Hells Angels on Wheels
Tags: cult, murder, melodrama

Plot synopsis:
The Angels first take note of "Poet" (Jack Nicholson) after one of them inadvertently damages his motorcycle and breaks its headlight. Poet, with far more guts than brains, challenges the Angel that hit his motorcycle. This is an act that would traditionally result in every Angel present participating in a group beating of the attacker. "When a non-Angel hits an Angel, all Angels retaliate." But the leader of the Angels, Buddy (Adam Roarke), intervenes and tells Poet that the Angels will replace the headlight. In the meantime, he's welcome to ride with them while they take care of business—which turns out to be going to a bar and beating up the members of another club who previously beat an Angel.
Poet is told to wait outside, but ends up helping the Angels. Later that night, the Angels return the favor by hunting down and beating four sailors who beat Poet four-against-one after he parted company with the group. Poet accidentally bumps into one of the sailors and speaks rudely to him before he realizes that the sailor has three other sailors with him. The four sailors then refuse to accept his apology—but the Angels only know that four sailors beat up Poet, and he doesn't tell them how the earlier fight started. One of the sailors pulls a knife on the Angels and is then killed accidentally in the fight that follows.
Poet is allowed to ride with the Angels and is eventually elevated to "prospect" status. He is attracted to Buddy's some-time girlfriend (Sabrina Scharf) who toys with him while remaining hopelessly committed to Buddy.
Much of the story that follows consists of scenes of the Angels partying or being provoked to violence by "squares." Although the Angels are shown as being loud and generally irreverent, they are never shown starting trouble except when taking revenge on members of other motorcycle clubs.
Eventually, Buddy's girlfriend succeeds in provoking a confrontation between Buddy and Poet with only one surviving.

Review: This is a pretty good biker exploitation flick although I would recommend Russ Meyer's Motorpsycho if you're in the mood for motorcycle chaos..
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).
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?
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).
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..
This Richard Rush biker film is better than the Wild Angels, Angels Unchained, Devil's Angels, Cycle Savages, The Glory Stompers, or The Savage Seven.
Adam Roarke was always a good addition to low-budget films and Nicholson shines as the Poet (a somewhat reluctant biker to begin with).None of these films is high quality, but this one has some refreshing scenes that stand out.
Sonny Barger's Recommendation As The Most Accurate Hell's Angels Movie..
Hell's Angels On Wheels is the movie Hell's Angels president Sonny Barger recommends as the most true to life movie about the Hell's Angels in his autobiography, which is why I decided to rent it and see the movie for myself.Buddy (Adam Roarke) is the Sonny Barger character of this movie and the leader of that particular chapter of Hell's Angels.
The movie starts when Buddy and his crew are passing through a gas station when Poet (Jack Nicholson) gets fired from his job as a gas station attendant.Eventually, Buddy takes a liking to Poet, after an altercation between Poet and another Angel over his broken headlight, and later when Poet backs Buddy up in a barroom brawl.
Pretty soon, they vote Poet in as a prospect and he sees the way of life of the Hell's Angels.
This seems strange to Poet at first, but he finally gets what is going on and decides he does not like it.Plotwise, there is not much to this movie.
Nicholson and Roarke did a great job acting and made the story better than if it would have been had they not been in it.
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.
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.
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..
Always like Jack Nicholson and some how missed this picture when he was very young and starting on a great career of acting.
For some reason I did not feel like he fit very well in his role as a recruit of the California Hell's Angels.
'Hells Angels on Wheels' is a surprisingly tough and entertaining b-grade 60s biker movie.
Jack Nicholson plays a gas attendant named Poet who becomes involved with some Hells Angels.
Nicholson went on to movie superstardom, Roarke to cult status and an untimely death, and Scharf a bit part in 'Easy Rider' and then a career in politics.
He is actually pretty good here, better than the material deserves, but the real star performance in the movie is from the seriously underrated Roarke.
'Hells Angels on Wheels' obviously isn't anywhere near as good as the latter, but it is much better than you'd expect and definitely worth tracking down..
I found "Hell's Angels on Wheels" on a disc containing three Jack Nicholson films.
However, the print quality on "Jack Nicholson: Cult Classics" was pretty bad and I assume there must be better quality prints available somewhere--especially since at least two of the films (perhaps all three) are widely available from many different distributors.The plot of "Hell's Angels on Wheels" is amazingly slim and it looks as if most of the movie was unscripted and the filmmakers just filmed these folks doing all kids of things--some illegal, some just annoying.
