Hell’s Angels ’69 (1969)

The biker movie meets the good old-fashioned heist movie in the deeply cinematic streets and surrounding deserts of Las Vegas. This is lean, mean and pretty good. It’s got exactly one likable character and first-time director Lee Madden gives her high hopes only so he can dash them because that’s what happens in bleak worlds like this. The story follows a couple of martini-sipping dandys who figure out how to steal a small fortune from a Vegas casino with unwitting help from the surly, smelly ticking time-bombs in The Hell’s Angels. Their great idea: ingratiate themselves with the gang and trick them into riding into Vegas and causing a diversion while our two thieves make off with the loot. It’s a plan that goes well until it all goes wrong. The Hell’s Angels don’t take kindly to being used. All these motherfuckers do is ride their choppers all day and mouth off to cops and they have plenty of time to chase after a pair of dorks who insulted them. One notable thing about this film is that it features a rare prominent acting role from Sonny Barger, a genuine Hell’s Angel and the gang’s most well-known name due to being a figure in Hunter S. Thompson’s book on the subject. Barger does anything here but make the gang look good. He gladly reinforces their mystique as violent creeps.