Delon and Marianne Faithfull, the latter riding across Europe in a leather all-in-one biker suit. As for substance? Well, the tale of yearning for a former love takes something of a back seat to the imagery on screen. And indeed the great Les Reed score.
Here's the trailer...
The films shown as part of the BBC's Summer of British Film are a bit up and down, but you can forgive them for some of the poor/obvious choices when it shows a lost gem like The Leather Boys.
On the face of it, The Leather Boys is about bikers. But it could have been about mods, rockers, teds or any youth cult of the age - because that's just background. The Leather Boys is actually a movie about relationships.
Set in South London, Reggie (Colin Campbell) and Dot (Rita Tushingham) are a young couple on love - and not long after Dot leaves school, they get married and head off to Butlins for a honeymoon. But not long after returning, the cracks already start to show. Dot wants to be a 'kept' woman, while Reggie wants to spend his spare time with his bike and his biker mates at the Ace Cafe.
B-movie maestro Al Adamson explored many genres when he was making films in the sixties and seventies including horror, blaxploitation and sexploitation. Satan's Sadists
The film stars American actor and movie legend Russ Tamblyn as the leader of a ruthless motorcycle gang called Satan’s Sadists. Tamblyn leads his drug-taking motorcycle gang on a deadly rampage through the California desert as they leave a trail of corpses in their wake. When the bikers come in contact with an ex-Marine named Johnny (Gary Kent) just back from Vietnam, their luck starts to change and the members of Satan’s Sadists are soon forced to pay for their crimes.
Most of the actors are rather forgettable except for Russ Tamblyn who gets to deliver the best lines in the film and seems to genuinely be having fun as the gang leader Anchor. John 'Bud' Cardos is also good as the mohawk wearing biker called Firewater and he does all of his own stunts in the film. The director’s wife Regina Carrol plays Tamblyn’s neglected love interest 'Freak Out' Girl and she has some memorable scenes as well.
“They’ll ask for a dime with hungry eyes, but they’ll give you love for nothing!” ran the sensational blurb on its release. Psych Out was easily the most successful movie depicting San Francisco during the legendary “Summer of Love” although lets not get too excited here.
While the world watched on in varying degrees of intrigue at the antics of the love generation, few filmmakers ventured out to catch the lightning on Haight Ashbury’s streets, leaving Psych Out as the sole dramatisation of the period. Psych Out’s producer, TV pop impresario Dick Clark, was evidently keeping a watchful eye on the hippy phenomena, and despite his Hollywood leanings, he managed to lift a sizeable chunk of ambience from the hippy hangouts of San Francisco.
The cast took a young Jack Nicholson, by then on the cusp of moving from Biker B-flicks to the mainstream, and Susan Strasberg, whose innocent beauty was enough to secure a fair amount of love interest on screen. The plot concerns Strasberg’s deaf alter ego arriving in town in search of her renegade brother. With nowhere to stay, she’s picked up by Nicholson and his band of musos, who act as her guide and mentor around San Francisco. With her elusive brother playing an intricate game of hide and seek, she ends up being dosed with STP, a concoction known to fry even the wackiest of brains. Although this all might sound a trifle sensationalist, there’s little to offend here.
AIP, the film’s producing agent, had been badly burned after their previous effort, The Trip, ran into all manner of problems with the censors due to its veiled promotion of LSD. As a result, Psych Out held back on any obvious drug promotion or slap and tickle.
Visually, there’s fair bit of visual vox pop from the Haight, while The Seeds and Strawberry Alarm Clock offer up some psychedelic intrigue for the soundtrack. Within a year, Nicholson would lift off into stardom, leaving behind the likes of Psych Out to be picked over by historians of the period.
(c) Simon Wells 2007
Surf's up in July! MGM will releasing a new Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello Movie Collection
The new DVD set will include 4 Region-1 NTSC Discs with two films on each Disc. The eight different movies included in the collection are Beach Party (1963), Muscle Beach Party (1964), Bikini Beach (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), Ski Party (1965), How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965), Fireball 500 (1966), and Thunder Alley (1967). All of the films will be presented in widescreen. I haven't been able to find any information about possible DVD extras, but if I do I'll report them here.
