Hell's Angels '69
| Hell's Angels '69 | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | |
| Written by | Don Tait |
| Story by |
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| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Paul Lohmann |
| Edited by | Gene Ruggiero |
| Music by | Tony Bruno |
| Distributed by | American International Pictures (US) |
Release date |
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| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
Hell's Angels '69 is a 1969 Outlaw biker film directed by Lee Madden and Conny Van Dyke. The film stars Tom Stern, Jeremy Slate, Conny Van Dyke, and Steve Sandor.[1]
Plot
Two rich brothers want to rob a Las Vegas casino, just for the fun and thrill. They decide to use the Oakland Hells Angels as dupes in their plans by pretending to be members of an East Coast motorcycle club/gang and winning the Angels' trust, and then using them to create a disturbance outside the casino while they are inside robbing it. Everything goes as planned—the brothers even manipulate the Angels into telling them to go away—but then a small mistake results in the Angels figuring out that they've been used—and nobody makes fools of the Hells Angels.
It turns out the two brothers are step-brothers, and that only one of them inherited money. The other lives off his brother's generosity and doesn't like being beholden. Rich brother planned all along to return the money once they made their get-away and "got away with" the robbery. Poor brother thought they were doing it for real and that half of the take would be his to keep.
The movie is noteworthy is having prominent members of the Hells Angels play themselves.
Cast
- Tom Stern as Chuck
- Jeremy Slate as Wes
- Conny Van Dyke as Betsy
- Steve Sandor as Apache
- Sonny Barger as Sonny
- Clifford Workman as Skip
- Tiny Walters as Tiny
- Charles Tinsley as Charlie Magoo
- John Terence Tracy as Terry The Tramp aka Tramp
- The Oakland Hells Angels as Themselves
- G.D. Spradlin as Detective
Release
Hell's Angels '69 was released in theatres on July 15, 1970. The film was released on DVD on July 27, 2004 and again on January 31, 2006.[2]
Reception
Critical response
Roger Greenspun of The New York Times wrote in his review: "HELL'S ANGELS '69, which opened about 30 per cent out of focus at the DeMille yesterday, uses that noted law-and-order group, the Oakland Hells Angels, as heroes in a dismal story that wastes most of its attention on the villains. By now their physical resemblance to lovable teddy bears may well have affected the Angels' self image, but not, I hope, to the extent that they continue to submit to such degrading elevation in American folk-demonology. Two California playboy types (Tom Stern and Jeremy Slate, who also wrote the film in which they star) join the Angels and con them into riding to Las Vegas, where they use them as public diversion to cover a robbery from Caesars Palace.
"They make their haul, and their getaway, but not without the encumbrance of a buxom Angel mamma (Conny Van Dyke) and the threat of the Angels' revenge. Revenge comes after a desert motorcycle chase, photographed with such concern for getting pursuers and pursued into a single frame that it looks less like a chase than a pleasure ride. Before the Angels have brutally righted the wrong, the Nevada desert has been covered with a quantity of lost loot perhaps unequaled since the windblown paper money finale of Allan Dwan's The River's Edge (1957). But comparisons can only hurt Hell's Angels '69, which more than lacks in character and conviction what it attempts to make up in sucker's-eye views of Vegas casinos and timid glances at bike-groups' mores. With this caper, as with so many in recent movies, the theft is for a lark rather than for the money — a squandering of time and energy (more time than energy) that seems both unesthetic and immoral. Only Miss Van Dyke emerges, her acting ability still in question (a plus in the context of Hell's Angels '69), but her physical presence superb. Plump, pretty, with a kind of facial nobility that depends more on soul than on bone structure, she catches the image of the American lost girl with an indirection that deserves a better movie than this.[3]
References
- ^ "Hell's Angels '69". Turner Classic Movies. Atlanta: Turner Broadcasting System (Time Warner). Retrieved November 21, 2016.
- ^ "Hell's Angels '69". Guilty Pleasures. United States. July 27, 2004. ASIN B0001Z3IK8. Retrieved November 21, 2016.
- ^ Greenspun, Roger (September 11, 1969). "Screen: 'Hell's Angels' 69'". The New York Times. New York City: The New York Times Company. Retrieved November 21, 2016.