Angels Hard as They Come (1971) User Reviews

I Was There

[jdmeister · 5/10 · 26 April 2017]

Yes, I'm admitting I was there, and enjoyed the entire film process. Yes, the director included the rape scene, and filmed an "Insert" close-up shot of the girls face just for dramatic effect. The young lady in question was placed against a tree trunk, and four of us held her down while she thrashed about dramatically. Great performance, kudos. As I recall, I was stationed on her right hand, and great fun was had by all.

The party scene, took at least two tries, due to the over enthusiastic performance by all in the room. The beer was warm, and spewed all over the place. Some of the girls needed to be paid additional money to go topless, and others needed to be paid to leave the top on. We filmed at the old (now closed) Calabasas movie ranch, some on the El Mirage dry lake, some at the still operating "Rock House".

The entire production was supported by "Cinemobile Systems" and I drove the small Cinemobile Ford truck with all the equipment aboard.

The second unit I believe was near Glamis CA. for the dune-buggy stuff. (I was not on the second unit crew) I recently found this entire film on YouTube.com and enjoyed watching it again.

Big Leap From This Starter Movie

[jhand2651 · 5/10 · 5 May 2014]

I, John Hand, was the editor of CUSTOM CHOPPER Magazine in 1971 and I had a car and bike painter friend named Bill Carter who was appearing in the movie with his Harley. So I went out to the desert and watched them shoot some scenes. I put a report of this movie in my magazine but I have to admit that I never saw the movie later. Mr Demme the director sent me a letter with some clarifications about the movie and I put the letter in my magazine. Jonathan Demme, the director also told me to keep my eye on Scott Glenn, because he was going to go places. Well, as it turned out, they both went on to make and star in the big blockbuster and award winner SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Who would have thought?

hippies and bikers

[christopher-underwood · 6/10 · 25 February 2024]

There is not really any story here although the bikes are rather lovely and the girls. It is a shame that there is so little of bikes on the road together and it is more in the ghost town where the hippies are there for the time and then the desert. Certainly the bikers are convincingly sleazy and dirty but they don't really have much to do. The only action is with the girls except for a couple of races that don't go anywhere. So the girls are fine and get to dance and take of their tops, then one gets raped and killed and another tied up threatened with fire but it is really not enough because the guys are either acting or over acting. I'm sure that Jonathan Demme as his first as producer role and writing is okay but I don't thing he was really into Hells Angels although he would go on to have a wonderful time directing.

Fans of 1960s/70s exploitation movies will flip over this one!

[Infofreak · 2 February 2004]

Fans of 1960/70s exploitation movies will flip over this one! Jonathan Demme originally pitched the project to Roger Corman as "a biker Rashomon". Now that's not exactly how it ended up, but it's still terrific viewing for cult fans nonetheless. Demme co-wrote and co-produced and his pal Joe Viola directed. Viola and Demme were then involved with the women-in-prison movies 'The Hot Box' and 'Black Mama, White Mama' before they parted ways. Viola concentrated on writing for TV while Demme eventually became a major Hollywood director. Scott Glenn, who in the 90s co-starred in Demme's enormously successful 'The Silence Of The Lambs', plays Long John, a biker who gets invited to a ghost town where some Hell's Angels are partying with some local hippies. Unfortunately a girl is murdered and Long John and his pals are accused by the bikers leader The General (Charles Dierkop, of 'Police Woman' fame, and the Killer Santa in 'Silent Night, Deadly Night'). They face a kangaroo court and then... well, imagine your worst. Glenn and Dierkop are both great to watch but the real icing on the cake is the supporting cast which includes Gary Busey as an unlikely hippie, biker regular Gary Littlejohn, 'Vanishing Point's nude motorcycle girl Gilda Texter, James Inglehart (Randy Black in Russ Meyer's trash classic 'Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls'), Janet Wood (who as Sweet Li'L Alice featured in the unforgettable naked knife fight with Raven De La Croix in Meyer's 'Up!'), and even - get this! - the fat guy from Sam Fuller's 'Shock Corridor' (Larry Tucker) as a cat called Lucifer! Such a cast makes 'Angels Hard As They Come' essential viewing for all fans of psychotronic cinema! Don't overlook this forgotten biker gem.

