The Wild Angels
Tags: cult

Plot synopsis:
In between sprees featuring drugs, fights, sexual assault, loud revving Harley chopper engines and bongo drums, the Angels ride out to Mecca, California in the desert to look for the Loser's stolen motorcycle. They blame a group of Mexicans in a repair shop, and the two groups brawl. The police arrive, chasing the Angels on foot, and the Loser escapes by stealing a police motorcycle. After a chase on mountain roads, one of the officers shoots the Loser in the back, putting him in the hospital.
Blues leads a small group of Angels that sneaks him out of the hospital, and one of them begins to sexually attack a black nurse until Blues pulls him away. The nurse identifies Blues to police though he stopped the attack. Without proper medical care, the Loser goes into shock and dies. His cohorts forge a death certificate and arrange a church funeral in the Loser’s rural hometown. Blues interrupts the service, and the Angels have a "party". The Angels remove the Loser from his Nazi flag-draped casket, sit him up and place a joint in his mouth, knock out the minister, place him in the casket, and two Angels drug and rape the Loser’s grieving widow, Gaysh, while Blues is apparently having sex with another woman.
Later, the Angels proceed to the Sequoia Grove cemetery to bury the Loser. There, the locals throw stones at the Angels and provoke a fight. As police sirens approach and everyone scatters, Mike begs Blues to leave immediately, but he refuses and tells her to leave with another member of the gang. Blues stays behind, and before burying his friend on his own, says with resignation, "There's nowhere to go."

Review: Many a Peter Fonda poster from "Wild Angels" went up on bedroom walls as parents pondered where they had gone wrong.The gang in "Wild Angels" did not wear Hells Angels colors, they were "Angels-San Pedro" although some Hells Angels from the Long Beach chapter actually appeared in the film.
AI's biker films had very colorful titles and often mentioned Hell or Angels in the title: "Devils Angels", "The Born Losers", "The Savage Seven", "The Mini-Skirt Mob", "Angels from Hell", "Hells Angels 69", "Hells Belles", and "The Hard Ride"."Wild Angels" was ground-breaking stuff when it was released and featured more Nazi stuff than the later films because once the surfers adopted the Iron Cross it was no longer cool.
Roger Corman, the genius of low budget (no budget) exploitation filmmaking, decided to pioneer the 60's biker genre by making this picture about the Hell's angels.
Then Corman hired the Angels, along with Peter Fonda (his first succesful movie), Bruce Dern, Nancy Sinatra (Daddy must have not liked this), and Diane Ladd, along with a few others who knew how to deliver their lines when asked for.
The result is a decently entertaining picture (which most Corman films tend to be), but overall full of filler material that gets boring after a while (such as party sequences that go on for a very long time) as a substitute for character and story development (another Corman trademark as well).
This film, however, wasn't inexpensive according to Corman standards - it cost almost 1 million to make (and it raked in over 3 million in its first week alone, with many bikers rolling in to drive-in cinemas to see it).For 1966, the content (people clad in swastikas, partying and drinking their lights out in a protestant church, women scantily clad in their underwear, passing the occasional joint, and 2 inexplicit rape sequences) was obviously a shocker.
Today a film like this would have been ten times more disguisting and explicit, and the church scene would be milked for it's offensive potential (and it wouldn't be able to earn the profit this one did, given today's consolidated theater market).The film's visual style is exciting, with some interesting camera movement and handheld camerawork, lending a documentary feel (complete with soft focus shots).
Plot has Southern California biker gang enjoying rumbles, cycle jousts, hassling the Mexicans, and outrunning the local heat; but when Bruce Dern steals a police-bike and gets shot, gang "president" Peter Fonda hatches a plan to break him out of the hospital and thus keep him out of prison.
Sort of the older brother to "Easy Rider", "Angels" was eclipsed in popularity and relevance only a few years later, but it's fairly gripping and visceral overall, occasionally amusing, and features some fine actors in support (Diane Ladd, Gayle Hunnicutt, Michael J.
Producer Roger Corman set out to make a film based on the notorious California-Based ''Hell's Angels'' motorcycle gang, having seen a cover story about them in Life Magazine.Legendary ''B'' movie studio, American International Pictures was just as anxious to jump on the ''Biker Bandwagon'' (they eventually produced or distributed eleven more films on this subject) and gave the OK to Corman.
