The Wild Angels (1966)

Director:

Roger Corman

Writer:

Charles B. Griffith (writer)

Release Date:

20 July 1966 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Action

Tagline:

Their credo is violence...Their God is hate...and they call themselves 'The Wild Angels'

Plot:

Peter Fonda plays 'Heavenly Blues', the leader of Hell's Angels chapter from Venice, California while Bruce Dern plays 'Loser'...

Plot Keywords:

Hospital | Hell's Angels | Gang | Funeral | California

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Peter Fonda	...	Heavenly Blues
Nancy Sinatra	...	Mike aka Monkey
Bruce Dern	...	Joe Kearns aka Loser
Diane Ladd	...	Gaysh
Buck Taylor	...	Dear John
Norman Alden	...	Medic
Michael J. Pollard	...	Pigmy
Lou Procopio	...	Joint
Joan Shawlee	...	Momma Monahan
Marc Cavell	...	Frankenstein
Coby Denton	...	Bull Puckey
Frank Maxwell	...	Preacher
Gayle Hunnicutt	...	Suzie
Gina Grant
Art Baker	...	Thomas - Mortician

Also Known As:

All the Fallen Angels (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for drug-related material.

Runtime:

Germany:86 min | USA:93 min | USA:87 min (TCM print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Pathécolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (uncut) (1973) | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1990) | Finland:K-18 (uncut) (1992) | Finland:K-18 (heavily cut) (1973) | Iceland:16 | Australia:M | West Germany:18 (f) | Netherlands:12 (2008) | UK:15 (video) (2008) (uncut) | UK:18 (video) (1993) (uncut) | UK:X (theatrical release) (1972) (cut) | Canada:R (Canadian Home Video rating) | Norway:18 (1971) | Sweden:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

American International Pictures (AIP)

Trivia:

Actress Laura Dern (daughter of Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd) was conceived during the movie shoot. Growing up, she sometimes showed people who asked about her parents a still of them in their biker outfits.

Goofs:

Factual errors: A nurse that is assaulted by a biker wearing wraparound sunglasses is asked to identify him by looking through a book of mugshots. She finds his mugshot and he's wearing the same wraparounds in the photo. No police department would ever allow someone to wear such a disguise while being photographed.

Quotes:

Heavenly Blues: We wanna be free! We wanna be free to do what we wanna do. We wanna be free to ride. We wanna be free to ride our machines without being hassled by The Man! ... And we wanna get loaded. And we wanna have a good time. And that's what we are gonna do. We are gonna have a good time... We are gonna have a party.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Tune in Trip Out (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

Theme from 'The Wild Angels'

Typical Corman

This film had it all; sex, drugs and rock and roll. This is the trademark of all of Corman's films. Another trademark with this type of film is the fact that he, and other low-budget directors, rely on the children of Hollywood legends (Peter Fonda, Nancy Sinatra) to attract an audience. This is an okay film, and the Peter Bogdanovich's script is pretty decent. The only thing though is that it relied too much on the action to carry the story. Also, the women in this film are mainly used as window dressing. In fact, I don't think Nancy Sinatra had more than ten lines of dialogue in the whole picture. At least Dianne Ladd had more to say. However, the thing I loved the most about the film is the score, which was one of the first examples of what would become heavy metal.