Terrible

[phil-lynch · 1/10 · 12 April 2005]

I mistakenly watched this DVD thinking it would offer something slightly different from the usual Hell's Angels road movies. The fact that the title suffixes "As hard as they come" I was literally expecting a proper blood & guts flick-instead I got a 2nd rate movie length version of a staple A-Team story line! The basic premise is Long John (Scott Glenn) is seen arranging a shady drugs deal out in the desert with his buddies Juicer (Don Carrera) and Monk (James Inglehart). They get tailed by the police but eventually lose them and end up at a petrol station.

Here they meet fellow road warriors "The Dragons" and are invited to a hippy commune that the Dragons have gatecrashed-for a party.

Basically, we discover that the Dragons are a little heavy handed with the hippies, climaxing in the attempted gang rape of one of the hippy chicks that Long John has taken a liking to. Long John intervenes and in the melee the hippy chick gets stabbed.

After a Kangaroo court presided over by the Dragons leader "the General" (Charles Dierkop) the Angels are found guilty and sentenced to "fun & games" (dragged around on the back of the Hogs) and eventually death.

Monk escapes and alerts the rest of the gang and the Hippies finally get some backbone to help the Angels. The movie's finale is of the Angels whupping the Dragons and everyone going their separate ways.

The "violent" scenes are marred by terrible lighting and really bad 70's fisticuffs, the movie is clichéd and doesn't work on any level-it's not even amusing from a nostalgia point of view.

Rent/Buy this movie at your peril!

Lost Cause

[Lechuguilla · 1/10 · 24 January 2007]

What an awful movie ... A bunch of "hip" motorcyclists invade a California ghost town called "Lost Cause". There, they confront a rival gang of bikers and some hippies. The story has no real point to it, nor any theme that I could detect.

There are way too many characters. And none of them are interesting. But they sure are "tough". They drink lots of booze. They smoke. They swear. They fight. They kiss their babes. They kick up a lot of ruckus. They emit dialogue like: "Lay it on me man" ... "I don't want a beer now, man" ... "Let's dig it, man" ... "I hope this works, man" ... "Make it good, man". They all act like rowdy ten-year-olds on a school playground.

And that playground is not the least bit interesting. Lost Cause looks like the back lot of some movie studio. The film's color cinematography is dreadful. Some of the images are either blurred or out of focus. Interior lighting is too dim. You would think that the filmmaker could have at least inserted some good music from that era; alas, no.

Just because it's a biker movie doesn't mean that viewers will tolerate a shabby screenplay, bad acting, or poor quality visuals. There are good biker films out there. "Angels Hard As They Come" is not one of them. At least the ghost town has an appropriate name. It's a good metaphor for this film.

Pretty lousy

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 28 April 2020]

ANGELS HARD AS THEY COME is a B-flick biker exploitation movie with a great title and lousy execution. The low budget story is set in a Californian ghost town, where two rival biker gangs hang out alongside the usual hippies of the era. A murder leads to some low key confrontation between the groups, but generally this is a tepid account of bad behaviour, lame dialogue, lots of nudity, and a little violence. Jonathan Demme worked on the screenplay, but that's no reason to tune in, and nor is the presence of the taciturn Scott Glenn as the lead or the great Gary Busey in a small role as one of the bikers.

Typical bikers/exploitation movie... need to say more?

[bellino-angelo2014 · 5/10 · 23 May 2022]

During the end of the 1960s/beginning of the 1970s there was the vogue of the biker movie genre. These movies where made with cheap budgets, actors who were making it big and directors who have only these as their only credits. I am not a fan of the genre as you probably can guess from the summary, but I gave it a try once it was on TV.

