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Hell's Belles
[MGM Home Entertainment]
1969; color
Directed by Maury Dexter
Starring: Jeremy Slate, Adam Roarke & Jocelyn Lane
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Based on the title you might expect this to be a flick about a female biker gang; I hope you didn't expect that though, cause you'll be wrong - not to mention disappointed. Unlike many other films of this ilk, the main conflict in Hell's Belles doesn't revolve around heat between rival gangs or the ever present tension between Johnny Law and those who want to be free to ride their machines without being hassled by the man and get loaded. The trouble starts off innocently enough when cycle racer Cowboy Dan, wins some sort of competition & walks away with a sweet new motorcycle to beat up. Before he even has time to scratch it up though, a trio of wanna be thugs knock him in the head and make off with the bike; only to be foiled themselves moments later by a tougher, larger group of bikers when their leader Tampa lays eyes on "their" new bike and decides he wants it for himself. Of course once Cowboy wakes up he's got nothing but recovery, and maybe a tiny bit of revenge, in mind and he doesn't care who he has to go through to re-win his prize. After roughing up the first offenders and learning of the second, he locates and approaches Tampa in an effort to make off with the bike peacefully. But no dice. Tampa is fully enamored with his new toy and in no way willing to part with his ill gotten gain. He does offer up a lady from his stable in trade; and in all fairness, she is pretty hot. The Cowboy doesn't exactly accept, but he does end up saddled with the girl—literally and metaphorically. This is not to say that he's ready to throw in the towel and walk away empty handed. Au contraire. Cowboy knows the valley the bikers are hiding in like the back of his hand. He formulates a game plan to outwit the gang, and from there on out it's all Roadrunner vs. Wile E. Coyote, with brief periods of gettin' it on between Dan and his mini-skirted companion, Cindy. Cowboy doesn't actually resort to the use of Acme Brand products but he does employ the Roadrunner's boulder plus tree branch equals avalanche trick. Meep-meep! Uh, I mean, vroom-vroom! Will our hero regain possession of his iron steed and ride off into the sunset with our pouty lipped heroine? I think you can probably figure it out for yourself but this is a pretty fun movie so why not watch it anyway. Personally, I like my biker flicks to have more foul language, drug abuse, violence and nudity but you gotta switch it up once in a while. Keep an ear open to the appropriately swingin' soundtrack too, featuring music by the legendary Les Baxter—it's the only place you'll hear reference to the movie's title.
—Bunny
(Read the Kommandant's review of The Wild Angels here.)
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