Run, Angel, Run

"Do you like choppers, honey?"

We watched Run, Angel, Run on Thursday at Biker Movie Night. Another one from 1969. But this time we're back out of the Asian jungle and back into the concrete jungles of the West Coast.

This was William Smith's first biker flick of the era. He went on to do several more including Chrome and Hot Leather, CC and Companny, Angel's Die Hard, and Nam's Angels. 

This has some absolutely classic continuity goofs, like Bill's fucking fake mustache! It changes style from scene to scene. Brilliant. Another good one was the fact he was riding a sweet Sportster Chopper but in the scenes that he's doing some off-roading the bike magically turns into a dirt bike with knobby tires etc. Then when he's back on the slab, his bike morphs back into the chopper. Of course, there's the obligatory poor audio dubbing where the engine noise isn't even a fucking Harley motor, he's not revving the throttle even though the engine is squealing, or in one scene I don't even think the bike is ON but the engine bursts into life. 

There's the typical late '60 patter that makes for many classic one-liners. Everything's groovy this and far-out that. Dig this and jazz that, maaaaan. Good stuff. 

"Your old lady's officially a momma now, man."

The story is straight-forward, as they always are. Biker sells-out his gang by doing an expose piece in LIFE (aka LIKE) magazine for 10 g's. He splits town with his old lady after the article is printed. He's on his way to 'Frisco to collect his pay-off while the rest of the gang is in pursuit. So there you have it. Angel's on the run with his old lady and shit's about to get ugly. There's small-town America (like there always is), swastikas, iron crosses, amazing fucking choppers, and by now you know the Biker Film recipe. It's all there. 

This was cool, but somehow not quite as exciting or stupid as some of the others. Dunno what it was. Maybe it focused on Smith's character too much. It might have been a touch more successful if the rest of the gang had some better character development. 

It's on disc on Netflix. It's worth viewing alone for Bill's fake mustache.