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Hellcats (1967)

Biker Babes


Cast:

Ross Hagen is Monte Chapman
Dee Duffy is Linda
Sharyn Kinzie is Shelia

What the box says:

Ok, so your fiance is brutally gunned down in the middle of a picnic. What do you do?If you answered: team up with his brother and join a biker gang, you're right!

What the box should say:

Dead cop's brother tries avenging the death of his undercover cop brother in a drug-dealing gang, who evidently use more than they sell, and yet is still trusted by the mob to deal. The fiance of the dead cop is kidnapped, and the cop's brother has to try and rescue her.


Plot:

Cemetery is set up for a funeral. A hearse arrives, follows by a large number of bikers. Pallbearers carry the casket to the grave. There they drape the deceased’s biker vest over the casket. Several leave a few knives. One chick even leaves her bra.

A couple of cops are watching the procession from a distance. I think we learn the dead biker was a police contact. They’ve spent months trying to break the gang and get their leader.

Some mobsters spot the cops as the bikers leave.

Snake claims to be the new leader to fellow biker 6 Pack. Hellcats credits roll as their crappy theme song plays over psychedelic impressionist paintings.

Dave and Linda are out for a drive. Some mobster goons are following them. Dave and Linda arrive at a rundown park. Mobster gets a rifle. While Linda chews Dave out, he goes to get her some cigarettes left in the car. Mobster is assembling the rifle, and gunshot is heard. Linda daintily rushes to the car and sees Dave dead.

Dave’s brother, Sergeant Monte Chapman arrives. He was brought by 2 senators. This guy has some pull. He greets Linda. Later on he reveals he’s thinking about going after the biker gang. We see a biker outside the window. Next thing, Linda is riding with Monte on a bike, guess he bought the one he saw. As bad 60s music assails us, they arrive at the Hellcats hangout, clubhouse, whatever it’s called.

Arm wrestling, drug packaging is going on. 6 Pack hits on Candy Cave. These are the names given in this movie. He is about to spew beer on her but hits Monte instead. Hellcats watch them warily, even though the drug packaging continues. One of them starts talking “bikerese” to the point make Stone Cold believable. Eye-patch Chick, Rita, starts hitting on Monte and, Linda doesn’t like it. Bartender calls the mobsters.

Mr. Big has several girls in various swimsuits. Ewwwwwwww, Mr. Big is making out with a chick in a bikini old enough to be his daughter….

Raucous party at the biker bar, half of the bikers are unconscious, or badly dancing to bad 60s music. It looks like the cameraman is about 3 inches away from the dancers. Did the drugs in the 60s keep people from realizing the music sucked like a Hoover?


I'm freakin' out man...

Bikers toss Hiney on the floor. Hiney is ranting about how he worked on a banana boat. He had a bad acid trip and then woke to remember he was a member of a crappy biker gang.

Mobster arrives. Monte is arm wrestling at this point. Mobster has new orders for Shelia, the top biker chick. Tries hitting on her, she shoots him down in a blaze of disgust. He grabs her when Monte comes to her aid. Monte and Linda decide this is the right place. Monte starts hitting on Rita, for some reason or other. They’re celebrating; this could be one of the earliest mosh pits.

Painter is painting some topless chick, don’t see anything. When random bikers arrive, they push the artist down. They close in on the girl and the scene ends. By the way, the artist is the producer for this movie.

Biker picnic, vehicles arrive, they toss the trumpet carrying biker in a nearby pond. Biker dance party with crappy music ensues. Several couples are making out. Rita has an eye on Monte and it’s her only one. Hiney is on another bad trip. A rival gang arrives. Snake races the Rival Gang Leader. Everybody is watching the race. We don’t see anything just hear the engines. This is a cheap way to show a race.

Monte and Linda will see this through. Snake arrives back the winner. Rival Gang Leader kicks over Snake’s bike. So, they have a fight using chains. Circled by screaming bikers, a rival gang member grabs Snake. Monte breaks in grabbing, Rival Gang Leader. His speech about peace not war wins all the hearts of the bikers and everyone is happy and overjoyed.

