The Hellcats (1968)

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Am I Missing Something?

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Hellcats is an incoherent mess where the plot becomes secondary to the superfluous drug-addled parties thrown by the motorcycle gang. Ross Hagen is Sgt. Monte Chapman whose brother was recently murdered while he was investigating the Hellcats in some capacity. I watched the original movie instead of the one featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 and I still had an incredibly hard time deciphering the plot. Monte then decides to go undercover with his brother's fiancé and find out who is responsible for the murder. This is where the movie completely falls apart. The endless parties are filled with late sixties drug slang and lame expressions of machismo. One such race between a Hellcat and a rival gang member is enacted off screen with the end resulting in a fistfight that is stopped when Monte jumps in a says "Peace brothers!". After an even lamer competition to prove Monte's toughness is passed he soon becomes a free-wheeling Hellcat complete with bedding any woman you want. Can't say I can argue with that perk. The women are pretty hot especially Sharyn Kinzie as the tough-as-nails redhead Sheila. Sheila begins to trust Monte and lets him in on their business ventures. At this point I wished that I was on some of the hallucinogenic drugs they took at one of their roughly 7,000 parties that week. To make things worse Tony Cardoza makes an appearance as a painter in the middle of the woods. Thankfully he doesn't speak. This is a bad movie though I have seen far worse. Frightening, I know.

Army Sergeant Monte Chapman (stiffly played by Ross Hagen) returns from the Vietnam war and poses as a biker to get the goods on the no-count drug dealing Harley hounds who killed his undercover cop brother. His brother's fiancé Linda Martin (pretty blonde Dee Duffy) helps Monte out. Sound exciting? Well, it sure ain't. Still amusing and entertaining just the same? You bet. This flick is often downright mesmerizing in its mind-numbing badness. Boy, does this hilariously horrendous honey possesses all the right wrong stuff to rate highly as a real four star stinkeroonie: flat direction by Robert F. Slatzer, uniformly atrocious cardboard acting, grainy, ratty cinematography by Gil Hubbs (the queasy use of zoom-in close-ups are guaranteed to make you sick to your stomach), a plodding pace, dreadful dialogue (sample line: "Back off Six Pack -- it's too early and I'm too sober"), a hopelessly dated "groovy" 60's psychedelic rock soundtrack, sporadic outbursts of extremely mild violence, a stupefying surplus of tedious talk, a meandering narrative, and plenty of ridiculous filler (according to this film bikers love to drink all the time, dance like crazy while blasted out of their skulls, and make out as often as possible). The bikers themselves are a colorfully scruffy bunch; my two favorite cycle savages were Tony Lorea as drunken lecherous slob Six Pack and Eric Lidberg as severely addled acidhead Hiney. The motorcycle mamas are quite the collection of hotties as well, with ravishing redhead Sharyn Kinzie taking the grand beauty prize as the fiery Sheila. A genuinely good movie this most certainly isn't, but its nonetheless an oddly entrancing and enjoyable piece of jaw-dropping dismal junk.

I hate this biker movie!!!!! This is nothing more than just a blatant ripoff of "Easy Rider," that's for sure!!!!! The biker babes were NOT hot; these evil bikers were more of "Heck's Angels" than the "Other Place Angels;" the acting was cheesy, the story made no sense, there was no plot, there were too many continuity errors; I tell you, this has got to be THE WORST biker movie known to man!!!!!Now, why watch this when you can watch Peter Fonda in "Easy Rider;" it's as risqué as "Saturday Night Fever;" the story rocks, the babes are hotter; the "angels" really are devils, and much more!!!!! Not this film!!!!!So watch this on "Mystery Science Theater 3000" only!!!!! Same with a similar movie, "Wild Rebels!!!!!" I'm so glad this movie stinks like a dirty diaper!!!!! LOL-10/10, indeed!!!!!

"The Hellcats" is the very archetype of a 60's exploitation movie. Driven by a wafer-thin plot about a guy who goes undercover with a biker gang to find his brother's killer, this movie is really just an excuse to shoot endless scenes of people riding and riding and riding and riding their motorcycles until you develop sympathy saddle soreness yourself. When the camera isn't pointed at someone riding a cycle, it's filming a drunken blow-out where various members insert heroin into various orifices, shot-gun beer bongs, dance the 'jerk', and grope each other (in a PG fashion); meanwhile the soundtrack plays random cheesy songs by bands who make the "Loving Spoonful" and the "Small Faces" sound like Motorhead. To tell the truth, none of it looks like a lot of fun. Seriously, I think I'd rather do push ups on Parris Island in the blazing sun than lie wasted on cheap beer on a scabby couch in the middle of a meadow while listening to Davey Jones babble on about "Mass Confusion", at least the way "Hellcats" portrays it.Back to the plot...Ross Hagen plays a 'Rent A Center' version of either Steve McQueen or Paul Newman; he wins the gangs' respect by um, I'm not sure...it has to do with breaking up a fight and not being torn in half by a motorcycle three-wheeler, and generally coming across like Motorcycle Biker-Gang royalty, so he's really like Tarzan of the Apes (another white boy who beat the Poor Dumb Natives at their own game). He finds the Mr. Big Mafia type who supplies the gang, and when the chips are down, the Hellcats come to the rescue and turn on the Mafia guys either because they like Hagen or because they figured out that the Mafia guys shot their original leader (I still can't figure out which).The movie also features Lyle Waggoner in a confusing bit part (similar to his role as a heavy in 'Catalina Caper'). I guess this is how he paid the rent before the "Carol Burnett Show". There are also a bunch of people who showed up in the Coleman Francis movies. While this movie is at LEAST as stupid as "Five The Hard Way" (another Ross Hagen vehicle from that era), this movie at least has a lighter touch, a less claustrophobic story line, and features a happy ending of sorts. Still it's for fans of the genre only - I can't imagine anyone who isn't into 60's biker films and exploitation movies enjoying this. Quentin Tarantino, are you listening????