Angels from Hell | |
---|---|
Directed by | Bruce Kessler |
Written by | Jerome Wish |
Produced by | Kurt Neumann Joe Solomon (executive producer) |
Starring | Tom Stern Arlene Martel |
Cinematography | Herman Knox |
Edited by | William Martin |
Music by | Stu Phillips |
Distributed by | American International Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 86 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Angels from Hell is a 1968 biker film directed by Bruce Kessler and starring Tom Stern and Arlene Martel. [1] It was the first film produced by Joe Solomon's Fanfare Films, a firm Solomon had created with the profits from three previous biker films. The film was shot in Bakersfield, California. [2] The screenplay was written by Jerome Wish, and the film used music by The Peanut Butter Conspiracy and The Lollipop Shoppe. [3] Sonny Barger, president of the Oakland, California chapter of the Hells Angels, is credited as story consultant.
A former motorcycle club leader, Mike (Tom Stern), returns home a war hero from Vietnam to resume his life, and reunite with his former motorcycle club. Finding they have left their former Riverside, California home base, Mike meets them in Bakersfield, California, now riding under the leadership of a new president, Big George. Working with his former gang, Mike takes over the club from George, and moves into their biker farmhouse, owned by Ginger (Arlene Martel). Running up against opposition from Sheriff Bingham (Jack Starrett), who had an arrangement with George to "keep the peace," Mike sets out to use all his experience as a hero from the war to unite all the existing motorcycle clubs in California to create a brand new, "super outlaw" club. Skirmishes with the sheriff's department deputies break out, and the conflicts culminate when Speed (Stephen Oliver), one of Mike's gang members, is stopped on fake possession charges, and murdered when he tries to escape. The trouble intensifies when an all-out cop-against-biker war breaks out. [3]
The Outlaws Motorcycle Club, incorporated as the American Outlaws Association or its acronym, A.O.A., is an international outlaw motorcycle club. Founded in McCook, Illinois in 1935, the Outlaws MC is the oldest outlaw biker club in the world. With 441 chapters located in 43 countries, and a membership of over 3,000, the club is also the third-largest in the world, behind the Hells Angels and the Bandidos. Outlaws members typically ride Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
The Losers released on video as Nam's Angels is a 1970 American biker war film directed by Jack Starrett.
Ralph Hubert "Sonny" Barger Jr. was an American outlaw biker who was a founding member of the Oakland, California chapter of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in 1957. After forming the Oakland chapter, Barger was instrumental in unifying various disparate Hells Angels chapters and had the club incorporated in 1966. He emerged as the Hells Angels' most prominent member during the counterculture era and was reputed by law enforcement and media to be the club's international president, an allegation he repeatedly denied. The author Hunter S. Thompson called Barger "the Maximum Leader" of the Hells Angels, and Philip Martin of the Phoenix New Times described him as "the archetypical Hells Angel", saying he "didn't found the motorcycle club ... but he constructed the myth". He authored five books, and appeared on television and in film.
Arlene Martel was an American actress. Before 1964, she was frequently billed as Arline Sax or Arlene Sax. Casting directors, among other Hollywood insiders, called Martel the Chameleon because her appearance and her proficiency with accents and dialects enabled her to portray characters of a wide range of races and ethnicities.
An outlaw motorcycle club, known colloquially as a biker club or bikie club, is a motorcycle subculture generally centered on the use of cruiser motorcycles, particularly Harley-Davidsons and choppers, and a set of ideals that purport to celebrate freedom, nonconformity to mainstream culture, and loyalty to the biker group.
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Claude Ennis "Jack" Starrett Jr. was an American actor and film director.
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The Born Losers is a 1967 American outlaw biker film. The film introduced Tom Laughlin as the half-Indian Green Beret Vietnam veteran Billy Jack. Since 1954, Laughlin had been trying to produce his Billy Jack script about discrimination toward American Indians. In the 1960s, he decided to introduce the character of Billy Jack in a quickly written script designed to capitalize on the then-popular trend in motorcycle gang movies. The story was based on a real incident from 1964 where members of the Hells Angels were arrested for raping two teenage girls in Monterey, California. The movie was followed by Billy Jack (1971), which saw AIP pull out of production midway through before others stepped in.
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The outlaw biker film is a film genre that portrays its characters as motorcycle riding rebels. The characters are usually members of an outlaw motorcycle club.
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Angel Unchained is a 1970 American action thriller film directed by Lee Madden for American International Pictures and starring Don Stroud as the title character Angel. It was released in the United States on September 2, 1970.
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.
Randee Lynn Jensen, born April 28, 1949 is an actress from San Bernardino, California. During the 1960s she acted in films such as The Pit and the Pendulum and The Gay Deceivers. From the late 1960s to the early 1970s, she had a number of parts in exploitation and biker films. She had appeared in over ten films in the biker genre alone. These include The Glory Stompers, The Cycle Savages and The Girls from Thunder Strip. She has also worked in film production, casting and other behind the scenes roles. Prior to her main work in film she had done stage work.
Hell's Bloody Devils is a 1970 American film directed by Al Adamson and written by Jerry Evans.
The Red Devils Motorcycle Club (RDMC) is an international 1% outlaw motorcycle club and the principal support club of the Hells Angels. The club is not to be confused with the now-defunct Original Red Devils Motorcycle Club that was founded in Canada in the late 1940s.
Numerous police and international intelligence agencies classify the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club as a motorcycle gang and contend that members carry out widespread violent crimes, including drug dealing, trafficking in stolen goods, gunrunning, extortion, and prostitution rings. Members of the organization have continuously asserted that they are only a group of motorcycle enthusiasts who have joined to ride motorcycles together, to organize social events such as group road trips, fundraisers, parties, and motorcycle rallies, and that any crimes are the responsibility of the individuals who carried them out and not the club as a whole.
The Dirty Dozen Motorcycle Club (DDMC) was an outlaw motorcycle club in Arizona. Founded in 1964, the Dirty Dozen became the preeminent motorcycle gang in the state, and ultimately merged with the Hells Angels in 1997.