Get ready for THE BIKERIDERS: Brando in THE WILD ONE & Peter Fonda THE WILD ANGELS
The word is out on THE BIKERIDERS: incredible acting and cinematography. Watch THE WILD ONE the film that started biker films, and THE WILD ANGELS drive-in revival!
THE WILD ONE was inspired and loosely based on a real-life incident over the Fourth of July weekend in 1947 in Hollister, California, (publicized in an issue of Harper's Magazine in a January 1951 article titled "Cyclists' Raid" by Frank Rooney), when about four thousand people, composed of motorcyclists and other visitors and enthusiasts, roared into the town over a two day period, and overwhelmed the facilities and law enforcement.
I have known about the photos of Danny Lyon since introduced to them by underground filmmaker and author of the HOLLYWOOD BABYLON books Kenneth Anger in the 1960’s. Danny had previously shot the civil rights movement of the 1960’s and won awards for those pictures when he decided to live with and take photos of a Chicago biker club. Somewhere along the line he crossed over. He was no longer a photojournalist; he was a photojournalist who had joined the Outlaws motorcycle club. And he won even more awards. That’s right, a biker who also happened to be a award winning photojournalist.
You can imagine my jaw dropping as I saw the trailer to THE BIKERIDERS and immediately recognized the images come to life of Danny’s photos. He did THE BIKERIDERS before he joined any club, but he captured the love and comradeship that is the real reason people join biker clubs. This review of THE BIKERIDERS shows the excitement the film is causing by those who have seen it. They have trouble getting their ideas out, and you will see a Film Threat reviewer actually talk about Oscar nominations. Film Threat has integrity that is unquestionable, but I can’t recall them ever talking about or writing about films deserving Oscar nominations before. This review begins with the trailer:
Lee Marvin’s portrayal of a biker in THE WILD ONE is actually the closest to a real biker in the film. And he is incredible.
Newspaper reports which led to THE WILD ONE. Believe it or not, to this day the town holds a biker run commemorating the event and invites bikers to return!
The Wild One (1953), a landmark film of 50s rebellion by director Laslo Benedek, producer Stanley Kramer, and screenwriter John Paxton. It was the first feature film to examine outlaw motorcycle gang violence in America, and created a new kind of exploitative, low-budget, 'drive-in' movie about a new breed of American rebel, the biker outlaw.
The film had its U.S. premiere, under the title of Hot Blood, on December 30, 1953. One of the film's taglines on its posters stated:
"Hot feelings hit terrifying heights in a story that really boils over!"
The tale was inspired and loosely based on a real-life incident over the Fourth of July weekend in 1947 in Hollister, California, (publicized in an issue of Harper's Magazine in a January 1951 article titled "Cyclists' Raid" by Frank Rooney), when about four thousand people, composed of motorcyclists and other visitors and enthusiasts, roared into the town over a two day period, and overwhelmed the facilities.
Because of the controversial nature of the film, public screenings were banned in England by the British Board of Film Censors for fourteen years (until 1968) after its release. Even in America, it was feared that the shocking, 'Communist' movie glamorized an anti-social subculture in revolt, would set a bad example, and cause impressionable viewers to copy-cat its plot and incite deliquency and riots.
James Dean's disaffected, frustrated youth Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Elvis Presley's anti-hero character in Jailhouse Rock (1957), and even the significant counter-cultural and most successful biker film of all-time: Easy Rider (1969) with veteran bikers Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda - plus a spate of exploitation biker films (i.e., Roger Corman's trashy B-film classic The Wild Angels (1966)) - all of them owe their existence to this original, cult classic film. Although Marlon Brando in one of his central and early roles (his fifth screen role) portrays a stunning, brooding, nomadic character with a contempt for conformity.
Johnny engages Kathie in conversation in the restaurant, pressing her for a date that evening at a Carbonville dance, and an invitation to dance to the jukebox music. In response, the hard-working waitress questions the untamed leader of the gang about where the bikers are going, and what they do when they ride around. He is incredulous as he teases her about her conventional lifestyle and attitudes:
Kathie: Where are you going when you leave here? Don't you know?
Johnny: (scoffing) Oh man, we just gonna go.
Kathie: Just trying to make conversation. It means nothing to me.