Guy wants to drag Monte. It’s not a drag race. 2 modified bikes that have been converted into 3-wheelers are headed in opposite directions. Guy’s feet are tied to one 3 wheeler and he holds on to a bar fastened to the axle of the other 3 –wheeler. The rules are you have to hold onto the bar for a count of 15. At 13, the guys looses his grip and drug behind the 3-wheeler over a dirt trail.

Monte is subjected to the same treatment. He holds out for the whole 15 count. Monte has won a make out session with Shelia. A rusty set of springs and blanket are carried off into the woods. Monte and Shelia get there and dirty biker lovin’ ensues.

Linda is getting hit on by one of the bikers. She goes off with the guy, getting a small bag of powder. Linda beats him into the ground much to the amusement of the bikers.

In the afterglow of dirty biker lovin’, Monte tries pumping Shelia for information. She isn’t talking.

Bikers are partied out. Monte returns to Linda. They know the drugs are brought in from Mexico. Shelia has a job for Linda because Rita is partied her eye out.

Some chick is pleading with 2 guys playing craps in a cabin about needing “it.” They tell her she has to earn “it.” Hearing bikes in the distance, Shelia, Linda, and Betty arrive. Guy tries hitting on Linda. Strung-out chick is pleading for some more “stuff.” The drugs are hidden in each bike. As flamenco music plays, they ride off into the night.

Cop chases them; they split up taking different roads. Betty wipes out crashing her bike.

Linda and Shelia arrive at the clubhouse. Bartender tells them Betty is dead. Shelia calls Mr. Big who wants the drugs no matter the cost. The Hellcats have to get what Betty carried in her bike. Hiney can’t believe that Betty is dead; she’s the one that took care of him during his bad trips. Bikers head off on a mission.

Biker sneaks into the police impound yard for Betty’s bike. Cops catch him searching the bike. Cops found the drugs earlier. During questioning, he claims to have been told to get something from the bike, didn’t know what it was.

Shelia goes to meet with Mr. Big and, Linda followed her. Shelia is tied up because Linda followed her. Mr. Big questions Linda. Monte was following Linda and checks out the building and is caught, too.

At police headquarters, the biker’s lawyer arrives.

Bikers are moping after the death of Betty. Hiney vows revenge.

Monte is roughed up for not talking. He’s taken to the same room as Shelia. Mr. Big is getting ready to leave. The Hellcats are being watched.

The biker tells the cops about the big shots.

Linda tires to win Mr. Big’s confidence vowing to do what he wants. Shelia and Monte cut the ropes tying them up. Monte beats Mr. Big until he pulls out the gun. Shelia escapes to call the cavalry, granted it’s a drunken smelly, stupid cavalry, but a cavalry nonetheless.

Bartender draws a gun to keep the Hellcats from leaving the bar. He is the spy. Well, he’s knocked put and left with a banana peel on his head. Hellcats are to the rescue!!!

Mr. Big’s mistress is strangled by a goon.

The Hellcats are on the road.

Linda and Monte are tied up again and taken away. Shelia sees it. These are Sunday afternoon driving Hellcats. The police find the unconscious bartender at the bar. Shelia flags down the cavalry.

Mr. Big, Linda, and Monte arrive at the harbor. Linda and Monte are put ion the cargo hold of a scowl until they can dump their bodies in the ocean.

Hellcats are still on the road. Is this supposed to build suspense?

Mr. Big wants the scowl ready pronto when strangling goon arrives. Hellcats to the rescue. Hiney leads the charge, overpowering Mr. Big and goons by dog piling on them. Several bikers tossed in the harbor. Linda and Monte are freed. In the process, Snake is shot. The hand-tied Monte chases shooting goon.

Monte overpowers the goon.

The police arrive.

Later, Monte is on the phone learns that Snake didn’t make it. Hellcats might get off pretty easy. Linda is leaving the city. Monte has some depositions and legal things to do. He’s going to keep the bike. Linda drives away.

Monte hops on his hog to escape the crappy Hellcats theme song.


