After his brother is killed by drug traffickers, "Monte" (Ross Hagen) takes a leave of absence from the army and decides to infiltrate a motorcycle gang in order to get the people in charge. His brother's fiancé, "Linda" (Dee Duffy) also joins him in this effort. What both of them discover is that their mission is much harder than they expected it to be as only a few select people within the motorcycle gang are privy to the details of any drug transactions and there are additional layers between the them and those at the top. Now, rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that I was somewhat surprised at how low this particular film was rated. While it certainly wasn't the best "biker movie" I have ever seen, I also don't believe it was anywhere near the worst either. In that regard, I thought both Ross Hagen and Dee Duffy performed their parts adequately enough and the plot was equally interesting as well. On the other hand, the script could have used some improvement and the music seemed to be at least a year or two behind the times. In spite of this, I didn't feel it was necessarily a bad movie by any means and I have rated it as only slightly below average.

Picture this: It's the late 60s. Biker films are all the rage. EASY RIDER just won at the Sundance Film Festival. Now it's in every movie theater in America. You're a young person. Struggling to find your place in a confusing, volatile world. And those biker movies seem to be promoting a life of freedom and adventure. Seems like fun, right? With THE HELLCATS, it certain does! Ross Hagen plays Monte. He's a returning soldier whose brother got killed by the mob. Learning that his brother was involved with a biker gang, called The Hellcats, he dons a leather jacket, slips on some cool shades, hops on a Harley, and goes undercover. What follows is simply the most campy biker fun ever. Think of it as THE MONKEES MEETS EASY RIDER. There's trippy songs complete with wacky dance numbers. Numerous biker couples going off to neck in the woods. Beer flowing. And pills a-popping. Yes folks, sex, drugs, and rock & roll! Oh, did we mention that the mob is on their tail, too? But don't worry about the slim plot. This appeared on MST3K, and even without their comments, it's pure adrenaline-pumping fun!

Hellcats is an incoherent mess where the plot becomes secondary to the superfluous drug-addled parties thrown by the motorcycle gang. Ross Hagen is Sgt. Monte Chapman whose brother was recently murdered while he was investigating the Hellcats in some capacity. I watched the original movie instead of the one featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 and I still had an incredibly hard time deciphering the plot. Monte then decides to go undercover with his brother's fiancé and find out who is responsible for the murder. This is where the movie completely falls apart. The endless parties are filled with late sixties drug slang and lame expressions of machismo. One such race between a Hellcat and a rival gang member is enacted off screen with the end resulting in a fistfight that is stopped when Monte jumps in a says "Peace brothers!". After an even lamer competition to prove Monte's toughness is passed he soon becomes a free-wheeling Hellcat complete with bedding any woman you want. Can't say I can argue with that perk. The women are pretty hot especially Sharyn Kinzie as the tough-as-nails redhead Sheila. Sheila begins to trust Monte and lets him in on their business ventures. At this point I wished that I was on some of the hallucinogenic drugs they took at one of their roughly 7,000 parties that week. To make things worse Tony Cardoza makes an appearance as a painter in the middle of the woods. Thankfully he doesn't speak. This is a bad movie though I have seen far worse. Frightening, I know.

"The Hellcats" is the very archetype of a 60's exploitation movie. Driven by a wafer-thin plot about a guy who goes undercover with a biker gang to find his brother's killer, this movie is really just an excuse to shoot endless scenes of people riding and riding and riding and riding their motorcycles until you develop sympathy saddle soreness yourself. When the camera isn't pointed at someone riding a cycle, it's filming a drunken blow-out where various members insert heroin into various orifices, shot-gun beer bongs, dance the 'jerk', and grope each other (in a PG fashion); meanwhile the soundtrack plays random cheesy songs by bands who make the "Loving Spoonful" and the "Small Faces" sound like Motorhead. To tell the truth, none of it looks like a lot of fun. Seriously, I think I'd rather do push ups on Parris Island in the blazing sun than lie wasted on cheap beer on a scabby couch in the middle of a meadow while listening to Davey Jones babble on about "Mass Confusion", at least the way "Hellcats" portrays it.Back to the plot...Ross Hagen plays a 'Rent A Center' version of either Steve McQueen or Paul Newman; he wins the gangs' respect by um, I'm not sure...it has to do with breaking up a fight and not being torn in half by a motorcycle three-wheeler, and generally coming across like Motorcycle Biker-Gang royalty, so he's really like Tarzan of the Apes (another white boy who beat the Poor Dumb Natives at their own game). He finds the Mr. Big Mafia type who supplies the gang, and when the chips are down, the Hellcats come to the rescue and turn on the Mafia guys either because they like Hagen or because they figured out that the Mafia guys shot their original leader (I still can't figure out which).The movie also features Lyle Waggoner in a confusing bit part (similar to his role as a heavy in 'Catalina Caper'). I guess this is how he paid the rent before the "Carol Burnett Show". There are also a bunch of people who showed up in the Coleman Francis movies. While this movie is at LEAST as stupid as "Five The Hard Way" (another Ross Hagen vehicle from that era), this movie at least has a lighter touch, a less claustrophobic story line, and features a happy ending of sorts. Still it's for fans of the genre only - I can't imagine anyone who isn't into 60's biker films and exploitation movies enjoying this. Quentin Tarantino, are you listening????