The Angels motorcycle gang has a feud with the Dragons and things get worse after they invite the Angels in the desert town of Lost Cause. The Angels' leader Long John (Scott Glenn) is challenged by the Dragons' leader General (Charles Dierkop) to a race and loses. Soon after that John meets a young hippie woman and it's infatuated with her. The leader of her gang Henry (Gary Busey) is not happy about the Dragons. After some races and some imprisonments, the Angels will have their victory.

The acting by Glenn and Busey was decent, and it was surprising since they were unknowns, but the pacing was dull and after a while the plot got stale. Apart from the acting, the music was the only good and memorable asset. A must see only for biker movie fans.

Fun standard biker flick with some famous future talent behind it.

[b_kite · 7/10 · 18 June 2019]

A pretty good standard biker flick made by the fact it was written and produced by the guy who would go on to direct such hit Hollywood films and The Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia. It was also one of the first films released on Roger Corman's own New World Pictures for which it turned a pretty impressive profit for. Scott Glenn isn't the most charismatic lead, but, he moves the films very western style plot onward with the help of the guy that plays "The General" who throws in some fun evil overacting. Theres some boobs towards the end and Gary Busey cameos as a young hippie leader, so what's not to like.

Crap Don't Waste Ur time

[killerkandykorn · 1/10 · 17 January 2012]

Terrible Just Terrible

I picked this up on VHS at the Salvation Army I was excited because it was a 70's film and obviously by the title it was some Hell's Angels knock off film, so hell how could it be bad.

Bikers doing bad stuff, fist fights!

NO

There is one fist fight and it's so dark on the VHS you can't see anything, in fact half the movie is that way.

The Movie is garbage

A guy even gets stabbed with a plastic hatchet!

Don't Watch this, even if you want to see it for nostalgia value it's really not worth it

The only good scene in the damn movie is when this black guy is walking through the desert and he comes upon a couple on a dune buggy, and the black asks him for some gas then the guy continues to say hey I ain't welfare so then the guy offers him his girlfriend to some jungle lovin in which the black guy turns down FOR SOME REASON!?!?!?!? AND THIS WAS NOT A MIRAGE

Angels as 70's as they come

[jjorde · 8/10 · 25 January 2009]

Saw this on netflix when I looked up The Harder They Come. Really fun movie until the virginesque girl gets gang raped and killed but for some reason no one is really freaked out and the movie sorta continues on without missing her. There are some fun gems in this movie like the really smooth drug dealer guy in the beginning who seems half asleep and the funny dialogue between the bikers in the beginning. Also mixed in is a little racial conflict. Like when the dune buggying wasp couple finds the escaped good guy who happens to be black. The guy wasp admonishes the tired/thirsty man for being on welfare but then asks his girlfriend to have sex with guy, when he refuses they try to run him over with the dune buggy! The bad guys come straight outta sixties westerns except for the gang raping parts-which can be really upsetting but the fact that the movie was made by Jonathan Demme(Silence of the Lambs) sorta makes sense, as the late sixties and seventies B movies were training grounds for future directors("Duel"-Spielberg). This movie is basically a sexplotation and violenceplotation flick but it has its unique moments, netflix it now. And while your at it, get "Inglorious Bastards." When people say the 1970's was a focal point for which creativitey exploded away from itself into separate factions-I believe it when I see this movie.

SHE'S DEAD MAN!

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 10 April 2019]

The drug dealing Angels are invited by the Dragons to party with them at a ghost town hippie commune lead by the meek Gary Busey. They have fun and games until a girl turns up dead. The Dragons, lead by a psychotic Charlie Manson look-alike (Charles Dierkop) hold a kangaroo court and convict all the angels.

Standard drug use, bike races, girls dancing topless, fist fights, torture that defined the era. Poor video transfer to DVD. Sound Track of the era, combination rock and whack-a-da music. The over billed Busey looks like a pretty boy.

Parental Guidance: F-bomb, Nudity.

OK, Who Killed The Hippie Chick?

[mikecanmaybee · 2/10 · 14 March 2020]

Don't be fooled by Scott Glenn and Gary Busey's appearance in this film as it still sucks. Glenn who plays Long John the grumpy drug dealing leading man biker, who I guess we are supposed to like, is wooden and one dimensional doing his best imitation of Davis Carradine. Busey, who plays the hippie Henry, can be forgiven for his performance considering it was one of his first speaking roles. That being said, Busey was absolutely terrible in this movie.

