Cult Film Faves Not On DVD: The No Mercy Man (1973) review

THE NO MERCY MAN 1973/1975 aka TRAINED TO KILL*USA

Steve Sandor (Olie Hand), Rockne Tarkington (Prophet), Richard X. Slattery (Mark Hand), Sid Haig (Pill Box), Michael Lane (Big Jack), Ron Thompson (John), David Booth (Beetle), Daniel Oaks (Lyle Talbot), Tom Scott (Parrish), Michael Prichard (Bruce), Darlene Feasel (Dora Adams)

Directed by Daniel Vance

The Short Version: This forgotten 70s gem is of the Crazed Vietnam Vet school told through the prism of a wild west picture. Complete with carny and biker scum, this gang of thugs attempt to take over a town while pushing our unhinged hero to the brink of insanity. It all ends in a huge machine gun, explosive packed showdown just prior to a last ditch rape-assault on our title hero's family. If BORN LOSERS (1967), WALKING TALL (1973) and revenge movies laced with a Vietnam War allegory get your blood pumpin', you'll not forgive yourself for passing over this undeserved obscurity. 

Olie Hand returns home from his tour in 'Nam along with two of his Army buddies to discover a vicious band of hearse driving carnival vagrants and biker thugs terrorizing his small Arizona home town. Conflicted and disturbed by the brutality of the war and the constant emotional baggage thrown at him by his father, Olie finally snaps in a whirlwind of savage violence after the gang of killers lead an all out assault on both the town and Olie's family. 

  

This vastly underrated obscurity from the exploitation wasteland of the 1970s is sorely in need of a legit DVD release. Released to theaters a month prior to the Drive In revenge movie champion, WALKING TALL (1973), Joe Don Baker's seminal tale of one man standing against a vicious gang of drug dealers and racketeers showed NO MERCY on Daniel Vance's only known directorial credit. As much loving affection as I have for Phil Karlson's movie, Vance's somewhat similar picture is the more interesting of the two from a story perspective, not to mention both films share some things in common, not the least of which being Richard X. Slattery. Typical of gritty 70s movies, the music is also reflective of the onscreen action which is conspicuous by the inclusion of a main title song and also a poignant little number entitled 'The Ballad of Olie Hand'.

The 70s also counted a long list of movies that dealt with the effects the Vietnam War had on the soldiers who fought in it; from horror films, to actioners, to psychological thrillers. Most films used the war as an excuse to trot out sensationalistic scenes of violence, while others attempted to explore the topic a bit further.

THE NO MERCY MAN wants the best of both worlds and largely succeeds. Aside from a first half mostly devoid of blatant exploitation elements (racial bigotry rears its ugly head here and there), the bulk of the violence and brutality is saved for the last 15 to 20 minutes when Prophet, the lead psycho carny, recruits his old biker buddy, Pill Box (Haig; pictured at left) and his motorcycle gang to rob the bank in town. But some of the town toughs, including Olie's 'Nam buddies, try to stop them with as many bullets and explosions as the budget will allow.

If that last couple sentences sounds a lot like the plot of a western, that's because Vance's movie plays out identically to a wild west sagebrush saga complete with a group of antagonists as suitably despicable as you're likely to find. 

 

Within the first ten minutes, two of the villains harass a liquor store owner, lead the sheriff on a high speed chase, then assault Mark Hand on his ranch. They then plan to rob him of his gun collection and almost rape his daughter moments before son Olie arrives home from 'Nam.

Prophet and his five man band of multi-racial miscreants are a rowdy, murderous bunch and a good deal of screen time is spent with them making a nuisance of themselves, or plotting their next crime. Their acts of sadism (including a scene where they decide on whether or not to murder a family in an RV after strangling the father to death) are key in making the finale all the more powerful when the Hand farm is besieged a second time by Prophet's gang. The remnants of Pill Box's biker scum rape and brutalize the Hand family while Olie sits silently in the barn where he slips further into both madness and a liquor bottle. The increased screams of his family and his girlfriend finally set him off in a savage rage culminating in a grotesque display of slow motion shotgun blasts, knifings and eviscerations. 

