Eh...I've seen worse biker films. William Grefe's Wild Rebels has all of the trimmings of a cash-in biker flick from the 60s but manages to tell a cohesive story without completely collapsing in on itself. Rod Tillman is a down-on-his-luck stock car driver whose services are solicited by a crazed, thrill-seeking biker gang known as "Satan's Angels." They want to use him as a getaway driver in a big heist. However, Tillman is also approached by the authorities who want him to infiltrate the Satan's Angels as a mole. So he agrees to go undercover. The Satan's Angels are comprised of a number of bizarre characters who are so outlandish that they seem like Looney Tunes: the laid-back leader who thinks he is way smarter and suaver than he really is, a gibbering maniac with a hair-trigger, a mute ex-surfer who communicates through grunts, and an "actress" who goes along with their schemes purely for the kicks. The film is also frequently interrupted by sudden musical interludes. And, to be honest, the music in this film isn't nearly as bad as some of the other impromptu concerts I've seen in other teen movies. There is a remarkable sequence where the woman robs a gun store by pretending to be a clueless housewife buying a gun for protection. She asks for instructions on how to load and shoot a gun properly. The owner is, of course, more than eager to help the confused young woman. So imagine his shock when she turns the gun around at him! It's such a brilliant sequence that I honestly wish that I had thought of it first. The film still has plenty of technical gaffs and mistakes (my favorite being when one of the gang members fires a shotgun and hits two police officers standing about 3 feet to the left of where he aimed). But Wild Rebels has its moments.
5/10
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