Vicki Volante Movies
Speed (Ross Hagen) is the leader of a rowdy biker gang who reluctantly leaves his girlfriend, Donna (Jill Woefel), behind when the boys take off on an extended run. While waiting for their men to return, the girls take to the road on their own motorcycles and look for action. After avenging a fellow sister's rape and sexually assaulting a reluctant farmboy, the ladies evade the law and hide out at the Spahn Movie Ranch. The ranch is inhabited by a sinister hippie cult led by the charismatic King (William Bonner), who preaches peace and love but is involved in some illegal activities that he's willing to kill for. Meanwhile, the bikers are living it up, having a raucous stag party in the woods complete with beer drinking contests and fistfights. When Terry (Vicki Volante) dies after sleeping with King, Margo (Regina Carrol) knows she has to escape and get help from Speed and the gang. King decides to sacrifice Donna in a weird ritual meant to protect the "philosophy" of the cult, while the bikers race to her rescue. With fists blazing, they make short work of the evil hippies, but King escapes and it's up to Speed and his brother, Turk (Preston Pierce), to exact the proper revenge. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
King Amir (Reed Hadley), the beloved leader of a small Middle Eastern country named Khaleed, is sick with terminal cancer and he isn't prepared to die. His confidants arrange with an American scientist to carry out an experimental operation: Amir's brain will be transplanted into the skull of a healthy new body, allowing him to cheat death and continue ruling as a benevolent despot. When he succumbs, the corpse is rushed to the United States, where Dr. Trenton (Kent Taylor) immediately removes the brain and places it in a specially prepared receptacle. Trenton sends Amir's associates away so he can finish the procedure, but as they drive down a steep mountain road, their car is besieged by a menacing driver who succeeds in forcing them off a cliff. Robert (Grant Williams) survives, and suspects that someone is trying to usurp Amir's throne. Meanwhile, the mad doctor dispatches his servant Gor (John Bloom) to find him a healthy male body for Amir to inhabit. Gor, a hulking monstrosity with a twisted face and a child's intelligence, is too clumsy in his horrible task, and Dr. Trenton deems the victim unusable. But Amir's brain can only live outside of the body for a matter of hours, even though they keep it nourished with plenty of fresh human blood (obtained by keeping some teenage girls chained in the basement and tapping them like kegs). Gor is picked to host the transplanted brain, despite his hideous scars, and when Amir awakens and discovers the horrific body the doctor has given him, he goes mad. Robert returns to save his leader, but now Dr. Trenton is demanding control over Khaleed, and special electrodes he secretly implanted in Amir's brain mean he might succeed. Directed by Al Adamson, this gory shocker features Adamson regulars like Zandor Vorkov, Angelo Rossitto, and Regina Carrol. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
Bikers, Nazis, Mafiosi, and the FBI all clash in this wild and wooly exploitation picture from director Al Adamson. Mark Adams (John Gabriel) is an FBI agent who has been assigned to infiltrate an organized crime ring that has obtained a set of printing plates that will allow them to produce nearly perfect counterfeit 20-dollar bills. The plates were made in Germany during World War II, and were discovered by a radical right-wing group hoping to restore the Nazi Party to power. The American gangsters are in cahoots with a group of wealthy American neo-Nazis sympathetic to the new German cause, led by fugitive war criminal Count von Delberg (Kent Taylor); the count has in turn recruited a vicious motorcycle gang, the Bloody Devils, to do his dirty work. Also featuring Broderick Crawford, John Carradine, and Col. Harland Sanders (the latter in a shameless plug for Kentucky Fried Chicken), Hell's Bloody Devils was produced under the titles The Fakers and Operation M as a straightforward espionage thriller; when distributors balked at the finished product, Al Adamson and producer Samuel M. Sherman added the biker subplot, and gave the product a more exploitive title. Shorn of the motorcycle gang footage, the film was also released as Smashing the Crime Syndicate. Nelson Riddle co-wrote the film's theme song, and Laszlo Kovacs and Gary Graver were among the cameramen. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Gabriel, Kent Taylor, (more)
Perhaps the most flagrantly re-packaged and re-titled no-budget project from notorious schlockmeister Al Adamson, this goofy melange culls footage from no less than three separate films -- including a Filipino caveman/monster movie (shot in black-and-white, then tinted fruity colors by Adamson) and the sci-fi flicks Unknown Island and One Million B.C.. If a plot can be detected amid this car crash of disassembled storylines, it might involve the efforts of a scientist (John Carradine) to send an expedition to a distant planet of space-vampires to halt their invasion of Earth. Once there, the astronauts don't find any vampires, but they do come across legions of oversized iguanas and rowdy Filipino cavemen. Aside from the distinction of having distinguished cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond behind the camera, this film holds some kind of record for the most re-titlings in movie history. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1969
- PG
Ben Thompson (Robert Dix) rides through the wilds of Arizona seeking revenge in this violent, low-budget Al Adamson Western. For many years, Thompson has been searching for the Indian who killed his bride on their wedding day, with Death as his only companion. The man he seeks is Satago (John Cardos), the chief of the Yaqui, a renegade Apache tribe that has declared war on all white settlers. Ben teams up with Satago's half-brother, Joe Lightfoot (also played by Cardos), and when the duo comes upon a wrecked stagecoach, they try to keep the survivors safe in dangerous Indian territory. Along with hard-boiled gambler Jim Wade (Scott Brady) and his high-strung wife, Lavinia (Julie Edwards), are a mysterious preacher (John Carradine), hard-drinking madam Kansas Kelly (Paula Raymond), and Althea (Darlene Lucht), one of Kelly's "working girls" who takes a shine to stoic cowboy Ben. There's more danger than just the Yaqui to deal with when a pair of unscrupulous gun runners join the group, and revenge and bloodshed rules the day despite Ben's struggle to get the women to safety. The action is commented upon with a philosophical air by the Voice of Death (Gene Raymond) in this downbeat film, which was released under several titles including Five Bloody Graves, The Gun Riders, and Five Bloody Days to Tombstone. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
- 1967
Dracula carries on his blood-drinking tradition in modern-day California, joined by his bride in a castle into which an unsuspecting couple have just moved. (Talk about incompatible roomies!) The Count and Countess (Alex D'Arcy & Paula Raymond) abduct a smorgasbord of cuties in miniskirts and go-go boots and chain them up in the castle dungeon for later consumption. John Carradine loiters about this Al Adamson non-masterpiece on his way to an easy paycheck, though he does not actually assay the role of Dracula, playing instead a small part as the Count's butler. Unbelievably, the cinematography on this ultra-cheapie is credited to acclaimed DP Laszlo Kovacs. Well-photographed by Laszlo Kovacs, the film is still notoriously dreadful and includes far too much stock footage of Sea World along with the usual deadly Adamson pacing. Some versions feature additional violent footage involving a rampaging werewolf. Trivia buffs will note that Paula Raymond's role as the Countess was originally intended for Jayne Mansfield. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
