Review: Chrome and Hot Leather

Tony Young plays one of four green berets (with Peter Brown and Marvin Gaye playing two of the others) who take a break from training recruits for the Vietnam War to take on biker gang The Wizards, one of whom (stunt guy Michael Haynes) directly caused the death of Young’s fiancé (played by a young Cheryl Ladd) and her friend. William Smith plays the mean leader of The Wizards, who is pissed at the reckless Haynes for bringing unnecessary trouble to the gang. Look out for brief appearances by Robert Ridgely, Erik Estrada, and Dan Haggerty (as ‘Bearded Man’).

 

Flawed 1971 AIP film from director Lee Frost (“The Thing With Two Heads”, “The Black Gestapo”) lacks a decent leading man and exploitation goodies but still gets the job done by biker movie standards. If this is your type of thing, there’s no reason you won’t enjoy this one. Lead actor Tony Young was apparently a TV western guy which makes more sense than being in something like this. He’s lost at sea here. Even stuntman Michael Haynes (Looking like Ben Stiller in “Dodgeball”) who is no actor himself, does a better job here playing the offending creep. I also have to say that soul legend Marvin Gaye barely gets a look-in here, so if you’re interested in seeing him as an actor, you don’t get much here. He also looks hilariously uncool in biker gear and a cowboy hat. William Smith predictably steals the show as a typical a-hole bully. He’s not the one responsible for the act that sets the plot in motion, but he’s still a total prick and good value. Larry Bishop, as much of a staple of the genre as Smith, is weird as hell even by his standards. In what adds up to quite the eclectic cast we even get a role for “Monster Mash” singer Bobby Pickett as the toothless Sweet Willy.

 

It sounds like I didn’t enjoy the film, but you need to remember the genre it’s in. I have very low standards for biker movies, and whilst this isn’t “The Wild Angels” it still provides a pretty decent level of entertainment for what it is. It’s certainly got fewer dead spots than a lot of these things. What I liked here is that it’s a little different from the norm. The protagonists are green berets, not bikers. So we get scenes devoted to them learning how to ride, which is kinda fun. The screenplay is by co-star/stuntman Michael Haynes (who did stunt work as recently as “Cast Away” and 2011’s “Drive Angry”), David Neibel (no further credits), and Don Tait (“Herbie Goes Bananas” and a lot of TV shows). In addition to Haynes, the stunt performers involved are pretty well-known ones like Bud Ekins (“The Towering Inferno”, “The Blues Brothers”) and occasional director Hal Needham (“Smokey and the Bandit”) as well as actor Smith.

 

 

Tony Young is a terrible actor and exploitation fans might be starved of the usual here, but if by default this is still one of the better biker films out there. The “A-Team”-esque explosive finale is especially fun. Worthy of a soft recommendation at least.

 

Rating: B-

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