  

The finality of the ending (accentuated by slow motion bullet hits) is swift and satisfyingly grim including one character being gutted from his mid section to his throat, losing his innards in the process (this shot was heavily trimmed for an R rating). This combo of BORN LOSERS (1967) and WALKING TALL (1973) was seemingly ignored during its original theatrical run and has remained in relative obscurity ever since save for film festival revivals over the years. 

  

Prior to the big run-in with Olie during the final minutes, the stand off-town destruction is, like nearly ever other aspect of this picture, straight out of a western; complete with truck mounted gatling gun. While the bulk of the town is at the carnival, Prophet holds up the bank. In the interim, his band, the bikers and Mexicans go to war with the sheriff and those willing to stand against them. 

  

The underrated Steve Sandor (above) stars as Olie Hand, the disturbed Vietnam veteran with a reputation among those in his town for being a tough bastard.

His father, Mark (played by Richard Slattery, who tore up Willie Ray's place in WALKING TALL!), is also a decorated war hero, himself wearing a reputation of his own. The script fleshes things out just enough for us to get the impression that Mark has pushed his son over the edge almost as much as the horrors of the Vietcong. An aura of patriotism and American jingoism hovers throughout the film. Mark's house is adorned with flags, medals and framed photographs of himself and his son decked out in their military dress. 

A veteran of WW2, Mark Hand mercilessly pounds his son over the head with macho, vehemence fueled speeches about being a man,"protecting what's yours", or eggs on friendly brawls between his son and his war buddies in an effort to get his son back as opposed to the borderline unhinged shell of a man who finds solace and normalcy in a whiskey bottle. There's a subtle dichotomy present between father and son representing the WW2 homecoming hero returning triumphantly to both a thriving economy and suburban nuclear family unit versus the crushing blow of losing a terrible war that came during divisive change in America at the time. 

  

Going back to Sandor, he was an incredibly photogenic actor who appeared in a few memorable cult items and a bunch of TV credits before calling it a day. It's a shame, really, as he was a good actor who could effectively play hero's or psycho's such as his naive, doomed detective in the nifty Drive In flick, BONNIE'S KIDS (1973). He played Apache, one of the Hell's Angels in the classic biker-heist flick, HELL'S ANGELS '69 (1969). Sandor also played an unstable, impotent cretin in the little seen THE ONLY WAY HOME (1972) directed by well known character actor G.D. Spradlin. Sandor later took command as STRYKER (1983), in a post apocalyptic actioner from Cirio H. Santiago.

For THE NO MERCY MAN, Sandor bridges sane and insane as the mentally unbalanced Olie Hand. In many of his scenes Sandor successfully conveys a man struggling to find his humanity while mentally fighting his father and skirting with danger against a rambunctious clutch of carny trash. Some may be disappointed that Sandor's character doesn't participate during the big battle that makes up the first of two endings. This would have been expected, maybe even cliche, but considering the way Sandor's character is depicted, his violent eruption during the last few minutes is much more effective by holding him back. A flashback Vietnam scene where Sandor emerges from a river to snuff out some Vietcong would appear again in Cannon's MISSING IN ACTION (1984). Interestingly enough, THE NO MERCY MAN was distributed by Cannon Films.

Rockne Tarkington (above right) is a long way from his harmless island character he played on the popular kids program, THE BANANA SPLITS. Possibly taking a cue from the blaxploitation movies that were still popular at the time, Tarkington plays Prophet, the main villain here. He's something of a hippie, has a white girlfriend and puts on this facade of a semi-decent citizen in her presence. Despite racial slurs being tossed around, Prophet's gang doesn't discriminate with its Caucasian and Mexican ethnicities. The film doesn't paint a very pretty picture of carny people (or bikers for that matter, but rarely did these movies ever) depicting them as trouble-making scum prone to thievery and cold-blooded murder.

Tarkington excels here as a villain easily dominating the film when Sandor isn't onscreen demonstrating his slow meltdown. Tarkington got to play one of the good guys the following year in BLACK SAMSON (1974), one of the better blax pictures when that genre was starting to show signs of age. That film also benefits heavily from a deliciously sadistic turn by the Biker King himself, William Smith.