The highlight was Charles Dierkop as the General the vocal leader of the Bad Guy Biker Gang, who at least added some energy as opposed to Glenn's constant emoting, and the lovely Gilda Texler who played Astrid. Ms. Texler was the best actor in this film IMHO. I know, Glen and Busey developed into great actors, however, both were miscast in Jonathon Demme's first effort as a screenwriter. Ms. Texler will always be remembered for her cameo in the classic Vanishing Point. One must wonder why the competent and pretty Gilda was not cast in more films.

One talky biker movie

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 27 July 2018]

Jonathan Demme (Married to the Mob, The Silence of the Lambs) impressed Roger Corman with his writing ability and was asked if he wanted to try a motorcycle movie. His idea? Rashomon on motorcycles. He turned to his friend Joe Viola, a commercial director, and created this film.

Long John (Scott Glenn, The Silence of the Lambs), Juicer and Monk (James Inglehart, Randy Black from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls!) get caught up in a busted drug deal before meeting up with the Dragons gang and heading to a ghost town. There, they meet a hippie commune, where Long John falls for Astrid. They argue over the bikers being evil because of Altamont while he counters that hippies have been tainted by Manson.

The Dragons do, too. A fight ensues and Long John's girl gets raped and stabbed, with the Dragons framing the Angels. Their leader, the General (Charles Dierkop, the gas station attendant in Messiah of Evil) sentences them to fun and games, which means they all get dragged behind motorcycles. Monk escapes and organizes the rest of the gang, leading to a violent battle to end all biker battles.

This movie is packed with long bike riding montages, sex, drugs, debauchery, mayhem and a young Gary Busey. It's talky, though and if you're not super into biker movies, this is probably not the one to start with.

Lord of the Biker Flies

[reidmosley · 7/10 · 22 July 2023]

Some try to compare this to Rashomon, but I see it more as a Lord of the Flies of the biker films. A bunch of visiting bikers get caught up in mess at a hippie commune in the desert. This cult-like community has created its own moral code and its own sense of justice apart from the rest of the world. Scott Glenn, and his companions, must endure the torture of the leadership before discovering their own humanity and escaping.

I love these Corman pictures and the opportunity to see actors like Scott Glen show their chops before they "made it". Also love watching Demme's direction to see the flickers of brilliance that would shine in his later work.

As part of the whole Biker genre films of the 60s and 70s, it contains all of the elements one would expect from pictures of this ilk: girls, substance abuse, anarchy and redemption. Good for a laugh.

a gritty, almost lost classic in the biker movie era

[Quinoa1984 · 9/10 · 17 July 2006]

On the one hand, after watching Angels Hard as They Come, I could understand why it's not higher rated or even been seen anymore than the common garden-variety B-movie biker flick, as it is true shamelessly Corman-style. On the other hand, I ended really liking how it was executed. The collaborators, Joe Viola and Jonathan Demme, wring out plenty of dirty fun out of such violent and twisted material without 'softening' it up like some biker movies of the period.

It's got almost no characters from the 'outside' world, just bikers, and maybe a few hippies (and yes, one of them an out-of-place and amusingly one-note Gary Busey). So part of the entertainment comes from bikers just being as rough and crazy as possible. But with this the writers come up with some unexpectedly funny moments, some more harsh than others, and sometimes even commenting on some of the absurdities of the Dragons. This is done dialog-wise many times- as Viola's style isn't nearly as strong or affecting as Demme provides- and sometimes through ideas shown and it all being realistic even as its crudely artificial.

One such scene, as a quick example, is when the leader of the pack General (Charles Dierkop as a well-played maniac) is seen from the waist up having short moment of pleasure, then as the camera pans down his motorcycle is getting a cleaning (pun intended, but then the title itself is almost there just for a goof). Or in having one of the side characters, the one black character of a story, adrift in the desert, almost putting to a stop the Corman rule of there being almost constant danger &/or fights &/or sex/nudity/et all.

