Jasper B. Hawks (John Carradine!) and Elmer Briggs (John Mitchum, brother of Robert and the writer of the John Wayne voiced "America, Why I Love Her" that TV stations used to sign off when TV stations still existed and actually signed off) are driving around the forest. And Joi Landis (Joi Lansing, a former MGM contract girl who shows up in the long tracking shot that begins Touch of Evil, in her final role) is a pilot whose plane breaks down. She parachutes into the woods and encounters Bigfoot.Then there's Rick (Chris Mitchum, son of Robert and also an actor in films like Jodorowsky's Tusk and Faceless) and his girlfriend Chris who find a Bigfoot cemetery and get attacked, too.Of course, the authorities are of no help. Only Jasper will help Rick and that's because he wants a Bigfoot for his freak show.Peggy gets kidnapped by Bigfoot and we discover that Joi has been taken, too. Upon reaching the lair of the Bigfoots (Bigfeet?), we discover that the creatures we've seen are his wives and the real creature is 200 feet tall. Yes. You just read that right. And he's about to fight a bear that's just as huge.A gang of bikers gas Bigfoot but he escapes the freakshow, goes nuts in town and then gets blown up by bikers. John Carradine quotes from King Kong (he does throughout the film) and the movie ends.Along the way, we find Doodles Weaver, whose scene in the completely bonkers The Zodiac Killer may be the most ridiculous scene in what is quite honestly one of the strangest films I've ever seen. And hey, is that Bing Crosby's son Lindsey? Yes, it is! And the first singing cowboy, Ken Maynard! This movie is packed with actors who have much more interesting stories than the film they're stuck in.But you know what is interesting? The strange doom funk that plays every time the bikers show up. And keep your eyes open for a quick appearance by Haji, who famously appeared in Russ Meyer's Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Director Robert F. Slatzer only did two other movies, but one of them was The Hellcats, where Russ Hagen battles a female gang. Leather on the outside...all woman on the inside!But hey - Bigfoot. Come for the bikers. Stay for the bigfoots. Enjoy the bikinis. But dig this crazy sound, man!

BIGFOOT is a trashy Z-flick that manages to cash in on or rip off all kinds of popular trends from the period. The main thrust of the story, about a family of Bigfoot creatures living out in the forests who kidnap young women for procreation, has obviously been inspired by the supposedly genuine Roger Patterson Bigfoot footage that was shot in 1967 and released to much notoriety. This film even stages a homage in which one of the Bigfoot creatures strolls across open woodland just like in the movie. This flick becomes even more intriguing when watching, as it transpires that the director was responsible for a couple of shoddy biker flicks before he made this and, sure enough, a 'biker gang' are soon involved in the proceedings, although it has to be said that these bikers look more like university students! The idea of bikers vs. Bigfoot is a good one but this film ruins it through shocking execution. The biggest problem is that the scant running time is padded out with endless upon endless scenes of bikers riding through the woods, cars driving through the woods, sometimes just landscape shots of the woods itself. There's about one few second scene of Bigfoot 'action' and the rest of the running time is made up of talking, which is boring. The characters are paper-thin and the actors are all poor, despite the presence of a few notables including John Carradine, hamming it up in a monster flick as only he knew how; brothers Christopher and John Mitchum, both sons of Robert with none of his ability; Joi Lansing, a cheesecake starlet who strips down to a flimsy dress early on and stays that way throughout; Bing Crosby's son Lindsay, who makes no impression whatsoever; even an ex-western star, Ken Maynard, severely down on his luck.The cast alone and cheese factor saved this from the list of 'very worst films' I've amassed, but there isn't much to get excited about here. I thought things might pick up with the introduction of dynamite and a one-armed Bigfoot hunter, but I was wrong. The creatures – for there are a whole host of them running about in the murk – look like a cross between 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY's apes and those cavemen brothers from the cartoon series WACKY RACES. Needless to say that the costumes are tatty beyond belief and the multiple references to KING KONG only serve as a reminder of what trash this is. BIGFOOT crashes and burns from the very beginning and is a total waste of time.

Don't let all the naysayers sway you. This is a little gem of a bad movie. By the best guess of many this is probably the very first flick to deal with the notion that the American wilderness was home to a large, unknown primate species. Back in the primitive '70's the legend was just starting to get noticed and there was not a lot of information around concerning the supposed nature and habits of the creature. This left writer-director Robert Slatzer plenty of room to let his imagination run wild, and run wild it did. In his vision, Sasquatch is not merely a wild animal afoot in the pacific Northwest, it is a full blown cave man! According to him they have a language, make stone tools, know how to tie knots and bury their dead. Naturally they are also completely beguiled by sexy white women in the best King Kong tradition, which leads them to kidnap several young ladies, one from the ranks of a biker gang. This sets the plot into motion as a group of unlikely allies sets out to locate the ladies and rescue them from the lecherous monsters. That preceding description might have you thinking that it might not be a half bad flick. Don't get carried away. Slatzer may have a wild imagination but he's also completely clueless on how to tell a story cinematically. Suspense, pacing, believable dialogue, etc. are all well beyond his feeble abilities. There is a hilarious scene where the two beauties are bound to poles and at the mercy of the bigfeet. you might imagine that the ladies would be scared out of their wits at this point, but no. Slatzer has them calmly discuss the morphology of their captors. One girl even surmises that the child- like creature in the group is a Sasquatch-human hybrid! Ridiculous!John Carradine and John Mitchum are completely wasted in their roles as the avaricious traveling salesmen who hope to capture one of the critters and make a fortune. Location footage is mixed with cheesy sets that are easily distinguished from the real thing. No doubt Slatzer hoped nobody would be able to tell the difference. I had hoped that the climax of the film was going to be an unintentionally hilarious rumble between the bikers and the Bigfeet, but no such luck. That would have probably taken days to film and Slatzer couldn't afford to rent the camera that long. Instead one of the creatures flees into a cave and a biker tosses in a bundle of dynamite. There is a lame excuse for an explosion and we are assured that we have just seen the end of the naughty Bigfoot, but then a cryptic message appears on the screen: "Or Is It??" As it turns out, yes it is. If Slatzer was planning a sequel it does not seem to have materialized and the world was able to get on with the understandable task of ignoring this guy's movies.

Released in 1970, "Bigfoot" was one of the first quasi-horror films devoted to the legendary beast-man, if not THE first. It relays the story of a couple of girls kidnapped by some bigfoot creatures and the mixed posse of country police & bikers who seek to find them.Unfortunately, this is Grade C filmmaking all the way. For instance, the opening credits don't appear until almost the 10-minute mark. Most the scenes leading up to this are overlong time-wasters, like Joi Lansing walking up to her small plane and entering. Totally pointless! I guess they had to pad this turkey somehow, which is only 83 minutes long as it is. Also, most of the "acting" is laughable, and I mean that literally.For me, the film's worthwhile for three reasons only: (1.) The gorgeous Judy Jordan in a bikini, mostly tied up to a tree (also check her out in 1973's underrated Western "The Gatling Gun"); (2.) the cool hippie-era score; and (3.) the nostalgic badness of it all, which is sort of entertaining.The movie was shot at Big Bear Lake and San Bernardino National Forest.GRADE: D