The script by both Daniel Vance and Mike Nolin is quite good especially considering the plethora of characters it juggles for its 90 minute running time. The good guys and bad guys get about equal screen time for us to delve into them. Curiously enough, this would be Daniel Vance's first and last directorial effort and also Mike Nolin's first and last screenwriting credit (outside of WILDLY AVAILABLE [1999]; see comments below). Dean Cundey, who later went on to work on numerous John Carpenter movies and big Hollywood productions photographed a healthy list of major 70s cult exploitation and trash movie items. This film is the first time his camerawork graced a motion picture. Buddy Joe Hooker, a famous Hollywood stuntman and AD, worked on this movie as well.

 

With its similarities to the Joe Don Baker classic unavoidable (it's unknown to me which was first, but considering their neck and neck release dates, both pictures were likely in production at the same time), THE NO MERCY MAN has remained largely unseen for the better part of four decades. It's much better than its IMDB rating and definitely deserved a wider audience back then. Fans of revenge movies and crazed Vietnam Vet pictures won't forgive themselves for passing up this forgotten piece of 70s cinema.

Angels, Chrome & Hot Leather: Biker Movies From Hell Part 3

THE MAN WHO WOULD BE THE BIKER MOVIE KING

Anyone who's ever watched one of these movies has seen, or heard the name William Smith. An imposing actor who's had enough accomplishments to fill several lifetimes, Smith has appeared in hundreds of movies and television shows over the course of his near 70 year Hollywood career. He did five biker movies between 1969 and 1971, each one different from the last. One could say that when Smith concluded his chopper cinema career with CHROME & HOT LEATHER (1971), the genre itself died. Over the course of these five films, Big Bill earned the moniker 'King of the Bikers'. His debut road warrior saga was also one of the most profitable and again had Jack Starrett behind the wheel.

RUN, ANGEL, RUN! from 1969 is widely considered one of the best films of the biker canon. It's low budget fails to hinder what amounts to a good script and engaging lead performance from Smith as Angel.

Granted, it's not perfect by any means, but there's far more going on here than mere motorcycle riding cross country, fist fights and rape. This film has those, but Richard Compton's script manages to wrangle some good character-izations here, particularly Smith's character, who only wants to go straight after quitting his gang.

When a prominent magazine offers him $10,000 to reveal the inner workings of the biker lifestyle, his former gang-mates don't take kindly to this and they go after him which brings us to the films title. Angel, along with his girlfriend, deciding that "the square life ain't so bad", take up an honest living working for a man on his sheep farm. Things come to a head, though, when Angel's gang turn up to raise a lot of hell including the gang raping of a young girl and Angel is left with the blame.

RUN, ANGEL, RUN! isn't the most action packed biker picture, but it's one of the best and arguably the best to star William Smith. Wildly profitable (it made 13 million off of a budget under $100,000), it's also one of the most successful films of the entire genre. The main theme song by Tammy Wynette no doubt helped the films success.

ANGELS DIE HARD (1970) came next, and aside from being New World Pictures' very first New World Picture pick up, it shed bikers in a different light from the 'Outlaw' films that followed in the wake of the success of Corman's THE WILD ANGELS (1966). While the usual uncouth behavior is here including bar brawls, beer and breasts, the biker gang aren't welcome in town, but ultimately prove to be good guys after all when they aid in a mine cave-in rescue. This still doesn't stop them from being blamed for crimes they didn't commit. Things don't end up well for the bikers, though, as a surprise ending attests.

Director Richard Compton (who also wrote the script) would soon move on to direct the obscure, but fascinatingly raw WELCOME HOME, SOLDIER BOYS (1972); one of a brutal bunch of 'Violent Vietnam Vet' movies (including titles like TARGETS [1968], TO KILL A CLOWN [1972], DEATHDREAM [1972], SCUM OF THE EARTH [1974], ROLLING THUNDER [1977], WHEN YOU COMIN' BACK, RED RYDER? [1979], DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE! [1980], THE EXTERMINATOR [1980] and THE PARK IS MINE [1986]) that proliferated throughout the decade. These types of film utilized the war in 'Nam in much the same fashion as they were used in biker flicks; sometimes the war was character enhancement, and other times it was of much greater significance. Compton was also behind one of the biggest Drive In hits of all time with the brooding, Deep South Gothic MACON COUNTY LINE (1974), a film that spawned a sub genre of its own.

