The redoubtable cult director Al Adamson strikes again with this slightly disjointed, but still entertaining, biker film. There's female bikers in it to be sure, but also kind of a Charles Manson cult subplot that takes over the movie as it progresses. Still, with some violence, bared breasts and a fairly sleaze-filled atmosphere, this one's probably worth a view to fans of the seventies biker schtick. Al's wife Regina Carrol plays one of the mamas with the hot pants you can see above, so really, Angel's Wild Women is money well spent already! Still, are these women wild enough? Let's see.
We kick off the film with a black girl, (Maggie Bembry) being chased, cornered and raped by a couple of thugs out in the countryside. We then meet the biker Speed (Ross Hagen) riding free on his hog with his old lady, the beautiful Donna (Jill Woelfel). Donna's also employed on a war movie set, and runs into the arrogant extra Turk (Preston Pierce) who comes on to her. Donna's not interested, and soon Speed is fighting the bike-riding Turk in a very long, fist-fighting, aside-mumbling, knock-down, drag-out battle! In the end Turk gives up and leaves, knowing he's beaten. Donna comforts and makes love to the battered Speed. Meanwhile, four of the wild women join the black girl for some revenge. Margo (Carrol) leads the fray, as they whip, beat with chains and bare their breasts - well one of them, not Carrol - at the two startled rapists. They leave them in two crumpled heaps.
Speed and Donna travel to the beach, where they run into another group of bikers led by Weasel (Albert Cole of The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant). Weasel feels that Speed is intruding on his turf, and challenges him to yet another fight. Speed beats the whole gang of bikers in another extended battle, even taking on the giant Big Foot (John Bloom, Cole's other head in the same 2-headed movie!) and soundly beating them all. Weasel wants to join this tough guys's gang, and Speed reluctantly takes them all back to camp, where the 'wild women' have returned to as well.
After everyone meets each other, the male gang members decide to take off to a men-only biker rally where they can drink heaps of beer and beat each other up for a few days. Left at a loss, the women decide to hightail it to a ranch-commune where one of their old girlfriend lives. On the way they basically seduce-rape a simple-minded farm-hand, probably the wildest thing they do all through! Once they arrive they're welcomed by their friend, and meet the old owner, Parker, who seems to be cowed by another ranch-hand, Slim (Arne Warde). Turns out Slim is in cahoots with the commune guru King (William Bonner) who, though appearing kindly, hippy and benevolent, is actually running a ruthless drug ring there. King proceeds to get the sad Terry (Vicky Volante) hooked and overdosing on heroin. As this is happening, Turk turns up, who's part of King's pot ring, and he and Margo proceed to fall for each other. Turk leaves for an assignment.
The girls find Terry dying and panicking, King and Slim lock them in a room with her. Parker threatens to turn the pair in but they stab him to death and bury him. The black girl from the start of the film, her bike broken down en route to the commune, knocks out a lecherous truck driver and drives his truck to the ranch. She picks up Margo, whose escaped the room where Terry finally died. King and Slim attack Donna and after drugging her, brings his other cult members together to sacrifice her with a dagger, with the idea of keeping their commune 'pure'. This is a bit of a surprise as Donna was quite a main character and of course Speed's love interest. Turk returns and sees how low the commune has sunk - rebelling, he's punched out and tied up for later.
Big Foot turns up mysteriously at the ranch and is set upon by the commune folk. The other bikers turn up and there's a huge brawl. Margo unties Turk, and Speed finds his poor, dead old lady. He takes off at high speed on his hog after King and Slim who drive off in an old car, as the gang takes care of the commune. Will a majorly pissed-off biker be able to take his revenge on a hypocritically murderous hippy?
While a lot of fun for the most part, the Wild Women of the title, strangely, don't feature that much in this film. As I mentioned before, after the main revenge for the rape at the start, and the seduction of the hillbilly, Margo and Co. don't really get up to all that much. It's still mainly a film about Speed and his sidekicks - and they're the ones that get the final action against King and his spaced-out cohorts. Regina as Margo is good to look at, although I didn't really dig her white lipstick. Hagen is enjoyable as Speed - you can barely hear him as he mutters constantly to himself, kind of like the W.C.Fields of Bikers. Lean in, and you'll catch his lines!
Al Adamson has something of a reputation as a "bad" film director, but Angel's Wild Women is reasonably well made in most areas, particularly the photography, stunts - the ending where King meets his fate is pretty thrilling - and psychedelic music. The storyline's a bit confusing at times, but partly due to the real Manson ranch being used, there's quite a bit of atmosphere in this one. It doesn't pack the punch of Adamson's Satan's Sadists as a cohesive, no-holds-barred biker movie, but it's still worth a view on most (occasionally wild women's) fronts.
© Boris Lugosi, 2006.
Review written: 10/07/2006 12:37:53