The Born Losers (1967)

One of my favourite biker movies of all times is a typical product of the golden period that opened right after Roger Corman kicked the door out with "The Wild Angels" provoking a maniacal craze of wacky B-flicks featuring rebellious, leather-clad, chopper riding brutes in every titillating scenario known to a man. Although from today's perspective biker genre was a rather mixed bag with only few off-beat productions entertaining enough to become classics and a lot of crap I wouldn't even use in a private, toilet screening, it gave a lot of water to 70's gangsploitation, passed primitivist, scruffy esethetics to post-apocalyptic movies like "Mad Max" and last but not least became a direct inspiration for "Easy Rider" (the ultimate biker movie in a way).

"The Born Losers" was supposed to be a genuine Billy Jack workout initially, but as Tom Laughlin coudn't find financing for his first draft, he decided to take AIP alley and amp it up with a bunch of nasty biker characters. As Samuel Zarkoff and Jim Nicholson were rolling high at that time, flush with cash from Corman's international success of "The Wild Angels", they wanted to see some more golden eggs – biker movie was the word of the day! The same year "Rebel Rousers" with Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern was made (icky shit released in 1970!) and also "Devil's Angels", both for AIP. There would be at least 20 or 30 other takes on the genre, produced till the end of the 60's by all independent American film companies. Most of them as dull as it gets with joke of a script, cheapish backdrop and waiters-to-actors cast over night. However, even these dumb chunks of schlock get hugged by a bunch of biker movie aficionados.



While later films with Billy Jack are better remebered for their saucy, martial arts action, "The Born Losers" carries a real story or even two stories, roughly mingled together as it's hard to figure out which one is the main plot. Half-indian, ex green beret and survival specialist, Billy Jack just came back from Vietnam and he treks through the wilderness eating raw fish, but soon he'll have to hit L.A. to wire some dear cash... in the end he's forced to sell his jeep for a cup of piss, but that's the way it is, man! Unfortunately enough Born To Lose MC are rumbling through the hood ("getting their kicks from torture and violence" again) and they accidentally cross their dicks with Billy Jack, who takes the fuckers, but is fined by the court afterwards for using the rifle to shoot one of the brutes. Hence the message is coined: "Doing good will get you nothing, but trouble".

But the bikers will have a new challenge soon when they pull a biker girl in white bikini off two-lane blacktop by fixing the road sign and trapping her in dead end (some slapstick humour here). As they find out, she's a proper child of the social revolution and seeing a brutal rape going down any minute, she chooses to be nice and enter their pad for the official initiation. When a proposition of making it out on acid and speed cannot be met as boys are tapped out, she flees knocking out one of the bikers first. They will go after, catch and pork her, as well as three other city girls the same day. From that point it's clear, that these bikers do not obey, they piss gasoline & shit nails in your face, hijack police cars and also terrorize victims when a case is filed against them in court. They are bad motherfuckers with guns, rifles and nazi helmets flashing with lastest, fashionable outfits like black turtlenecks, native ponchos, denim cuts and badges glorifying happy life on drugs.

Stoners, dropouts, drunks and scumbags is how bikers are drawn here and their prez is played by Jeremy Slate. They have everybody by the pubes and only Billy Jack is not gonna shit his pants – that's basically the main line. The rest is a usual mixture of AIP's exploitative salt & pepper. Some social references to late 60's psychedelic culture, ridiculous, over the top acting, eclectic style of directing, which blends para-documentary realism with 300 cuts in one day Corman's quickie, mild nudity (always edited in with violence scenes) and proto-punk (or post-beatnik?) costumes. Honestly, this is a long and "elaborate" film, which calls for a good bong. Genre fans will have definitely plenty of fun checking out Born To Lose MC vs. Billy Jack and The Girl In White Bikini plot. I'm not sure if it's laid-back vibe or its salacious, roguish musings – kind of exploitation surrealism – but every new twist helps you pull through it till the end. Davie Allan & The Arrows biker sound themes are nice touch as well. You're not gonna go further up from here in the genre, at least not very often.