Playing his ''Old Lady'' was Nancy Sinatra, who was then riding high with her hit single ''These Boots Are Made For Walkin'.Bruce Dern played ''The Loser'' the part originally intended for Fonda, and Dern's then wife Diane Ladd portrayed his on-screen spouse.
Since ''The Wild One''aside, this was the film that started the whole ''Cycle'' cycle, it's not surprising that it has a very experimental feel to it.The location photography is excellent, and belies the brief three week shooting schedule, while the musical score written by future AIP Biker music stalwart (and future Lieutenant Governor) Mike Curb, is dynamic and fits the visuals like a glove.
Fonda is a bit weak as ''Heavenly Blues'' the leader, but Sinatra makes a pretty tough ''Momma'' and though her natural beauty is downplayed, she is still very easy on the eyes.Upon it's release, the low-budget film proved enormously popular (AIP'S biggest hit so far) and convinced them to launch a whole series of ''Protest'' films.
The Biker genre would have it's share of hits and misses, and, thanks to a few Poverty-Row, independent productions like ''The Hellcats'' ''The Rebel Rousers'' and ''The Cycle Savages'' (starring Dern) all of which made this one seem fairly lavish by comparison, it had petered out by the early seventies.
In Venice, California, the leader of Hell's Angels Heavenly Blues (Peter Fonda) tells his friend Joe 'Loser' Kearns (Bruce Dern) that he had located his stolen motorcycle in Mecca.
The opening title shots of Peter Fonda riding along the California coast to the sound of some very cool music gives the false hope that this is a classic film.
it had been many years since,The Wild Ones had been made with Brando.Hollywood disdained biker movies,there for, good writers were not going to have their name linked to one.the actors in this made it on a lark.they went to party and have fun.they knew they wasn't making any sort of an epic.but in a way they did.people who went to see this didn't care about the script or story line.this was a movie made with people from their generation,and not the same Hollywood old guard.so in many ways this started a trend in Hollywood of making movies,for the young adults,that wasn't Frankie and Annete on the beach.I personally like this movie,and see it to just have fun,not to learn any thing.I know the story is b.s.but it's got bikes,babes, partying,and dudes acting like horse's asses,how can you go wrong?.
Everything you love about kitschy, youth-oriented drive-in 60s film fare is here: acting as wooden as teak; insane California biker culture; Nancy Sinatra in a mini; music that tried hard to be hip but was plainly written and performed by 42-year-old session men; tough-as-nails babes with Aqua Net-petrified hair.
Certainly one that Peter Fonda would probably have liked to forget at one time, the pairing of he and Nancy has entered it the pantheon of truly good bad movies.
'The Wild Angels' was start of AIP's and Roger Corman's counterculture and biker films that itself grew into popular sub-genre in late '60s and early '70s.Screenplay of 'The Wild Angels' is as empty as it's characters.
We are introduced to Blues (Peter Fonda) and Loser (Bruce Dern) and their girlfriends Mike (Nancy Sinatra) and Gaysh (Diane Ladd).
Peter Fonda is terrible, he oozes coolness sitting on his bike and wearing sunglasses but when he opens his mouth that illusion washes away.Although the screenplay is shallow and acting is passable at best, the direction by Corman is smooth and the pacing is perfect that the film doesn't feel dragging.
Smooth bike riding scenes accompanied with cool soundtrack make 'The Wild Angels' one of the best examples of style over substance.Recommended to everyone who are interested where the biker movie craze started.
Another trademark with this type of film is the fact that he, and other low-budget directors, rely on the children of Hollywood legends (Peter Fonda, Nancy Sinatra) to attract an audience.
I don't speak from Peter Fonda (he is only solid like Nancy Sinatra too), the guy is Bruce Dern, one of the most underrated actors of US-cinema.
Much better biker films have been made later like "Hell's Angels On Wheels", "The Rebel Rousers", and my all time favorite movie "Easy Rider".
I didn't want Peter Fonda and Bruce Dern to be remembered for this film but I'm afraid they are, especially Dern, whose role as "Loser" reminded me of "Weekend At Bernie's".
Except for Bruce Dern's great performance as Loser, this is actually one of the worst biker films, although not terrible.
Peter Fonda looks right, Nancy Sinatra is a hot biker mama, Michael J.
There are  choice moments (The church scene is classic), but most of it is pretty white-bread.I know this was a hit, that helped Easy Rider in a strange way get produced, but it doesn't stand up to Hell's Angels on Wheels for sure.