Other ideas abound in the crazy extremities that the Dragons go through against the three Angels (one being Scott Glenn in maybe the best 'acting' of the film), including a final idea that never does come to fruition. All through, the filmmakers basically acknowledge what kind of film they're making, and don't skimp out on the early biker movies might not have dealt with, at least as much. Rape, racism, torture, pure decadence and decay in the devastation. But the factor of it all having practically a Western-movie element to it, a B-Western at that, is not thrown away for a story without focus.

It's arcane and simplistic in music, usually exploitative in themes and character, and it's got the cinematic flavor of a beer soaked ashtray. But to hell if it isn't one of my favorites of its kind, if only on the most guilty-pleasure level.

Bikers Vs. Bikers Vs. Hippies

[Scott_Mercer · 9/10 · 31 October 2006]

As a biker movie, this is great. As an action film, it is pretty good. As a drama, it's awful.

But if you want sleazy 60's style biker action, this film delivers in spades. I've seen most of the biker films from 1965-1973 (the original era), and I'd put this one near the top. These bikers are convincingly dirty, scummy and backstabbing (in more ways than one). They are some of the most bearded, shower-needing, dirt-eating, denim vest wearing reprobates that I have seen on film. I had the DVD of this film for a long time before I watched it, and I'm sorry I waited so long.

You get sleazy, evil bikers lured to a ghost town and challenged and put upon by some other, even more sleazy, supremely evil bikers. There's also some hippies there, but they are basically pawns in the power game between the two biker factions. Soon enough, things move from drinking, sex and drag racing, to fist fighting, injuries and murder, as things get more and more intense and people's "honor" comes into play more and more.

The bikers here don't meet up with with straight society; such people are barely seen in this film (a few police cars pass by a few times). There's just an arena, and two groups of gladiators doing combat with each other. Pure conflict between two wild animals, with no outside influences coming in to complicate things.

I'd put this film right up there with The Wild Angels and Hells' Angels 69 for biker movie thrills. Also check out a crazy over-the-top biker thing, The Tormentors, if you can find it.

I'd like to add that this film is Public Domain due to some idiot at Roger Corman's company failing to place a copyright notice on it. Therefore, you might be able to find a DVD of this film for as little as $1, or part of a multi-pack for cheap. If you do find this film for a dollar, then you have no excuse to avoid picking it up. It's a don't miss recommendation at that price, unless you don't like biker movies at all.

Cool 70's biker flick

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 7 September 2016]

Several members of the outlaw biker gang the Angels are framed for the rape and murder of hippie gal Astrid (a solid and appealing portrayal by the fetching Gilda Texter, who was the nude motorcycle rider in "Vanishing Point") by psychotic rival biker gang leader the General (fiercely played with fire-breathing ferocity by Charles Dierkop).

Director Joe Viola keeps the enjoyable and engrossing story moving along at a brisk pace, maintains a gritty tone throughout, makes neat use of the dusty desert ghost town main location, and delivers a satisfying smattering of tasty gratuitous female nudity. The clever script by Viola and Jonathan Demme makes valid points about loyalty, betrayal, the abuse of power and authority, and the failure of the 1960's hippie love generation, with the passive pacifist mentality embraced by the hippies being taken cruel advantage of by the more hostile and aggressive bikers. The sound acting by the capable cast keeps this movie humming: Scott Glenn as the confused, but basically decent Long John, James Iglehart as the amiable Monk, Gary Littlejohn as the traitorous Axe, Gary Busey as easygoing longhair Henry, Janet Wood as the friendly Vicki, Dirty Denny as the scrappy Rings, Don Carrera as the addled Juicer, and Brendan Kelly as the sarcastic Brain. The rough'n'tumble fight scenes deliver the exciting goods. The funky-throbbing score by Richard Hieronymous hits the get-down groovy spot. Best of all, the bikers are drawn with some depth and come across as the genuinely grungy article. A worthwhile grindhouse item.