Sunday, March 27, 2022

Movie review - "The Devil's Angels" (1967) **

 The Wild Angels made so much money AIP financed this unofficial follow up - I think Roger Corman had a financial interest, Charles Griffith returns as writer, Burt Topper produced, Dan Haller directed, Leo Gordon is in the support cast. It's remembered today I guess mostly for John Cassevetes playing the head biker of a gang that goes into a small town.

Not a lot of plot. Mimsy Farmer is a local beauty contest winner who is attracted to the gang - not Cassavetes (I assumed there would be a love triangle with those two and Beverly Adams who is Cassavetes' gal) but no... she pashes some other guy. The townsfolk try to allege Farmer was raped, which isn't true - the bikers do a mock trial which ends with Farmer being genuinely raped. It's a shocking ending, as is the fact Cassavetes can't stop anything - he discovers the Hole in the Wall, from Butch Cassidy fame, doesn't exist, and drives off disillusioned as the cops arrive to presumably take down the other bikers. Leo Gordon is a decent sheriff who gives the bikers a chance and regrets it.

I wonder how much Griffith this was. It feels written to a brief. Occasionally is comes alive with shots of the biker gang on the highway but generally feels flat, a bit old and conservative. But then I don't really like the genre.

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