Not a Bad Biker Flick as They Go. There are a Lot of Familiar Names Besides Dennis Hopper and Jock Mahoney. There's McCrea (Joel), Crosby (Bing), and Kasem (Casey). The Stompers and the Outlaws are a Feuding and the "Old Ladies" and "Mamas" are Attractive, With Contrasting Long Legged Blondes and a Leather Clad, Knife Happy Brunette.The Story is Lured, as Usual, Consisting of Attempted Murder, Attempted Rape, Kidnapping, Human Trafficking, Drug Tripping, and Other Sordid Behavior. The Film is Lensed in Widescreen and Consists of Some Attempted Psychedelic Displays Consisting of Mostly Fisheye and Swirling Camera.Dennis Hopper is in Overdrive and Overacts as Usual Especially in the Final Scenes and Man, He is Less than Groovy, In Fact He is Psychotic as are Some of His Fellow Travelers Like MaGoo (one Babe tells Him, "Get lost gruesome!"). Jock Mahoney is a Reformed Biker Who Helps Out.Overall, Slightly Above Average in the Biker Genre and is Worth a Watch. The Soundtrack is Also Slightly Above Average with Some Feedback Guitar Along with Typical "Arrow" Stuff.

''The Glory Stompers'' is hardly a classic-even in the ''Biker'' genre, but it's a decent, entertaining little flick from AIP. Dennis Hopper stars as a member of the ''Black Souls'' motorcycle gang, who beat up rival ''Glory Stompers'' member Jody McCrea,leave him for dead, and kidnaps his girl, Chris Noel. He and his gang (who include ''Born Losers'' alumni Robert Tessier, Edwin Cook and Paul Prokop) plan to sell Chris to a Mexican flesh peddler somewhere south of the border. However, McCrea(once he recovers) joins up with ex-Stomper Jock Mahoney and sets out to rescue her. Complicating matters is Hopper's psycho ''Momma'' (Saundra Gayle, a LONG way from ''The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm'') who can't wait to dispose of Chris. And so it goes.The Widescreen photography is very good. The acting is decent all around. Hopper, despite his limited vocabulary (he says ''man'' in almost every sentence) is OK until the climax, when he screams, shakes, whimpers, whines, froths at the mouth and seems to be auditioning for a summer stock tour of ''Hamlet''. And, when all else fails, they toss in a ''Love-In'' along with a brief fight between a couple of tough looking'' Biker Chicks''. The soundtrack, which features, among others, ''The Arrows'' who were a Biker Film staple by now, is good, if somewhat overdone.Mike Curb, former Lt Governor and Motorcycle Music specialist, (The Wild Angels'' ''Devil's Angels'' etc) produced and wrote most of the music-even adding a song called ''Black Souls'' for future ''America's Top 40'' DJ Casey Kasem, who is seen in a bit part as one of the ''Souls''. Fortunately, this one didn't make it into the film's final cut, though, in all probability, it was just intended to help fill up the quickie tie-in soundtrack album.However, the title song ''The Stompers Ride'' did-though it was just a recycled version of Curb's ''Wild Angels Theme''. In fact, much of the music in the AIP biker films was used more than once for their other exploitation titles. Nevertheless, the Sidewalk Recording from the movie is now a highly prized collectors item, which goes for big $$$ whenever it surfaces on EBAY. Ironic, considering that back in the early ''70's, these and other Sidewalk/Tower exploitation soundtracks could be found in discount and drug stores for as little as (Gulp!) three for $1.00. MGM and Twentieth-Century-Fox have just released a nice DVD of this title. The print shows it's age from time to time, but it's in Anamorphic Widescreen with nice color and a sharp image.(the Widescreen process used was probably ''Panavision'', but here it's called ''Colorscope''). and the sound quality is also very good. As a ''Limited Edition'' DVD-R, there are no extras, but it's still nice to have an ''Official'' release at last. Incidentally, of AIP'S many Cycle Sagas, only two others were made in the ''Scope''process -''The Wild Angels'' and it's follow-up ''Devil's Angels''.All of them should have been filmed this way, because, like this one, most of the others feature a lot of footage with the Bikers zooming up and down the highway. And that sort of thing was ideal for the format. Catch a ride with the Stompers and hang on!.

Dennis Hopper is lost to us now, so his film legacy should be presented and preserved to the best of the studio system's capability.That's why I'm shocked and saddened that The Glory Stompers has still not been released on DVD, even in the current climate of biker-schlock appreciation.The corporation or individual owning the film's rights should hasten to make it available to lovers of sixties films in general, and Dennis Hopper fans in particular.Is this terrible oversight related to the fact that MGM is up for sale, a situation which has prevented the production of more 007 worthlessness? And more importantly, kept CHiPs season 3 from being released on DVD? Where's Ted Turner when you need him? As Mr. Hopper might say in The Glory Stompers, "Like hey, YEAH, man, I mean, this is like, really important, OK?"

The Glory Stompers is vintage AIP fare, which isn't to say necessarily it's one of the best from the company. But it is an example of what a hardcore genre biker flick from the period was like (sans a few of the extra hippies that dipped in and out of some of the others), with a straight laced biker's girl getting kidnapped by Chico (a usually crazed and drugged up Dennis Hopper, somehow turning in a good performance) and his gang the Black Souls. The girl keeps on trying to escape, and as well gets tortured sexually here and there, while Darryl, her beau, is still on the trail of the gang with an ex-Black Souls member (or is it the Glory Stompers, I keep forgetting, who cares exactly).It's a lot of rowdy fun for a late night, and there's even an exuberance to some of the scenes where the director Anthony M. Lanza and his cameraman go in like it's half a documentary on the proceedings. The budget was probably so low this was the only way to do it, to get right up into the action like gangbusters and gather what they could to move on. There's at times some tension created too, like when Chris (played by Chris Noel) uses as her bait the one sympathetic biker who seems like a genuine OK dude - not a good idea if there's a crowbar nearby (music cues)! The Glory Stompers is unmistakably dated, but in the context it was made it's no bad shakes when compared to something atrocious like the Hellcats. This is some quality, near "classic" trash, the kind you rub off with your arm to reveal some sharp elbow grease amid some hard rocking, conventional times with the boys from AIP.