Earlier this month The IP went into the deep woods of  Kentucky.  He picked up more than a few ticks, but when he finally got out of the woods, he also picked up a cool thrift store LP in one of the smaller communites in this country!  And now, even though he’s a bit nervous about all those tick bites, he at least knows what movie he’s gonna show for his First Annual Outdoor Bad Movie and Barbecue (FAOBM&B):

The Wild Angels contains one of most succinct declarations of the “right” to selfish hedonism (libertarianism?), which is why it still sounds and looks awkward to this day.  Peter Fonda even looks a bit embarrassed, like he doesn’t believe himself as the words come out of his mouth:

“We wanna be free! We wanna be free to do what we wanna do. We wanna be free to ride. We wanna be free to ride our machines without being hassled by The Man! … And we wanna get loaded. And we wanna have a good time. And that’s what we are gonna do. We are gonna have a good time… We are gonna have a party.”

Hey, The IP could think of worse things a motorcycle gang could do than have a party (though there is a rape in the movie).  That’s what makes this Roger Corman-directed, pre-Easy Rider film a classic in the “So Bad it’s Good” genre of movies.

It’s clear that  that Corman took some cues from the first outlaw biker film, The Wild One with Marlon Brando.     In a similar mood of pent-up and directionless male energy, the film’s protagonist engages in a short but now-classic piece of dialogue:

The Wild One is not a particularly “great” film, but it is good, and as the first actual bike gang film, it ranks ahead of  The Wild Angels (although the latter actually features REAL Hell’s Angels).  Not to mention that Lee Marvin’s supporting role as Chino makes Peter Fonda look like a wuss.  And Wild Angels features a pointless motorcycle rabbit chase (Jefferson Airplane allusion?) that is a good example of the exagerated screenplay that Corman seems to be pulling from a hat as he goes along. Some viewers see it as a work of genius. And granted, at least in the world of B-Movie genius, it is.

Below is a clip from The Wild One. The clip is mostly white-guy interpretation of BeBop-era hepcat talk, but it concludes with Brando’s famous line. One of The IP’s problems with the film is Johnny’s rather conventional female love interest Kathy; she’s just not that compelling.  The film uses the concept of “Jazz improvization as a lifestyle” which is made somewhat obvious by the way Johnny describes what they ”do” in the below clip.  The cinematography in this film is excellent; if you like contrasty, B&W noir-like effects and day-as-night processing, you gotta see this flick:

Corman knew that he stood on great shoulders, that’s why he had no qualms about “borrowing” some of the tropes of The Wild One in his own biker flick.  In fact, if you watch the below opening credits (a crucial part of any film) you can actually see Corman’s own improvisation (sorry) on some of the filmic devices used by Kramer.   

WATCH OPENING SEQUENCE TO THE WILD ANGELS

How about that theme song?  Pretty cool, if you ask The IP.  And Davie Allan & The Arrows are still crankin’! 

The Wild One, too, has its stupid moments, to be sure. Nonetheless, it succeeds as good cinema because of the care taken in its direction and production; and it doesn’t hurt to have Brando and Marvin in the mix.  And that’s actually why The Wild Angels gets the nod for the FAOBM&B.