William Smith then turned to the exciting, absurdly enjoyable THE LOSERS (discussed in part 2), which reunited him with action director Jack Starrett for one of the genres better popcorn movies.

What C.C. & COMPANY (1970) lacked in the typical violence inherent in the genre, it made up for with an overt playfulness that, while still a pretty bad movie, made for a decent viewing experience helped immensely by a diverse cast of characters. Football legend, Joe Namath, is C.C. Ryder, a mechanic who joins a biker gang and immediately butts heads with the gangs leader, Moon. C.C. eventually wins the affection of Moon's girlfriend, Ann. This leads to friction between C.C. and Moon culminating in a big race to win the girl.

Namath is a terrible actor, and if not for William Smith stealing the movie away from him at every turn, this would be torture to sit through. But what a cast--aside from Ann Margaret as the lead actress, there's Sid Haig (COFFY, THE BIG DOLL HOUSE), Bruce Glover (WALKING TALL series) and Teda Bracci (THE BIG BIRD CAGE, THE CENTERFOLD GIRLS) filling out Moon's groovy gang. Because of Namath's participation, the film got quite a lot of attention including the cover of the August, 1970 issue of Sports Illustrated.

Big Bill did one last biker movie; 1971s CHROME & HOT LEATHER (discussed in part 2). While it's a decent time waster, Smith's last such picture is mostly an average affair that squanders a premise with an amazing amount of potential. Almost an inverted version of THE LOSERS (1970), CHROME has some Vietnam vets returning home to fight a new war. The film was more or less remade in 1985 as STRYKER'S WAR aka THOU SHALT NOT KILL... EXCEPT.

SOUL CYCLISTS: BLACK BIKER FLICKS

The mixing of two of the 70s trashiest genre stylings was a no-brainer. Biker movies frequently used real gang chapters for the supporting players in these pictures and sometimes they were center stage. Considering blaxploitation movies were well known for recruiting football greats as the stars, the melding of both biker and blaxploitation was a match made in Harley ridin' hell.

Laurence Merrick's THE BLACK ANGELS (1970) is one of those hilariously awful movies that ends up being entertaining in spite of its atrocious acting, beyond low budget and poverty row production values. The plot is minimalist concerning a street war between black and white motorcycle gangs.

The tagline "God forgives, the Black Angels don't!" was borrowed from the hugely successful 1967 Italian western, GOD FORGIVES... I DON'T starring Terence Hill and Bud Spencer. Horror's favorite desert cannibal, Papa Jupiter himself, James Whitworth, plays one of the gang members. Whitworth had a healthy career in exploitation movies appearing Drive In fare like TERMINAL ISLAND (1973) and Saturday afternoon movies such as PLANET OF THE DINOSAURS (1977).

Director Merrick did few movies of fleeting interest. The only project he was involved in that's worthy of mention is the 1973 film MANSON, a documentary that contains interviews with the Manson Family before and after the shocking murders that rocked the nation in 1969. This is yet another parallel with the biker-hippie countercultures; Manson style characters had infiltrated biker movies from time to time (such as Al Adamson's SATAN'S SADISTS discussed in part 1) as well as similar messianic pontificators in such bizarro, way out motion pictures such as J.C. (1972), which was discussed in part two of this article. Going back to MANSON, it should be noted that the differing promotional materials credit Merrick for direction, and on another, it lists Robert Hendrickson as director.

THE BLACK SIX (1973) came along during the tail end of the cycle when the genre was beginning to run on fumes. The blax genre was soon to be on its last legs, too. It built its premise around that reliable blaxploitation mainstay of the evil honkey. In this case, a girls biker gang leader brother violently disapproves of his sister being in a relationship with a black man. The film begins with the gang brutally beating the young man to death with chains. Not long after, the dead boys brother comes looking for revenge. He gets his ex-'Nam vets together to track down his brothers killers.

