Angels' Wild Women

Rating:
Summary: Vro-o-om, vro-o-om
Review: Al Adamson was always much better at making action films, especially those starring bikers, than the horror films he is mostly known for. "Satan's Sadists", for example, is still one of the best biker films ever made. However, in the early 1970s he found himself stuck with a just completed biker film at a time when the public had grown bored with biker films and stopped attending. So, seeing the success of films about groups of tough women like Roger Corman and Jack Hill's Pam Grier prison films, he decided to change the emphasis of the film and its marketing. Thus Angels' Wild Women was created, placing greater focus on the women in the bike group and ads greatly exaggerating how tough and mean they are were released.

Actually, the bikers in the film are quite tame. In contrast to Al's classic "Satan's Sadists", this film provides a positive perspective on bikers. The men do get into a bit of macho posturing, but otherwise they're nice folk looking for fun and freedom.

The plot of this film is quite worthwhile, however, and provides an excellent look at the end of an era. When the film was made, the Manson family trials had just occurred, which led those equating Manson's family with the hippies to declare that the hippy movement was dead. This movie, which was largely shot at the Spahn ranch, out of which Manson operated, taps into this.

The plot is simple: The females of the Angels gang are left on their own while the men attend a convention with another gang. One of the Angels gets involved with a love cult run by a sadist while visiting a ranch, and it is up to the other women to try to get her out after she learns that the leader is a criminal. Thus tragedy enters the Angels' attempt at creating a new society based on love and freedom. The women are all portrayed strongly and positively, however, it is up to the men to come to their rescue in the end. As with most of Adamson's action films, not all the good guys survive, and a certain level of sadness underlines the fun and excitement.

Though a well acted and directed movie with a decent script, Angels' Wild Women is more like a good action movie than great art like "Easy Rider", but is similar in its bitter-sweet examination of the end of an era.

Rating:
Summary: End of an Era
Review: Al Adamson was always much better at making action films, especially those starring bikers, than the horror films he is mostly known for. "Satan's Sadists", for example, is still one of the best biker films ever made. However, in the early 1970s he found himself stuck with a just completed biker film at a time when the public had grown bored with biker films and stopped attending. So, seeing the success of films about groups of tough women like Roger Corman and Jack Hill's Pam Grier prison films, he decided to change the emphasis of the film and its marketing. Thus Angels' Wild Women was created, placing greater focus on the women in the bike group and ads greatly exaggerating how tough and mean they are were released.

Actually, the bikers in the film are quite tame. In contrast to Al's classic "Satan's Sadists", this film provides a positive perspective on bikers. The men do get into a bit of macho posturing, but otherwise they're nice folk looking for fun and freedom.

The plot of this film is quite worthwhile, however, and provides an excellent look at the end of an era. When the film was made, the Manson family trials had just occurred, which led those equating Manson's family with the hippies to declare that the hippy movement was dead. This movie, which was largely shot at the Spahn ranch, out of which Manson operated, taps into this.

The plot is simple: The females of the Angels gang are left on their own while the men attend a convention with another gang. One of the Angels gets involved with a love cult run by a sadist while visiting a ranch, and it is up to the other women to try to get her out after she learns that the leader is a criminal. Thus tragedy enters the Angels' attempt at creating a new society based on love and freedom. The women are all portrayed strongly and positively, however, it is up to the men to come to their rescue in the end. As with most of Adamson's action films, not all the good guys survive, and a certain level of sadness underlines the fun and excitement.

Though a well acted and directed movie with a decent script, Angels' Wild Women is more like a good action movie than great art like "Easy Rider", but is similar in its bitter-sweet examination of the end of an era.

Rating:
Summary: Vro-o-om, vro-o-om
Review: An independent biker film with cheap production values and a swiss cheese plot that will probably become a cult classic in a few years. Hard to follow the theme in some places. Utterly forgettable. I will probably give my copy away.

Rating:
Summary: Decent, but falls short
Review: Biker gangs cruising around, causing little trouble.

Having scene Satan's Sadists first, I was not as impressed with AWW. The chicks could have been a little meaner and some more violence might have helped. Dragged at several spots.