Uriah43
"Paul Collier" (Cameron Mitchell) is an architect who drives into a small town in search of his girlfriend, "Karen" (Diane Ladd) who is noticeably pregnant. He wants to marry her but she essentially wants to raise her child all by herself. As it so happens, a gang of motorcyclists known as "the Rebels" rides into this same town and begins causing trouble. Fortunately for Paul, the leader of the gang, "J. J. Weston" (Bruce Dern) is an old high school acquaintance of his and because of that they are on good terms with one another. Unfortunately, J. J. doesn't quite have as much control over some of the more violent members of the gang and when they take an interest in Karen things begin to turn extremely ugly. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that this film wasn't nearly as fun or exciting as it should have been due in large part to the chaotic script and lackluster direction. Additionally, I personally didn't care for the use of a pregnant woman as a sex object. But maybe that's just me. In any case, I would think that having a cast which included Jack Nicholson, Harry Dean Stanton and the aforementioned Bruce Dern and Cameron Mitchell would have been more than enough to ensure a somewhat interesting biker film. Apparently, the director (Martin B. Cohen) wasn't up to the task and because of this I have to rate this film as below average.
MartinHafer
Many times as I sat watching this god-awful film it sure looked like there really wasn't a script. In many places, it looked as if the director, if there was one, just told everyone to 'wing it'--and often the actors talked over each other, spouted gibberish or just talked to hear themselves talk. In addition, sometimes the actors did things that made almost no sense--giving further evidence to the idea that there was no script...or even plot. This is especially true for at least the first half hour of the film where most of it just involves a biker gang running amok. Amidst all this, there is a plot that keeps trying to appear that involves Cameron Mitchell trying to get his pregnant girlfriend to marry him. Eventually the two plots intersect as the two are eventually terrorized by the evil bikers--but in the interim there is still more rambling and pointless prattle. All this makes up the last 2/3 of the film. Not a whole lot more to it than this. Amateurish and silly throughout but not outlandish or silly enough to make it fun for bad movie buffs.
preppy-3
J.J. Weston (Bruce Dern) belongs to a biker gang that includes a man named Bunny (Jack Nicholson). He runs into an old college buddy named Paul (Cameron Mitchell). Paul is living with Karen (Diane Ladd) who's pregnant with his baby. The biker gang get Paul and Karen alone on a beach. They beat up Paul (for no reason) and propose to marry Karen to Bunny. J.J. wants to stop this...but how? Boring and stupid biker flick. A terrible script really sinks this one. The biker gang acts and sounds like no biker gang I ever heard of. The dialogue is stilted and the basic plot is just so stupid it's mind-boggling. The part where J.J. starts a "marriage" between Karen and Bunny is just beyond belief. This is only of interest for the cast. It has a pre-stardom Nicholson (wearing the most annoying striped pants I've ever seen) and a very young Dern and Ladd (who I believe were married at the time). Their acting is great but it can't help the horrendous script. A curio at best.
Woodyanders
Architect Paul Collier (an incredibly insipid performance by Cameron Mitchell) stops off at a small Arizona desert town to visit his headstrong pregnant girlfriend Karen (a sound and sympathetic portrayal by Diane Ladd). Paul bumps into old high school buddy J.J. Weston (the always solid Bruce Dern), who's now the amiable and laid-back leader of a gang of rowdy bikers. Naturally, J.J.'s scruffy chopper chums take an unsavory interest in Karen. Sound exciting? Well, alas it ain't. Martin B. Cohen's bland direction, working from a drab and talky script which he co-wrote with Michael Kars and Abe Polsky, relates the meandering narrative at a draggy pace, fails to bring any real tension or vitality to the proceedings, and gets further bogged down in a sappy love story between Mitchell and Ladd. The cast do their best with the sub-par material: Dern and Ladd contribute respectable work, Jack Nicholson sports an amazing pair of gloriously ghastly striped pants and makes the most out of his regrettably minor role as volatile rotten apple Harley hound Bunny, and Harry Dean Stanton is a hoot as flaky hipster Randolph Halverson. Both Laszlo Kovacs' fairly polished cinematography and William Loose's groovy jammin' score are above average. While the movie occasionally bursts to life with some decent fisticuffs and motorcycle races, it's overall not gritty or energetic enough to qualify as anything more than a strictly passable time-waster.