What I say:

The crappy biker movie. And more so than that, the crappy 60s biker movie. I should mention this was from MST3K. I haven’t watched the MSt3ked version until after finishing my review to not have it spoil my thoughts on this movie. The main thing that's cut from the MST3K version is at the very beginning when the bikers arrive at the cemetary. In MST3K, they start when the gang unloads the coffin from the hearse. I didn't really notice anything else except how long it took the Hellcats to drive from their club to find Sheila and get to the docks. It seemed like a few minutes of dirty biker hippies riding were cut. And, that is not a bad thing...

I never thought I see a movie that made Stone Cold seems realistic. At least with Lance Henriksen, it isn’t that bad. I am not mentioning the acting talents of Brian "Boz" Bosworth. But, this movie, the acting to be overly generous is terrible. It's isn't like much is really asked in this type of role. OK, the acting in Hellcats makes Brian "Boz" Bosworth seem like a Ian McKellan.

I've been trying to burn the memories of the crappy music out of my head. If the Hellcats theme was bad enough. The other songs played during the musical monatage scenes are even worse. Of course, seeing dirty hippies dancing like they're stoned is far from my idea of fun. They probably had to be stoned to be filmed dancing like that.

These are some biker names. Snake. 6 Pack, Hiney, Candy Cave. Candy Cave sounds like a porn star. Don't want to think of what Hiney sounds like. The leader is also refered to as Daddy.

This is possibly the stupidest biker gang ever portrayed. Ok, I'm not counting the mutant biker gang that crashed the party at the end of Weird Science. Well, when in your stronghold, you let people you’ve ever seen you packing drugs isn’t the brightest thing to do. If anyone can explain how being pulled apart by 2 3-wheelers is "bikerly" let me know. How about their drunken parties? Everyone degenerated into barely being capable of pouring beer down their throats. I guess their parties and everything they did was supposed to be shocking. It comes across as less stupid than whatever is done on MTV's Jackass.

These bikers were ordered by the mob to smuggle drugs into the country. These bikers seem to use more of the drugs than anything else, right Hiney? These bikers I wouldn't want them testing the bullets at a Russian roulette tournament. Be a waste of a perfectly good bullet.

The bikers seem more like dirty hippies than anything else. When you think bikers, tough-looking tattooed men come to mind like the Hell’s Angels. But, these are all scrawny filthy looking crackers. I have to respect throwing in a one eyed biker chick that is charmed by a guy telling her ancient myths about how a Cyclops is beautiful.

One of the few movies off my head, I can think of that are intrepid heroes didn’t hook up in the end. In the movie, you could see Linda wasn’t happy with Monte hitting on Eye-patch chick let alone the dirty biker lovin’ between him and Shelia. But, there was no touching moment when they realized they were destined for each other. Maybe the scriptwriters realized how lame it would be for Linda to jump in the sack with the brother of her recently dead fiancée. Or more likely, they didn't think of it. What did the script say about bikers have a wild party? Bad enough, when you pad the length of your movie by doing the exact same thing 2, 3 times...

With this movie clocking in at 84 minutes, it had to be part of a double bill at a drive-in. There doesn’t seem to be any youth gone wild in this movie. It’s not like it’s a counterculture classic like Easy Rider. I originally thought that this was a rip-off of Easy Rider, but Hellcats came out 2 years earlier. I don’t know enough about low budget 60s biker movies to adequately discuss the genre.

I'm being pretty generous with 2 rads for this movie. Yes, it's stupid. The music is awful and, the acting makes Jean Claude Van-Damme not seem as bad. But, it's short. And shows the 60s are as lousy as any other decade. But, I never saw any flower child talking about free love. After a couple of the last few movies, that sort of of helped Hellcats, too. But, Joel and the bots will make my next viewing more enjoyable. Well, knowing the DVD had the MST3K version of it, too, took some of the pain odd of it.



2 NINJAS

Quotable Dialogue

"What're we going to do now that Big Daddy's snuffed?"
"I'm starting to feel more like a junky than a narco-cop."
"You know what you are? A hangup."
"Pretty boy like to fondle."
"Betty's snuffed."


Morals of the Story

Bikers need a brassiere in the hereafter.
Senators will fly sergeants anywhere they want to go.
Bartenders spank biker chicks.
Bikers from the 60s look like dirty hippies.