Well, I guess there ain't no stopping us now, so before we get to 666, in honour of Hog and Indian lovers and owners everywhere, let's just finish this month off with biker movies from Hell! Tonight, we've got a special big treat with the 1971 classic "Werewolves On Wheels"!!! I actually saw this flick at a drive-in in Anchorage, Alaska, and in retrospect, considering what was possibly ingested, it might just explain a few things!Just to start with, one of the strangest things about this movie is, it doesn't have a title card, what you see here is from a trailer! During the movie, the credits just run! Weirdsville!
The music by composer Don Gere is the best thing to come along since the theme from "Eegah!!" and has a bit of debt to pay to "Village Of The Giants!" If only Jack Nietzsche had produced this soundtrack to give it a bit more huevos, it would probably have been the best ever, as it is, it's still fantastic in a weird surreal kind of mix between a Sandy Bull raga with the distorted guitar of Canned Heat's Sunflower, and some Hermanos Guzanos thrown in for good measure! There's so much music in this movie, I've surprised there wasn't a fully choreographed werewolf dance number! Don did another soundtrack for "Sweet Sugar," another Michel Levesque directed film in 1973, and that was it! Too bad, because it seems like the guy was a natural!! You know, a good percentage of the time after I put one of these sound clips together, I think it's my new favorite! This one really is my new favorite, at least this week!! Turn it up, hold on tight and don't let go!!!
The basic gang consists of leader Adam, played by Steve (Peyton Place) Oliver, and Tarot, played by Deuce Berry AKA Gene Shane, with Billy (Father Knows Best) Gray as Pill, and Barry (Eve Of Destruction) McGuire as Scarf! Ted and I also actually saw Barry McGuire perform in a live free Christian concert to about 25 people two years later in the Strongbow Stadium wrestling ring. He'd really put on some weight too! I'm not positive, but I'm not really sure this film helped his career!!
This is a portrait of Shirley, every man's dream, loose and free, played by Anna Lynn Brown! As hot as she is in here, it's still not real hard to envision her in her next role eleven years later as a DMV clerk!!!!!!
Tarot deals the Death card!!
If you're out in the boondocks somewhere, you can usually count on the fact that there's going to be a black hooded Satanic cult nearby! It's like taken for granted, and you can really chuckle and make fun of them when they break out the big stupid loaf of bread that looks like a giant cracker, but when they start dipping it in blood, it really starts getting creepy!!
Now what in The Hell is going on? They said they were going to the desert, but the freakin' SAHARA desert?? I did notice the magazines back at the gas station all had covers in what looked like Italian! Krazy, like when did this turn into some kind of National Geographic pictorial?!?
Adam and Tarot are at peace with the universe through their different methods, but then before you know it, all Hell breaks loose, and there's freakin' werewolves everywhere!!!!
So, it turns out, that the out of control, stoned out, drunken biker freaks, "The Devil's Advocates" aren't the bad guys in this film at all, but....Tomorrow we'll follow up with more great biker action from 1968, with some really mean characters brought to you by Herschell Gordon Lewis, the "She-Devils On Wheels!" Woof, Woof!!
1 comment:
I interviewed director Michel Levesque in an old issue of Screem magazine a long time ago, and he confided that a lot of stimulants were running rampant on the set of the film at this time.
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