Johnny: Well, on the weekends, we go out and have a ball.
Kathie: And what do you do? I mean, do you just ride around? Or do you go on some sort of a picnic or something?
Johnny: A picnic? Man, you are too square. I'll have to straighten you out. Now, listen, you don't go any one special place. That's cornball style. You just go. (He snaps his fingers.) A bunch gets together after all week it builds up, you just...the idea is to have a ball. Now if you gonna stay cool, you got to wail. You got to put somethin' down. You got to make some jive. Don't you know what I'm talkin' about?
Envious of his ability to move on whenever he wishes, Kathie tells him she knows what he means: "My father was going to take me on a fishing trip to Canada once...We didn't go." Her life has been one of stultifying, small-town repression, denial, and restriction.
As he and his boys are guzzling beer and dancing with some of the ladies in the bar, one blonde female dance partner named Mildred (Peggy Maley), the owner of the local beauty shop, questions Johnny:
Hey, Johnny, what are you rebelling against?
While tapping out a jazzy beat on the top of the jukebox, he raises his eyebrow and drawls his amorphous reason for rebellion:
Whaddya got?
Watch the film here:
The Wild Angels is a 1966 American independent outlaw biker film produced and directed by Roger Corman. Made on location in Southern California, The Wild Angels was the first film to associate actor Peter Fonda with Harley-Davidson motorcycles and 1960s counterculture. It inspired the biker film genre that continued into the early 1970s.
The Wild Angels, released by American International Pictures (AIP), stars Fonda as the fictitious Hells Angels San Pedro, California chapter president "Heavenly Blues" (or "Blues"), Nancy Sinatra as his girlfriend "Mike", Bruce Dern as doomed fellow outlaw "the Loser", and Dern's then real-life wife Diane Ladd as the Loser's on-screen wife, "Gaysh".
Small supporting roles are played by Michael J. Pollard and Gayle Hunnicutt and, according to literature promoting the film, members of the Hells Angels from Venice, California. Members of the Coffin Cheaters motorcycle club also appeared.
Roger Corman became interested in making a film about the Hells Angels after seeing a photo of a biker funeral in the January 1966 issue of Life magazine . Corman approached AIP, Charles B. Griffith was hired to write a screenplay. Griffith's first draft was a near-silent movie which contrasted the bikers with the story of a police motorcycle cop. Corman did not like it and had Griffith rewrite it. Corman still was not happy and gave it to Peter Bogdanovich to rewrite. Bogdanovich had met Corman socially and agreed to write an adventure script in the vein of Lawrence of Arabia or Bridge on the River Kwai "only cheap"; Corman pulled Bogdanovich off that project and paid him $300 to work on Wild Angels. Bogdanovich later estimated he rewrote 80% of the script. He later directed second unit and did various other odd jobs. Corman claims the entire script was based on stories the Hells Angels recounted to them, "even though I think they embellished some of their stories."
To research the movie, Corman sponsored parties for the Hells Angels and attended the parties along with Griffith to take notes, according to Corman: “We went through a whole series of Hells Angels parties. We would buy them marijuana and beer — their essentials. They didn’t take any drugs other than marijuana then, and they didn’t seem to drink whiskey. Beer and marijuana was their trip. And they would tell us these stories of sexual action, fights, raids with other gangs."
Nancy Sinatra, who was cast as "Mike", recalled:
When I was doing Wild Angels, Peter Fonda was talking about LSD and said, "Come on, Nancy, you should try it, it's great - I just woke up on the shelf of the linen closet." And I said, "What? Are you crazy? No thanks." I was the square peg in the round hole, I guess.
THE WILD ANGELS launched a revival of biker films that would not only lead to EASY RIDER, but 5 years of biker films at the drive-in.
In a 2009 interview, Corman told Mick Garris that the US State Department tried to prevent the film from being shown in Venice on the grounds that it "did not show America the way it is", but the film was shown there anyway.
Actress Laura Dern was conceived by her parents (Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd) while they were shooting this film. - Wikipedia
You can watch THE WILD ANGELS by clicking the underlined link below:
Watch THE WILD ANGELS by clicking this underlined link
BONUS: After SONS OF ANARCHY many copied the fashions of the show by imitating the patches, etc. Here a real biker explains what can get you into trouble:
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