Corinna Mantlo

THE LOSERS aka Nam's Angels (1970)

Run Time: 1:35:00
Director: Jack Starrett
Writer: Alan Caillou
Cast: William Smith, Bernie Hamilton, Adam Roarke

FILM MAKERS

It's The "Dirty Bunch" on Wheels!
Director Jack Starrett is known for his complex 'B' movies, including several other ‘biker flick’ classics Run, Angel, Run (1969), and Race With The Devil (1975) that go above and beyond the genre standard.

A bit of Biker Flick trivia, the gang that appears in the film, "The Devil's Advocates" also appears in 'Run, Angel, Run!' and 'Werewolves on Wheels (1971)'.Incidently, Director John Milius is quoted as saying that this film was a "big inspiration for Apocalypse Now".

RACE WITH THE DEVIL (1975)

Run Time: 1:28:00
Producer: Saber productions, 20th Century Fox
Director: Jack Starrett
Writer: Lee Frost, Wes Bishop
Key Cast: Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Loretta Swit

FILM MAKERS

Director Jack Starrett specialized in hugely enjoyable down-'n'-dirty low-budget drive-in exploitation pictures. His first two were the 'biker flick' classics Run, Angel, Run (1969), and The Losers (1970). Both these films are worth a watch as they add a bit more depth to the genre than most.

PSYCHOMANIA aka THE DEATH WHEELERS (1972)

Run Time: 1:30:36
Director: Don Sharp
Writer: Arnaud d'Usseau, Julian Zimet (as Julian Halevy)
Cast: Nicky Henson, Mary Larkin, Ann Michelle

FILM MAKERS

"The only teenage zombie biker frog voodoo hippy musical that Beryl Reed ever made."

During a BBC interview star Nicky Henson said that he has always thought the film was terrible and only decided to be in it because he thought no one would ever see the film. He was surprised to find himself being interviewed about Psychomania forty years later.

BURNING UP (1930)

Run Time: 56:35
Producer: Paramount Pictures
Director: A. Edward Sutherland
Writer: Grover Jones, William Slavens McNutt
Key Cast: Richard Arlen, Mary Brian, Francis McDonald

FILM MAKERS

Burning Up is a 1930 American Pre-Code action film starring Richard Arlen as a racing driver and Mary Brian as his love interest, the daughter of a fellow driver. An early talkie, the film also features motorcycle stunts, and also stars Francis McDonald, Sam Hardy, Charles Sellon, and Tully Marshall. The film was released on February 1, 1930, by Paramount Pictures.

The film was made in an effort by Paramount's Jesse L. Lasky to emulate the success of earlier racing films made by the late Wallace Reid, "emulating Wally's films almost exactly", and with director Allen Sigler having "filmed the racing scenes exactly as Wally's had been done". One review described it as "the old racing-car scenario brought up to date with sound and talk".

DUCK, YOU SUCKER! (1971)

Run Time: 2:37:00
Director: Sergio Leone
Writer: Sergio Leone, Sergio Donati
Music: Ennio Morricone
Key Cast: Rod Steiger, James Coburn, Romolo Valli

FILM MAKERS

Duck, You Sucker! (Italian: Giù la testa, lit. "Duck Your Head"), also known as A Fistful of Dynamite and Once Upon a Time... The Revolution, is a 1971 epic Zapata Western film directed and co-written by Sergio Leone and starring Rod Steiger, James Coburn and Romolo Valli.

It is the second film of Leone's Once Upon a Time Trilogy, which includes the previous Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and the subsequent Once Upon a Time in America (1984). The last western film directed by Leone, it is considered by some to be one of his most overlooked films.

The musical score was composed by Ennio Morricone, who collaborated with Leone in all his previous projects as a director with the exception of his debut, The Colossus of Rhodes. Elvis Mitchell, former film critic for The New York Times, considered it as one of Morricone's "most glorious and unforgettable scores". He also sees "Invention for John", which plays over the opening credits and is essentially the film's theme, "as epic and truly wondrous as anything Morricone ever did".

THE BLACK SIX (1974)

Run Time: 1:34:00
Director: Matt Cimber
Writer: Mikel Angel (as George Theakos), Matt Cimber
Cast: Robert Howard, Cindy Daly, Mikel Angel

FILM MAKERS

"See the 6 biggest, baddest and best waste 150 motorcycle dudes!"

^{The Black Six is a 1974 American blaxploitation and outlaw biker flick written by Mikel Angel and directed by Matt Cimber. The "Black Six" was played by six then-current National Football League stars, and was one of the first all-black biker films.}

^{Filmed on location in Frazier Park, CA. Several of the football players were disappointed with elements in the original script, especially that the black motorcyclists would be killed in the end, despite the fact that they stood for truth, justice and the American way. As a result of their protests, an inconclusive ending was shot.}

MINI-SKIRT MOB (1968)

Run Time: 1:22:00
Director: Maury Dexter
Writer: James Gordon White
Key Cast: Jeremy Slate, Diane McBain, Sherry Jackson, Harry Dean Stanton |

FILM MAKERS

Driven by jealousy, the jilted leader of a female motorcycle gang instigates a sadistic reign of terror against her ex-lover and his new bride.

REBEL ROUSERS (1970)

Run Time: 1:18:00
Director: Martin B. Cohen
Writer: Martin B. Cohen, Michael Kars, Abe Polsky
Key Cast: Cameron Mitchell, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd, Jack Nicholson, Harry Dean Stanton

FILM MAKERS

Shot in 1967, but shelved and not released until 1970 after Jack’s career took off with easy Rider.