Hell's Belles (1969)

An excellent biker drama with a sentimental touch, which firmly holds onto it's core due to wittily recycled screenplay, borrowing the best from a classic western "Winchester '73" starring Jimmy Stewart. A writer for the movie was James Gordon White, who rewrote the old, but nevertheless very sharp story and changed the original winchester to a motorbike, making "Hell's Belles" one of the strongest players in biker league. On the top, it does have a brilliant psych-biker-soul music by Lex Baxter, who partly took over the job when Davie Allan & The Arrows were dropped from Sidewalk Records after "Wild In The Street" soundtrack failed to sale (which doesn't seem strange as it was completely stripped from the usual fuzz) and it features beautiful Jocelyn Lane, who's acted in few films feigning American accent just to get married finally in 1971 and quit movie business. What can I say? It's definitely one of my favourite drive-in fodders from AIP.

Plot focuses on a biker named Dan (Jeremy Slate), who decides he wants to quit going where the wind blows and settle down instead. Luckily enough he wins $2,000 worth Triumph bike in a sand chase, that would pay his land's mortgage. Bike gets jacked though by a young stud, who doesn't want to get over his failure in the race and strongly desires the prize. However, the same day luck is to leave him, when mocked by a gang of randomly met biker dropouts, led by a ruthless and edgy dude – Tampa (Adam Roarke), he's eventually forced to make a non-negotiable deal and exchange the bike. It's gonna be between Tampa and Dan now... and nobody really wants to throw a towel. Dan wants his baby back, so tails the gang, but unfortunately gets caught in a desperate attempt to lay hands on it.

He gets fixed pretty good at first, but after that he's offered live biker stock, a chick named Cathy (Jocelyn Lane) as a sort of pay from Tampa. Although girl is a sex bomb (oh yes, yes, yes!), she's a nasty pussycat, who'll try everything to cut loose from her new papa. As the pursuit moves ahead, intimate feelings start to bloom between them both, brought up in few cheesy scenes – still very warm accent for a biker movie in my opinion. After the savages burn a local gasoline station and escape to the desert, Dan's luck is up again as he's entering the area known well as his own pocket, which will be used for his end. He's practically the master of the game now and without any mercy will crack down on the ugly bunch with inventive guerilla techniques, raising havoc and undermining morale to clear the ground for his final assault!



This salacious take on a classic western is very good one indeed and Maury Dexter ("Maryjane", "The Young Animals") directs the movie with a certain B-grade brilliance. Shots are precise, natural and highly involving, dialogues filled with hope and beauty (ok, they're soapy, but enjoyable) and acting is one of the best, you'll ever see in AIP movie. In fact, Adam Roarke, who's been sort of Lee Van Cleef of 60's biker movie, gives juicy performance in "Hell's Belles". I'd say he tops his much better recognized role of Buddy from "Hells Angels On Wheels", which is fine but lacks the effort he're strikingly obvious. Jeremy Slate's role is not bad either, he definitely digs this whole biker-cowboy vibe coming through with a mash of old school machismo and romantic depth. Apparently, Jocelyn Lane's acting cannot match any of the leading roles, but her mini-skirt beauty is such a kick here anyway... even when she utters cheap lines like: Bikes are like men. They're all the same, pouting like an angry teenager, she's such a cool babe.

Backdrop is this genre's classic – 80% of the time we get through the desert, visit deserted cabin or ruins, but at least we're doing it listening to some awesome music. Since it's been out of print for over a decade, it's a very rare record now! Worth having in collection though – a fantastic mix of cinematic soul, biker sound fuzz and chilling psych by Lex Baxter is a perfect artifact of the high 60's. It's very different from all that stuff, you usually get in biker movies and it kicks ass! While "Hell's Belles" effortlessly steps over usual exploitation brainstorming, featuring bikers getting around, having love-in, smashing clubs and killing random people, with it's quality story and all-rounded characters, the final scene is a real act of pagan genius. Two men on their bikes, like horses... and a girl. Furious, desperate and loaded with testosterone they will beat the shit out of each other keeping their dicks up no matter what. And it all happens in the desert, where rattlesnakes can kiss you goodnight or moon can sing you a song.

For my money 1969 pretty well wrapped up the biker stuff, exemplified by this shit, "The Hells Angels '69" or "Easy Rider", which kicked up a genre gig to the auteur level. With the 70's going pure baroque and bringing dumber and dumber low-budget productions to the screen, which in the end stopped making any fuckin' sense or were so miserable and repetitive, that failed to tap into the shifting market – now reigned by women-in-prison movies – flicks like "Hell's Belles" were sort of last products of very particular cheap thrills delivering school.