At one point, an angry young guy (Nicholson) gets in good with the gang and is soon allowed to ride with them.
As for Nicholson, eventually he gets tired of the scene and it ends with a face-off with the leader of the pack.
How it all ends is really stupid--so stupid you need to see it to believe it."Hell's Angels on Wheels" isn't a very good film but it is watchable.
This has to rate as the third best biker film of the 1960s behind Easy Rider and The Wild Angels.
As bad as the script is, it's clear that Jack Nicholson as Poet, an angry gas-pump jockey who joins the Hell's Angels is a star in the making.The opening scene alone is worth seeing for any biker-film buff, as over 1,000 Hell's Angels on blazing choppers led by their leader Ralph "Sonny" Barger come rumbling down the California highway.With a supporting cast of Adam Rourke(of Hell's Belles fame) & Easy Riders' Sabrina Scharf, along with "B" movie legend Jack Starrett as a tough-talking state trooper,the movie captures the "wild" days of the 1960s Hells Angels Motorcycle gang.
With bikers, bikes, booze, and brawls, who could ask for anything else in a better than average "B" film?.
A Mess of Fun. Not to say I didn't enjoy this movie, I love the Hells Angels and all the books and movies about them.
Jack Nicholson is good in a very early role,(see what he was like before he started to take himself too seriously!) the girls were hot, hot, hot, and there is a great scene at the start, that shows Sonny Barger in his early days.
But scenes of guys driving around in circles on their bikes, to the weirdest music I ever heard, shows that the director was a film school dropout!.
Good if not great as biker cinema goes, "Hells Angels on Wheels" had the legendary Angel Sonny Barger as its technical adviser, making it supposedly more true to life than other depictions of the notorious motorcycle gang, although the word "supposedly" will need to be stressed.
Jack Nicholson, the obvious breakout star, is prominently featured as a gas station attendant who captures the attention of a bunch of Angels and earns their respect.
Nicholsons' character, who gets nick named "Poet", also does not like the way that they pass their women around, especially as he falls for Shill (Sabrina Scharf), who is ordinarily the main squeeze of this packs' leader, the charismatic Buddy (Adam Roarke).
Director Richard Rush would also direct Nicholson in "Psych-Out", and of course would go on to great fame as director of the cult favourite "The Stunt Man" (in which he again worked with Roarke).
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.
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.
Rush misses it, too, staging an unexciting final fight scene between Roarke and Nicholson that ends the movie with a thud.
Nicholson shines in a fun biker flick.
HELL'S ANGELS ON WHEELS is an enjoyable addition to the run of biker flicks that filmed cinema screens in the late 1960s.
I liked it better than the arty, overrated EASY RIDER, and it's another one to feature Jack Nicholson, this time in the leading role.
Nicholson has a kind of effortless, likable charm in this film - he's all smiles and fun - which makes the film rather a fun one to watch for fans of the actor.The narrative format is to follow the misadventures of a biker gang as they get into the usual scrapes involved with hard living and hard loving: the expected bar-room brawls, run-ins with the law, fights with rival gangs, stunts, and plenty of padded moments that just show the gang riding around some picturesque Californian locations.It's hardly the stuff of greatness, but the '60s-style direction is fun and there's a surfeit amount of action which makes it an easy watch.
In terms of plot it aims for a certain moment in time & it hits the mark.The choppers R first rate classic 60's builds, the scenery is great, Kovak's DP work is outstanding, Adam Rourke is the stand-out here, he holds his own easily against Jack in all the acting chops departments & Sabrina Scarf is amazingly sexy.
The fights R fun & the magical moments R numerous, for instance, Poet's decision to go with the Angels under a distant moon while sitting on his chopper at a carnival, ambient street sounds & conversations abound around other character interactions just like in real life.If U like biker flicks this is the real deal.
Young Jack Nicholson as a Hell's Angel.
Biker films came into vogue after the 1966 release of the infamous "The Wild Angels;" they remained popular for the next 5-7 years or so.
The third group was comprised of everyone in between."Hell's Angels on Wheels" was released in 1967, one year after "The Wild Angels," and it's a pretty decent biker flick.