Besides beach parties, surfing contests and rowdy motorcycle gangs, these entertaining films also feature lots of musical numbers performed by Frankie & Annette. Many popular bands and musical artists from the period also appeared in the Frankie & Annette films such as Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Lesley Gore, Dick Dale and The Del Tones, The Kingsmen, The Pyramids and Fabian. The Frankie & Annette films also seemed to attract horror legends who wanted to try their hand at comedy such as Peter Lorre, Vincent Price and Boris Karloff.
Continue reading "The Frankie & Annette MGM Movie Legends Collection" »
We love Psychomania - a very British biker movie that combines two-wheel japes with some classic 70s horror. In fact, we're happy to tell the world with this Psychomania t-shirt.
It's available from the British Horror website in a variety of shapes and colours, though I quite like this retro-styled top, not unlike an old football shirt. The design is the classic gang helmet, with all the gang member names around - and of course, the movie title.
You can pick it up for £11.90
Find out more at the British Horror website
The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini
The movie begins when a cute ghost in an invisible bikini named Cecily (Susan Hart) returns to earth to help her recently deceased lover Hiram (Boris Karloff) get into heaven. Hiram spent his life making money by swindling people in the carnival business and now that he has died, he must perform a good deed in order to pass through the pearly gates to spend an eternity with Cecily.
Hiram soon realizes that his money hungry lawyer Mr. Ripper (Basil Rathbone) is planning to steal Hiram’s hidden fortune for himself, so Hiram & Cecily come up with their own plan to stop him so that the rightful heirs to Hiram’s estate can get what’s coming to them.
Continue reading "DVD Review: The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966)" »
The Mini-Skirt Mob/Chrome and Hot Leather Midnite Movies Double Feature
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.
Continue reading "DVD Review: The Mini-Skirt Mob (1968) / Chrome and Hot Leather (1971)" »
Mondo Mod is an often unintentionally funny documentary that was put together by American exploitation filmmaker Bethel Buckalew in 1967. It attempts to cover what the director considered to be the "mod" scene at the time, but it's more like a time capsule of 1960s youth culture in Southern California.
According to the filmmakers, some favorite mod activities were surfing, dancing, taking drugs, martial arts and riding motorcycles. Highlights from Mondo Mod include interviews with various counter culture types and scenesters, plus performances by American bands like Sam the Soul & The Inspirations and The Group.
Mondo Mod is available on NTSC Region-1 DVD from Something Weird Video at Amazon. It comes with another interesting 1967 documentary called The Hippie Revolt. The Mondo Mod / The Hippie Revolt DVD
- Kimberly Lindbergs
In my review of The Beast In The Cellar, I mentioned the film was one of a bunch of quirky horror/dramas produced in the late 60s and early 70s - then realised I've yet to feature one of the best on here - Psychomania.
It's a typically daft story of a very British biker gang and witchcraft. You'll see how British the gang is when you watch the clip below - this is them at their worst. Also worthy of a mention is the soundtrack - reissued by Trunk Records, it's a must-have.
Arguably the finest British youth movie of all time, Quadrophenia returns on August 7th 2006 as a special edition two disc DVD.
The Quadrophenia movie, based on The Who’s rock opera from the early 1970s, coincided with the Mod revival of late 70s Britain and has been inspiration to evey wannabe Mod ever since. It's the story of Jimmy and his obsession with the Mod lifestyle in 1964 - which ultimately leads to his downfall and breakdown after the Brighton bank holiday weekend.
The special edition DVD set includes:
Directed by Franc Roddam in his first feature length outing, the film stars Phil Daniels, Toyah Wilcox, Mark Wingett, John Altman, Leslie Ash, Ray Winstone and Sting.
If you like the idea of owning it, we should have a competition running to win copies of the movie nearer to the release date. For more on the Mod scene, visit Modculture.com.
These days, the average biker is a bloke in his 40s, riding a Harley to take his mind off a midlife crisis. It wasn't like that in 1966 - check out the Wild Angels.
Wild Angels is both famous and infamous for many reasons. Firstly, its cast mixed Hollywood stars like Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra with genuine Hell's Angels (Venice chapter I believe). It's also got an amazing (and much sought after) theme tune and a chunk of the dialogue from the movie was used by Primal Scream on their greatest moment - Loaded.
But above all, it's a rollicking good biker movie. Enjoy the clip!