What makes THE BLACK SIX of special note is that all six of the leads were major football players at the time. Gene Washington--San Francisco 49'ers; Willie Lanier--Kansas City Chiefs; Lem Barney--Detroit Lions; Carl Eller--Minnesota Vikings; Mercury Morris--Miami Dolphins; "Mean" Joe Green--Pittsburgh Steelers.

There's a great amount of action potential here, but exploitation director Matt Cimber (THE CANDY TANGERINE MAN, HUNDRA, YELLOW HAIR & THE CITY OF GOLD) opts for storytelling. Unfortunately, the acting is hit or miss which hurts the film in a way it wouldn't have had the picture went the traditional trash movie route. It's still an enjoyable movie and a bit of a hoot watching six football stars having a bit of fun tearin' shit up onscreen.

INTERNATIONAL BIKER FLICKS

Biker movies, while bearing all the earmarks of American iconography, were made in other countries as well. Australia will likely be most famous for exporting the immortal cult classic MAD MAX to overseas markets in 1979. That film was a simple, yet high octane, ultra violent tale of a beyond sadistic biker gang terrorizing the desert Aussie wasteland sometime in the near future.

Prior to MAD MAX, though, there was 1974s STONE. In Australia, the rules of the game were pretty much the same as far as the violence and abhorrent behavior was concerned, only the bikes were different. STONE is about a cop who is allowed to join The Grave Diggers in the hopes of capturing whoever is killing off their members after they've witnessed an assassination. The script even follows suit with the American examples with the leader of the Grave Diggers having served in Vietnam. An unusual movie, it also features some of the cast from MAD MAX, including Hugh Keys Burne, the Toecutter himself!

The biker movie phenomenon also extended to the Far East. Japan had a slew of them, but big movie industries like that in Hong Kong seemed to only experiment with them because of the exploitation potential they possessed. Motorcycle gangs featured occasionally in Hong Kong movies, but the rape-revenge movie, KILLERS ON WHEELS (1976), was a brutally violent biker flick from the Shaw Brothers.

Two couples vacationing on a small island retreat are harassed by a gang of young bikers. As the violence escalates, it becomes evident that the psychotic gang has no intentions of allowing them to return to Hong Kong alive. Danny Lee (MIGHTY PEKING MAN, THE KILLER) stars along with Ling Yun, one of Shaw's biggest box office draws in all genres of Asian cinema back in the day.

Directed by Kuei Chi Hung, a director infamous for his gloomy, despicably savage movies, this salaciously sleazy flick produced in association with Yamaha was a Chinese version of STRAW DOGS, with a dash of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT married to the biker flick concept.

Japan, as stated above, also got in on the act with a series of hog hoppin' exploitation pictures. A few of these were helmed by trash peddler, Teruo Ishii. Sonny Chiba found time in his busy schedule acting in Karate and gangster films to take roles in some of these Nipponese cyclers, too. Some of the titles include DETONATION! VIOLENT RIDERS (1975) and some biker flicks with chicks such as STRAY CATS ROCK: GIRL BOSS (1970) and GIRL BOSS GUERRILLA (1972).

It's interesting to note that Japan's journey into EASY RIDER territory (via the trash conventions that exploded over there during the 70s) mirrored, to some degree, the genesis of the American biker movies with their socially relevant themes that acted as a backdrop. Biker gangs surfaced after WW2 morphing into a sub-culture that seemed strangely out of place for a lifestyle mostly connected with American ideals. Still, the Japanese counterparts were scarcely different at all; instead of raising hell on the open roads, these Nipponese roadsters caused commotion on Japan's city streets. The level of crimes committed by Japanese biker gangs during the 70s and into the early 80s gave Japanese exploitation movie producers a lot of material to work with.

BORN TO BE WILD: THE WEIRDEST, THE WACKIEST BIKER FLICKS

During its thriving period and even when it was on shaky ground, the biker flick had a handful of novelty movies that were interesting curios that did nothing to keep the genre going. Instead, it only added to the trash palace appeal the genre had acquired during its carny sideshow promoted heyday. Aside from EASY RIDER (1969), RUN, ANGEL, RUN (1969) and maybe a couple other films, the biker movie was rarely more than mindless, escapist entertainment fluff.