The Film was released in various running times, most edited to take out some of the more violent, racy bits.Bikers in this film and many to follow would never again be looked as good guys until 'Easy Rider' many years later..
This is typically the kind of movie which retains a small cult-following and does not deserve it at all.First of all,it came ten years to late:see Lazlo Benedeck'"the wild ones" with Marlon Brando which seems very passé today too.And who could believe in a bunch of weirdoes commanded by Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra?Bruce Dern is ,so to speak,the stand-out:he manages to play the first half of the movie alive,and the second half dead(yes,he does play dead!).The final party wants to shock the spectator but nets only horse-laugh and disgust:you can't make fun of the nazi flag and get away with it,when you know the horrible things this sinister emblem represents.The rapes scenes are unpleasant to a fault(a pleonasm,anyway,can a rape be pleasant?).It seems that ,in the last minutes,the director suddenly realizes how mean is his film:he tries to redeem himself by getting a little "emotion "in the final.So Peter Fonda,in a grand gesture ,stays by the grave waiting heroically(and comically) for the police.But it is all to little to late..
Roger Corman, though having his rightful clout as one of the pioneers of drive in movies and exploitation pictures, doesn't have a great film with The Wild Angels, but then it's not meant to be.
But on the other hand, as a purely drive-in movie, where people watching aren't necessarily meant to keep track of the whole picture ALL the time (likely 'making out' Corman must've thought), it doesn't break under time that much.
And, sometimes, Corman is actually pretty creative and intuitive as a filmmaker.His cast is Peter Fonda (quite similar to Easy Rider which means maybe too esoteric and contemplative to be the wild leader of the angels), Nancy Sinatra (not that great, though she can fake a crying scene pretty well), and Bruce Dern (in a role that actually does ask for some real 'acting' as opposed to biker posing).
There are also other real Angels riding about in the background, and basically the story revolves around the wounding- and later unnecessary death- of Loser (Dern), who is also given a proper Biker funeral.
Sometimes the scenes are pretty basic, lots of generic (even for the period) rock and roll tunes put to the Angels riding around, and partying, though once in a while Corman actually makes it interesting.
But for the most part, it's just the simple tale of youth who just "want to be free, to ride without getting hassled by the man...and we want to get loaded!" In short, it's kind of like the fast-food equivalent of a biker-movie.
Roger Corman is responsible for starting the biker flicks phenomenon with this film.Peter Fonda is the essence of coo as he performs a role that he made even more popular in Easy Riders three years later.He is accompanied by Nancy Sinatra as Monkey, Michael J.
Pollard as Pigmy, and Bruce Dern as Loser; along with three time Oscar nominee, and Golden Globe and BAFTA winner, Diane Ladd in her first credited movie role.Radical scene in the church where Fonda debated the preacher (played by Frank Maxwell, Det. Lt.
Fonda plays a biker named "Heavenly Blues" who has second thoughts about his life-style after a plan of his gets his best friend fatally shot.
Roger Corman's trash classic that started the biker movie cycle of the 1960s/70s..
In fact more than one person has made the connection that 'The Wild Angels' plus Corman's psychedelic propaganda movie 'The Trip' equals 'Easy Rider'.
Peter Fonda, who would go on to co-star in and co-write the seminal biker flick "Easy Rider", stars here as "Heavenly Blues", leader of a pack of Hells Angels.
Said monologue is an absolute hoot.While "The Wild Angels" did make stars out of Fonda, Nancy Sinatra, Bruce Dern, and Diane Ladd, the acting wouldn't exactly have been award worthy.
In Venice, California, the leader of Hell's Angels Heavenly Blues tells his friend Joe "Loser" Kearns (Bruce Dern) that he had located his stolen motorcycle in Mecca.
While trying to retrieve the bike, Loser is shot on the back by a police patrol end goes to the hospital.This film's pedigree is amazing: Dern, Peter Fonda, Diane Ladd, Nancy Sinatra, Roger Corman, Arkoff-Nicholson, Peter Bogdanovich...
Just kids being kids, Peter Fonda, as the Iron Cross wearing rebel leader, Bruce Dern as the Loser (who does) Nancy Sinatra as Mike the gorgeous leaders lady.