You'll see some clips of famed Angel Sonny Barger near the beginning of the film; Barger also assisted as the technical adviser.THE STORY: Jack Nickolson loses his job as a gas station attendant and hooks up with the Hell's Angels as "Poet." The bikers ride, revel and brawl throughout the story while Poet takes an interest in the leader's girlfriend (Adam Roarke and Sabrina Scharf respectively)."The Wild Angels" (aka "All the Fallen Angels") is a cult masterpiece for numerous reasons despite its obvious shortcomings: It takes the subject of outcast bikers seriously, it's truly shocking, its story is refreshingly original and it tackles real-life issues that every viewer can relate to, specifically the nature of grief and how different people respond in different ways (see my review for details).
Although "Hell's Angels on Wheels" is good for what it is -- a late 60s low-budget biker flick -- it fails to even come close to the greatness of "The Wild Angels." It's slightly more goofy, not at all shocking and has little depth.Yet, it's worthwhile for numerous reasons: It's great to see Jack Nicholson when he was so young, there are numerous beautiful 60's babes and the California photography is exceptional, in particular in the last 30 minutes of its 95 minute runtime, not to mention all the bikes.However, throughout the almost pointless story various questions kept coming to mind: -- How do the bikers get money to support their lifestyle of continuous riding, revelry and "free love"?
(work is never mentioned as it is in "The Wild Angels") -- In light of the numerous brawls (with fists, chains, clubs, etc.) why do none of the bikers ever show any injuries, bruises, etc.?
This is one of my favorite biker flicks of all time, not just because Nicholson is in it.
Jack Nicholson's and Adam Roarke's performances were credible.
Jack's character gets caught up with the Hell's Angels after he meets them at his dead end gas station job.
Jack's character falls for the leader of the Angel's girlfriend, which sets up the climactic finale.
I would only recommend it to Nicholson fans because at times it is so bad, it's good, ala "Plan 9 from Outer Space".
It was a big mistake, instead."Hells Angels on wheels" are a total waste of time..
Probably Nicholson's worst movie.
Juxtapose Nicholson's biker boy with his character in "Easy Rider" and see how they'd play face to face.
I call these biker films "Drive-In Movies."  They were the films you saw at the drive-in on a summer evening, hopefully with a date you could make out with in the back of a car, so you didn't have to actually pay attention to the plot of any of these films.Now I'm older...I'm watching this film in the cold light of day in my living room...alone.
You know, it really is only by the grace of God that Jack Nicholson ever became the renowned actor he is today, considering the incredibly bad movies he made during the 60's.
In this movie he gets to leer at the chicks as they strip to their underwear (a prerequisite for these cheap films), and get body paint smeared all over their skin by drunken, laughing hooligans (Jack being one of them...sort of....only he's really a nice guy underneath...).
Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels in this film.
One of the reasons is that Sonny Barger himself, founder and still President of the Hell's Angels, is in the film's opening scene, kicking over his bike and proceeding to run over a flower bed in a city park!
Jack Nicholson is poised and relaxed here, but he doesn't get to show much wit as a good boy who decides to run with the Angels' dastardly misadventures for a spell.
That's why I love these "Biker Movies".
As the Biker said in the (cheap) Biker scene in the movie DUTCH TREAT, "We geek chickens on Saturday night...Know what I mean?" That's what Bikers do.
Long live cheap Biker movies!.
After being fired from his job as a gas station attendant, a man who goes by the nickname of "Poet" (Jack Nicholson) comes into conflict with a member of the local chapter of the Hell's Angels because one of them broke the headlight off of his motorcycle.
Poet then follows the group to a bar where the Hell's Angels then proceed to beat up members from a rival gang.
Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this is a rather basic biker film from the golden age of the genre.
Fun movie captures vivid sense of biker lifestyle in the Sixties.
Jack Nicholson's leading character Poet is continually ridiculed by biker girl Shill as being a square with a middle class set of values, when he tries to have a serious relationship with her.
Ultimately, Poet becomes disillusioned with the Hell's Angels and clashes with Buddy, as it becomes clear that Buddy expects unquestioning obedience from his followers, and imposes his own rules on them, not unlike the Establishment he's supposedly rebelling against.This movie is a fascinating time capsule of a time and place most of us never knew in real life.
Adam Roarke as Buddy and Jack Nicholson as Poet turn in two excellent performances in a meandering, casually thrown together movie that seems almost a documentary of the Hell's Angels lifestyle in the Sixties.Worth seeing, even if you don't care for biker movies in general.
The majority of "Hell's Angels On Wheels" was shot in and around Bakersfield, California doubling for Nevada.
A couple of years later, Jack Nicholson walked the same two blocks in "Five Easy Pieces."