The Cycle Savages

The Cycle Savages
1969
D: Brill Brame (also wrote)

A crazed biker, upset with an artist who's been skectching the gang, seeks to teach him a lesson. Probably inspired by the Angels stomping Hunter Thompson over his book.

Keeg (Bruce Dern) is the leader of Hell's Chosen Few MC (great name), and also a procurer for his pimp brother (Casey Kasem, the film's EP, in a cameo). He gets word that a Polish artist named Romko (Chris Robinson) who's in town has been drawing them. For some reason, he's sure that the drawings could somehow be used as evidence against them for something, and gets angrier and more violent as Romko continues. Keeg threatens him, attacks him, sends chick Lea (Melody Patterson) to spy on him as the bikers ransack his pad, and finally decides to crush his hands, intending to "make it look like an accident"(?!).
Like Keeg needs this shit. He's also got broads to turn out, like the one who gets raped, dosed, and forced to participate in a gross PG-rated orgy.
Nothing happens in the finale that you didn't see coming a mile away, and the whole thing moves along pretty slowly. Aside from the cool instro theme by the Cycle-Mates, the music isn't anything to write home about. A real drag, honestly. Without Dern's over the top lunatic performace, this would be unwatchable; with great struggle he lifts this dud into 2 territory.

Angels Hard as They Come

Angels Hard as They Come
1971
D: Joe Viola

Notable: Jonathan Demme (who produced and co-wrote) and Scott Glenn work together 20 years before "Silence of the Lambs"; first film role for Gary Busey

Hippies and "good" bikers vs "bad" bikers

When their drug deal is interrupted by the cops, Long John (Scott Glenn) and some other Angels far from home decide to hang around a couple days and complete the transaction when the heat dies down. John, Monk (James Igelhart), and Juicer (Don Carerra) meet up with some members of the Dragons, who invite them to party and crash at the old ghost town they'd taken over from the hippies squatting there.
John meets flower chick Astrid (Gilda Texter, later seen riding a cycle nude in "Vanishing Point"), and the two are intrigued by and attracted to each other; unfortunately, the Angels also meet General (Charles Dierkop), the insane and Napoleon-like Dragons president. The paranoid General and his right hand man Axe (Gary Littlejohn) don't much care for the Angels, and begin showing it.
In a darkly shot scene, a Dragon starts to rape Astrid, and John bursts in to her rescue. A chaotic fight ensues, Astrid ends up stabbed to death, and the Angels are blamed. Though they're clearly innocent --and John suggests that maybe the killer was a Dragon looking to take out General-- they're tried in a kangaroo court and held in the old town jail. And Henry (Gary Busey) and the rest of the hippies aren't much help, at least at first, but their club brothers from earlier are starting to wonder where they are.
This is kind of a strange one. It aims fairly high with the violence as entertainment and senselessness of violence themes, but offers some cheap thrills of its own, like trying to have it both ways. The Angels were sentenced to "The Games," which includes being dragged down dirt streets and a game of "chopper ball," where they're surrounded, hands bound, in the desert by pool cue-wielding Dragons on motorcycles. And for all of Henry's anti-violence speeches, it's some serious ass kicking that saves the day.
The pacing is odd as well, moving briskly along here and getting bogged down there. Monk escapes into the desert but the bike breaks down, and the attention to his trek feels like padding to me. It feels, in fact, like it was prolonged just to have some racist on a dune buggy fuck with him for a bit.
Though three Angels are captured, it almost seems like it's just Glenn, who takes the role seriously and it shows. Monk ends up on his own, and Juicer is a pretty thin character, played by Don Carerra in a performance you'll never remember. Kristofferson lookalike Dierkop has a blast as the completely insane General, and Littlejohn is always reliably greasy. Some good minor bikers as well, like John Raymond Taylor as Crab (because...oh, you know). Dirty Denny, the first biker seen, has three credits under three names. Three checks? Doubtful.
Some of the music is ok, with a neat fuzz & tablas instro into the theme song, which goes for a Band type sound (with Levon Helm type vocals even). I should mention somewhere that there are some pretty nice titties in this one.
For Scott Glenn's performance (and those titties), "Angels Hard as They Come" gets a 3.5.

The Peace Killers

The Peace Killers
1971
D: Douglas Schwartz

A bike gang looks to retrieve its leaders ex-old lady, now living on a commune. The hippies will do all they can to protect her, but do flower children stand a chance against psychotic bikers?

Members of the Death Row MC (who have a lame name and terrible colors) spot Kristy (Jess Walton), former old lady of their president, Rebel (Clint Ritchie). It turns out she's now living on a commune outside of town with her brother Jeff (Michael Ontkean, who reminds me of James Naughton). Clearly a follower/climber, Kristy, once an MC prez's girl, is now the main squeeze of the commune's leader, the Jesusish Alex (Paul Prokop). The bikers do not simply wish her well, pleased to see she's found happiness. The way they see things, you don't just walk away from the club; in a (pretty effectively shot) flashback, we learn that the last girl who tried to leave was gang raped. The gang beats info on Kristy's location out of a local general store owner, and sets out to reclaim what's theirs. The hippies give them little trouble.
Though she's terrorized for their entertainment, the bikers decide to hold off on raping her and merely stash her, and she of course escapes. Before she's home free, however, she's picked up by a rival gang, the (bi-racial) Branded Banshees. They decide to help her, though only because their leader, Black Widow (blaxploitation vet Lavelle Roby, who's great here), sees rescuing her as part of a revenge plot against the hated Rebel. Knowing Death Row will soon follow, they roar back to the commune to prepare for the coming showdown.
The cops have already been called to no avail, so the peaceniks reluctantly agree that they must put aside their pacifism to protect one of their own. They set about creating weapons and preparing for battle in a great montage (including "Braveheart" type pikes set up to pierce cycle tires--and peace signs sharpened into spear tips!). All, that is, except for violence-is-never-the-answer Alex, who wants no part of it; instead he does the walking around reflecting bit, to the strains of a terrible song called "White Dove." Death Row eventually arrives, and the showdown begins...
I'm not the spoiler type, so I'll say only that the violent climax does not disappoint.

Overall, a surprisingly good one, right from the very cool title card. Apart from two dreadful songs by apparent Grace Slick wannabe Ruthann Friedman, the soundtrack (by Kenneth Waneberg) is cool, with fuzz & jew's harp instros and the like. Most of the acting is non-cringeworthy, though the only background bikers that really stand out are Cowboy (John Raymond Taylor), the pervy Snatch (Nino Candito--what a cool name), and Banshee member Blackjack (Albert Popwell; if you've seen just about any '70s action movie, you've seen him as a pimp or petty criminal). It's a violent one, though not so much so that it's numbing, and while the story drags in places, it's coherent and well told. While having a stars & bars waving, grey cap wearing biker named Rebel's most hated enemy be a tough black woman is hardly subtle, the corny messages/statements aren't as hamfisted as you'd think, either.

I'd seen this one on trade lists over the years; having now seen it (on Netflix of all places), I'm kicking myself for not doing so sooner.
Out of five joints, this gets three plus a healthy sized roach.