THE PINK ANGELS is "a different kind of motion picture about a different kind of motorcycle gang." In this case, it's a gay biker gang making a cross country trek to Los Angeles for a drag show (and that's not drag racing, mind you) and encountering all sorts of prejudice and trouble along the way from both the cops and a rival macho biker club. The very definition of denim and leather is redefined here in this peculiar, typically 70s comedy trash. However, there is a hetero-biker gang here so as to showcase some sex and nudity for added sleaze appeal.

The lowbrow humor is funny when it works, but this all depends on your tolerance for silly stereotypical hijinks being trotted out for a lifestyle (in this case, a biker gang) normally associated with lots of drinking, brawling and attraction to the opposite sex. The film may be poking fun at the gay community, but the script is unusually preoccupied with social prejudices and discrimination in what would appear to be some barely hidden far left agenda.

These "Hard riders wearing a size ten dress" are quite likable and it's a nice change of pace seeing the conventions of the genre turned upside down as they are here, and the ending... the ending will shock the hell out of you in a way that only the un-PC, subversive cinema of the 70s can. Truly you will not expect what transpires in the last couple minutes of the movie. Dan 'Grizzly Adams' Haggerty and Michael Pataki add some value to this Crown International Drive In flick.

From homosexual bikers we go to living dead ones in the pseudo zombie movie that defies description, PSYCHOMANIA (1973). This bizarre film from the United Kingdom (known as DEATH WHEELERS on that side of the pond) dares classification in what amounts to a film that is less a horror picture than it is a dark fantasy punctuated by satanism and rebellious youths. The film rarely makes much sense and benefits from some decent stuntwork on what was an anemic budget. The name of the gang just happens to be The Living Dead!

The plot concerns the gangs leader, Tom, wishing to do what his father failed to do--commit suicide and come back from the dead attaining immortality in the process. Tom does this, and manages to convince his fellow followers to do likewise. So now there's a bunch of dead bikers speeding around British locales terrorizing the inhabitants. It's a mess of a movie, but strangely compelling considering the muck of a quagmire British horror had found itself in during this time.

Warren Zevon sang about Werewolves of London in 1978, but seven years earlier, werewolves were riding mean machines in 1971s awesomely titled WEREWOLVES ON WHEELS. In this strange amalgamation of biker thrills and horror chills, a motorcycle gang stop for the night to sleep in an old church. Unfortunately, a group of satanists use the church for black mass. When they try to entice one of the female biker bunch to be a willing sacrifice, the bikers trash the place and incur a satanic curse in the process.

The title is one of the great missed opportunities of 70s cinema, but the film itself has some trashy charm if only the films moniker didn't roll off the tongue with so much promise of motorcycle riding lycanthropes. They're in there, just not quite the exploitational delight the poster conjures with such imagery. Definitely of curiosity value to devil worship movie enthusiasts, although students of werewolfery will likely find little to howl about here.

This collage of the wild and wacky in the biker genre concludes with one of the absolute worst movies of all time and also one of the funniest. So far we've had gay bikers, then zombie riders, wolfen atop choppers and now what would you say about bikers versus Bigfoot? Yes, 1970s BIGFOOT must be seen to be believed. It's John Carradine and Chris Mitchum starring in this insipidly constructed, brain-dead movie about a whole family of Bigfeet who kidnap human women to mate with them in an apparent bid to sire a half-breed Bigfeet army.

Chris Mitchum and his girlfriend find something buried in the ground and immediately get attacked by a shaggy rug. Mitchum is knocked out and his girl carried off. He later comes to and ends up on an expedition with John Carradine and a biker gang to rescue his girl from the hairy beasts. They really don't make mons-turd movies like this anymore and especially with advertising that screams, "the most realistic, horrifying film ever!" Incredible.

REQUIEM: FLIRTIN' WITH DISASTER

Out of gas, the biker genre sputtered along for the remainder of the decade leaving behind a plethora of titles for a genre that had long since hit its peak back in 1970. After 1974, it was a sporadic title here and there with little to nothing worth mentioning. DARKTOWN STRUTTERS (1975) was a confounding, if playfully offensive movie that has 'Made in the 70s' stamped all over it. It's something of a blaxploitation-musical-comedy with Roger E. Mosley (MAGNUM P.I.) and Dick Miller as a racist cop.