This rebel movie was made before "Easy Rider",too much points in common:between these flicks:bikes,gangs,road movie,drugs,leathered rebels non system,pretty girls,one generation with all the craving to protest against the Establishment.Those were the times to protest against Vietnam war,the American youth despised this unnecessary conflict,the "Flower Power" charmed the teenagers,the traditional "American way of life" was in discuss,the "Major Morarilty" begun to sound old-fashioned and decadent,"Hell's Angels" were a nightmare to a rotten system,but one reaction can lead to a brutal counter-reaction.
Peter Fonda,an icon of the '60s,puts the best performance,Dern,Sinatra, Ladd were good fellas in this outraged film led by Mr.
"movies B" Roger Corman,though "Easy Rider" three years after will take the point of break at the top..
Corman's film features pretty much all the essential aspects that determine a biker movie.
Peter Fonda depicts, for the first time of many, the ruthless gang leader of a biker gang called The Angels.
Story is about the leader of the Venice Hell's Angels named Heavenly Blues (Peter Fonda) who tells his biker pal Loser (Bruce Dern) that they might have found his stolen chopper in a nearby town called Mecca.
This Roger Corman's classic was the first movie to portray the biker culture of Southern Calfornia in a modern way.
Peter Fonda portrayed a character that had refined good looks that never appeared in any biker movies before.
By now the police is on to them, and as they go to the cemetery to bury Loser's body, they hear the cop's siren approaching.This film was like a prototype for the movie "The Easy Rider".
If you take "Blues" (Peter Fonda) character from this movie, and have him appear as the same person only a year or so later in the Easy Rider, the transition won't look so unnatural.
That's how similar the two movies are.What's striking about this film is how good Peter Fonda looks as a Hells Angels biker.
(SPOILERS!!!) Peter Fonda and a gang of idiotic bikers are riding around Mexico or somewhere, and along the way, one of them gets shot.
Fonda looks atrocious in his biker punk get up, and the whole film is less interesting than watching an old lady knit for 86 minutes.
Perhaps however, 1966, when the film was made, would be different from 1968.The first time we should realize that we should not be for Heavenly Blues (Peter Fonda) and his gang is when they attack some Mexican youths in a garage.
The police are never shown as being brutal authority figures, but just as people trying to keep things in a peaceful way.Bruce Derns name in the film (The loser) is apt for the whole group.
When at the end the police are on the way, Nancy Sinatra tells Fonda's character, lets get away, He responds for the first time with any real sense of his own life, "there is no where to go".
Indie Corman flick about how the lives of a group of Hell's Angels, particularly leader Blues(Peter Fonda), change when one of their own(Bruce Dern) is harmed after stealing a police officer's bike.More of a curio regarding neo-nazi riders living by their own rules and partying non-stop, but I kind of felt there's not a lot here except that.
Bruce Dern, Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra was all members of the Angels--a sort of biker 'club'.
"Heavenly Blues" (Peter Fonda) is the leader of a motorcycle gang known simply as "the Angels" and has as his girlfriend the beautiful "Mike" (Nancy Sinatra).
Those who like biker films, or movies from this particular period of time, will probably enjoy it.
Roger Corman's "The Wild Angels" was released in 1966 and kicked off the biker film craze that ran for less than a decade, which makes it the perfect introduction to the genre, not to mention it's the best of the lot I've seen.
THE PLOT: Heavenly Blues (Fonda) and The Loser (Bruce Dern) are members of The Angel's bike gang (modeled after the Hell's Angels).
The first half hour shows them and their "old ladies" (Nancy Sinatra & Diane Ladd) living the wild & crazy lifestyle of a biker gang in Southern California.
Yeah, the "party animal" lifestyle gets old real quick, and then ya gotta grow up (everybody grows older but not everyone grows up).Despite what some say, Nancy Sinatra does a fine job as Fonda's girlfriend; she would later renounce the film, however, due to it's over-the-top immorality.FINAL ANALYSIS: The first time I saw "The Wild Angels" I was completely taken aback by the shocking immorality of The Angels; I simply wasn't prepared to see this in a 1966 picture.
Oh, Peter Fonda was sorely miscast for this and any other biker movie such as Easy Rider.
No one like Roger Corman has been able to get into the zeitgeist of any particular time, but that doesn't mean he comes out on top with every movie.
It reminds me that the 1960s was probably the last time people could really be enraged and protest in a way that wasn't completely marred by self-interest, cynicism, and parochialism.What I liked best about this movie, being born after this film was made, is that these bikers were the original punk rockers but with more of a clear cause.