Bad Movie Day : Does that leather come in pink?

If there's one thing the Godfather and I love it's a good bad movie. There is something about watching a really bad movie that turns out to be unintentionally funny, either through sheer ineptitude or ignorance (or in the case of one of the movies featured in this review, political incorrectness) that makes for a great time. Recently, we've begun a series of mini-festivals featuring some of our discoveries..it's bad, it's giggle-inducing, it's Bad Movie Day.



THE PINK ANGELS ** (out of ****)
1971/81 mins/R/Crown International Pictures


A lonely hitchhiker is picked up along the road by a sextet of rough looking but sympathetic bikers. Soon they stop at an A&W roadside diner to have lunch. Everything seems normal at first, but soon some peculiar stuff begins to happen. One biker calls another a "fickle pringle". Another mouths the words "I love you" to the shocked hitchhiker. The leader of the gang remarks about how it's so lonely at the top. Then they have a condiment fight, giggling and prancing all over the place. "Jesus Christ, you're ALL FAGGOTS!", the hitchhiker screams in terror as he runs far, far away.

A gang of flaming gay bikers. No, this isn't your typical biker flick. This is The Pink Angels, one of the all time great bad movies. What's truly astonishing about this movie is how it makes no secret that it is a low-rent ripoff of Easy Rider, right down to the lengthy panoramic shots of the open road, pop songs on the soundtrack and the tragic ending.

I guess The Pink Angels was intended to be a comedy. There are moments that indicate we aren't supposed to take this seriously. Here is a sampling of the dialogue that induced big time laughs:

A response from one of the Angels when a motorcycle cop searches the compartment of his bike and asks what it is: "It's a maiden form brassiere. And it's MINE!!!"

Another response to same cop: "You cops think you run the world. Well, this is one red-blooded American faggot you can't scare!"

Two Angels argue over soup. "How about some Cream of Celery soup?"

Drink orders at a hotel: "I don't care what drink it is as long as it's stiff and stimulating to my throat."

Leader of a straight biker gang of whom the Pink Angels vandalized with makeup and hair ribbons: "I'm going to kill those..... BANANAS!!!"

The Angels visit a bar: "Bartender! Whiskey for me. And beer for my queers!"

Yes, gang. This is VERY politically incorrect to say the least. It certainly is funny. I laughed a lot, mainly out of shock. There's a hysterical scene in which one Angel can't decide which restroom to use: the mens or ladies. One Angel is clad with Granny glasses and a bad Liverpool accent, spoofing John Lennon. A gang of prostitutes bear a strong resemblance to Mrs. Garrett and the girls from The Facts of Life. The Pink Angels are stopped by some motorcycle cops with hysterical results. And let's not forget the shopping spree in town. There's also a very odd interlude featuring a "party" between the Pink Angels, the Facts of Life prosties and a straight biker gang led by Dan Haggerty (yes, Grizzly Adams) and Michael Pataki (perhaps best known as the police captain on the 70s' Spider-Man TV series), set to one of the strangest songs ever heard in a biker flick. Good times. Or would be bad good times?

Not content to rip-off Easy Rider, they also shoehorn a General character into this movie so they can spoof the then-box office smash Patton. He stands in front of an American flag and makes off-the-wall speeches about the beauty of America and how these "hippies and faggots" are ruining it. His scenes punctuate the movie at the most peculiar times and often have little relation to a story about gay bikers.

There lies the problem with this movie. There is no real plot to speak of and it's constructed haphazardly. We get some really long stretches of the Pink Angels riding their bikes while crappy pop tunes punctuate the soundtrack. The General scenes stick out like a sore thumb. Continuity errors are a-plenty. But let's face it, who is going to watch a film called The Pink Angels for good, PC filmmaking? No, we're in it to laugh at the mistakes and awful humor.

Then there's the ending. The Pink Angels meet a sad end, which is like a thumb in the eye after 78 minutes of lighthearted badness. This movie didn't earn such a tragic finale and it exists solely to ape Easy Rider. For shame.