The plot concerns the leader of an all girl biker gang looking for her mother who has disappeared. Along the way, she uncovers a dastardly plot conceived by a Kentucky Fried Colonel Sanders lookalike to clone black leaders! You'll be scratching your head in confusion or laughing your ass off, but it's definitely an unforgettable mess and a bizarre experience that's an acquired taste.

The gory excess of THE NORTHVILLE CEMETERY MASSACRE was a bit of a welcome return to violent form for the biker movie in this gritty and gloomy tale of things that are not at all what they seem. The war in Vietnam was over, so this film seemed a bit out of place since the biker movies were more in tune with what was going on earlier in the decade.

A motorcycle gang roars into a small town and is framed for the rape of a young girl. The townsfolk, not liking their looks anyways, believes them responsible. This leads to an all out blood squib fueled war between the bikers and the law of the town. William Dear, the director of HARRY AND THE HENDERSONS (1987), directed this downbeat movie.

New World hit the same year with the futuristic biker flick DEATHSPORT (1976). This was a troubled production filled with trashy elements, explosions and laser firing "Death Machines" that have an eclectic selection of sound effects accompanying their zipping around mountainous terrain.

George Romero's early 80s curio KNIGHTRIDERS (1981) is yet another bizarre biker movie even though it appeared about ten years too late and even then, it's doubtful such a concept as this film presents would have been accepted at the genres peak. This is more of a modern drama with a traveling medieval re-enactment troupe who ride motorcycles instead of horses.

The films plot is basically this merry band attempting to make a life for themselves and all the soap operatic character interplay they get into over the films two plus hour running time.

KNIGHTRIDERS is possibly the most perplexing movie on Romero's resume, but one that's ripe for critical re-assessment. Virtually ignored since its original release, it's an epic film, if a bit of a confusing one and the cast is fine, too. For Romero completists and biker enthusiasts only.

Clint Eastwood starred in two hugely successful action movies that featured a biker gang in them. EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE (1978) was the actor/directors biggest hit up to that time and its sequel ANY WHICH WAY YOU CAN (1980) was more of the same, just twice as wild. The Black Widows seen in both were hilarious hog ridin' comedy relief and Eastwood partakes in a classic brawl with biker movie King, William Smith that sees nearly an entire town demolished.

MEGAFORCE (1982) was a MEGAbomb for both 20th Century Fox and Hong Kong's Golden Harvest Productions. Universally lauded as one of the worst films ever made, director Hal Needham (SMOKEY & THE BANDIT, THE CANNONBALL RUN) approaches the material like a bull in a china shop as if he's intentionally trying to destroy his career and everyone else's in the film. The plot has something to do with an elite bunch of moronic military men in bright spandex who zip around the desert in flying motorcycles that shoot rockets protecting the world from the least imposing villain the world has ever seen. A major studio misfire, this is highest recommendation material for bad movie buffs and those who enjoy watching prominent actors crash and burn onscreen. Monumentally awful in every sense of the word.

The last film of any significance in what remained of the once prosperous biker gang genre would have to be the one that the Hell's Angels shot themselves, HELL'S ANGELS FOREVER (1983). This is a documentary revolving around the inner world of the biggest, and most notorious Harley ridin' gang of them all. The film documents their beginnings, their chapters across the nation and the grittier side of the gang that doesn't sugarcoat anything. The Hells Angels President, Sonny Barger (HELL'S ANGELS ON WHEELS, HELL'S ANGELS '69), is featured as well as a few musical stars like Jerry Garcia, Bo Diddley and Willie Nelson.

The Hell's Angels are still around and still making the news. Regardless of their controversial legacy and its attachment to organized crime, the Hell's Angels made for some highly enjoyable, sometimes disposable entertainment. There's been attempts here and there at possibly reviving the long dead genre, but nothing at all like the films of old. Even if those societal outcasts ever hopped on their Harley's once again, it's doubtful the roar of their hogs would result in a denim and leather renaissance emulating that niche genre that was a violent and profitable reflection of the time period in which they were made.

THE END, MAN!

*The bulk of the poster images came from Wrong Side of the Art*