The Choppers (1961)

Truly Dreadful Film

I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Competently made jd film, with Arch Hall Jr. as the lead delinquent. Together, he and his teenage buddies mount a clever operation to strip abandoned cars along a deserted road. Their base is a rundown auto yard run by a cowboy clown and an escapee from a fat farm (VeSota). There, Moose and Cowboy run the operation and fence the goods, mainly for their own profit. Trouble is an insurance company has sent in an investigator to help out the cops who've hit a dead-end.Still looking like the Pillsbury doughboy, actor Hall nevertheless delivers a pretty good performance, along with the rest of the cast that also includes former star Tom Brown as a cop. But it's really VeSota who steals the movie looking like a squatting toad. He's quite a commanding presence. Good thing whistle bait Gaba's along to furnish sexy eye relief from all the guys, especially VeSota. The action's filmed along barren LA-area roads making you wonder why anybody's there. Still, the meager budget is used wisely to deliver realistic results. Then too, Hall Sr. let a pro (Jason) direct, which may account for the uptick in quality from his other, often campy, productions. All in all, the 70-minutes amounts to respectable drive-in fare that fans of the Halls can catch without embarrassment.

This movie contains a cool t-bucket. It is the star of the movie in my opinion. (Sorry Arch!) The shifter was about neck-high. It had six carburetors. The slicks were all of 6 inches wide! I wonder where I could find some of those today. It was interesting to see the huge walkie-talkie "technology". Although the music was horrible and boring(includes monkey sounds!!!), it was a fun movie and worth the time to watch. I've enjoyed it 3 times. The '50's slang was fun to try to decipher. I don't think the junk yard dog nor any chickens were injured in the production of this movie, although a minimum of two feathers were plucked. They may have been the same feather, filmed at different angles.

Not sure. But that looks a lot like Tommy Ivo's Buick powered T bucket street rod that Arch Hall, Jr is zipping around in.The somewhat business-like pace of the story keeps this film from being completely laughable. There's a kind of sincerity of effort to 'The Choppers' that makes you stop laughing long enough to pay attention. The ex-Playmate of the Month in the role of the insurance guy's always hungry secretary provides another reason to pay attention.

As bad as this should be, it's kind of fun, and you could actually find yourself watching it a second and third time. Arch Hall Jr. was 16 when this was shot, and even gets a writing credit.What makes it work, kind of, is that the gang of car-stripping JD's are NOT stupid and embarrassing, but halfway interesting and believable. And it's got Bruno VeSota at his scintillating, stogie-smelling, sausage-fingered best. Continuity? Fageddaboudit. But it's got a simple little story to tell and does it well.And it does feature the inimitable "Monkeys In My Hatband," which you'll play again and again with your jaw dropped, wishing that YOUR dad had put YOU in a movie when YOU were sixteen and let you play that absolutely dumbass song you made up on the crappy $39 guitar you got for your thirteenth birthday and drove everybody crazy with."The Choppers" IS available, but you'll have to hunt for it. Definitely worth tracking down if you're huge on beatniks, juvies, and playing chicken.