La Strada (The Road) (1954)

Run Time: 1:48:00
Director: Federico Fellini
Writer: Federico Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano
Key Cast: Anthony Quinn, Giulietta Masina, Richard Basehart

FILM MAKERS

Fellini called La Strada "a complete catalogue of my entire mythological world, a dangerous representation of my identity that was undertaken with no precedent whatsoever." As a result, the film demanded more time and effort than any of his other works, before or since. The development process was long and tortuous; there were various problems during production, including insecure financial backing, problematic casting, and numerous delays. Finally, just before the production completed shooting, Fellini suffered a nervous breakdown that required medical treatment so he could complete principal photography. Initial critical reaction was harsh, and the film's screening at the Venice Film Festival was the occasion of a bitter controversy that escalated into a public brawl between Fellini's supporters and detractors.

La Strada is now considered one of the most influential films ever made.

DEVIL'S ANGELS (1967)

Run Time: 1:24:00
Director: Daniel Haller
Writer: Charles B. Griffith
Key Cast: John Cassavetes, Beverly Adams, Mimsy Farmer |

FILM MAKERS

“Riot is their reason for living. Lust is the law they live by”

Daniel Haller was born in Glendale, California, and received his art training at the renowned Chouinard Institute. By chance, he happened to meet New World Pictures head Roger Corman in the mid-1950s when Corman was still an unknown, independent producer-director-jack-of-all-trades. Corman persuaded Haller to become an art director, a relationship that continued through some 30 Corman films.

THE ITALIAN MACHINE (1976)

Run Time: 23:37
Writer & Director: David Cronenberg
Key Cast: Gary McKeehan, Frank Moore, Hardee T. Lineham

FILM MAKERS

“Everybody’s a mad scientist, and life is their lab. We’re all trying to experiment to find a way to live, to solve problems, to fend off madness and chaos,” - David Cronenberg

Canadian filmmaker, writer, and actor. Cronenberg is one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infection, technology and the intertwining of the psychological with the physical.

1990: THE BRONX WARRIORS (1982)

Run Time: 1:32:00
Producer: Fabrizio De Angelis
Director: Enzo G. Castellari
Editor: Dardano Sacchetti, Enzo G. Castellari
Key Cast: Mark Gregory, Fred Williamson, Vic Morrow, and members of the Hells Angels

FILM MAKERS

Co-written and directed by Enzo G. Castellari (The Inglorious Bastards), this action-packed post-apocalyptic cult classic is a delirious mix of elements from The Warriors and Escape From New York. The idea for the film was first envisioned by producer Fabrizio De Angelis when he missed a subway stop for his Manhattan hotel and ended up in dangerous neighborhood in the Bronx. De Angelis imagined the idea of a futuristic city where young hoods would fight for their home.

One of three science fiction films Enzo G Castellari made with producer Fabrizio De Angelis. These films take influence from Mad Max 2 (1981), The Warriors (1979), and Escape From New York (1981). When discussing 1990: The Bronx Warriors, The New Barbarians and Escape from the Bronx, Castellari stated the three films were written prepared and filmed in six months.

Italian regulations required that 50% of a film had to be shot in Italy. To solve this situation, the film was shot on location in the Bronx with interiors shot in Rome.

AKIRA (1988)

Run Time: 2:04:00
Director: Katsuhiro Ôtomo
Writer: Katsuhiro Ôtomo, Izô Hashimoto
Key Cast: Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama

FILM MAKERS

Signal Traced to Tokyo!

Akira (Japanese: アキラ Hepburn: Akira) is a 1988 Japanese animated post-apocalyptic cyberpunk film based on Otomo's 1982 manga of the same name. The film had a production budget of ¥1.1 billion ($9 million), making it the most expensive anime film of its time.

TRON (1982)

Run Time: 1:36:00
Producer: David Kushner
Director: Steven Lisberger
Writer: Steven Lisberger
Key Cast: Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner

FILM MAKERS

The development of Tron began in 1976, when Lisberger became intrigued with the early video game Pong. He and producer Donald Kushner set up an animation studio to develop Tron with the intention of making it an animated film. Indeed, to promote the studio itself, Lisberger and his team created a 30-second animation featuring the first appearance of the title character. Eventually, Lisberger decided to include live-action elements with both backlit and computer animation for the actual feature-length film. Various film studios had rejected the storyboards for the film before Walt Disney Productions agreed to finance and distribute Tron. There, backlit animation was finally combined with the computer animation and live action.

MAD MAX (1979)

Run Time: 1:35:00
Director: George Miller
Writer: James McCausland, George Miller
Key Cast: Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne

FILM MAKERS

George Miller was a medical doctor in Sydney, working in a hospital emergency room where he saw many injuries and deaths of the types depicted in the film. While in residency at a Sydney hospital, Miller met amateur filmmaker Byron Kennedy at a summer film school in 1971. The duo produced a short film, Violence in the Cinema, Part 1, which was screened at a number of film festivals and won several awards. Eight years later, the duo produced Mad Max, working with first-time screenwriter James McCausland (who appears in the film as the bearded man in an apron in front of the diner).

TRON LEGACY (2010)

Run Time: 2:05:00
Producer: Steven Lisberger
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Writer: Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz
Key Cast: Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde

FILM MAKERS

Tron: Legacy is a 2010 American science fiction action film directed by Joseph Kosinski, in his feature directorial debut, from a screenplay written by Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, based on a story by Horowitz, Kitsis, Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal. It is a sequel to the 1982 film Tron, whose director Steven Lisberger returned to produce. The cast includes Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner reprising their roles as Kevin Flynn and Alan Bradley, respectively, as well as Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, James Frain, Beau Garrett and Michael Sheen. The story follows Flynn's adult son Sam, who responds to a message from his long-lost father and is transported into a virtual reality called "the Grid," where Sam, his father, and the algorithm Quorra must stop the malevolent program Clu from invading the real world.