Angel Unchained

1970 "HATE WAS THE CHAIN THAT LINKED THEM TOGETHER! God Help the One Who Broke It!"
5.1| 1h26m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 09 December 1970 Released
Producted By: American International Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Angel is the biker who joins a commune of hippies near a small town. When the town rednecks attack them, Angel calls up some of his bad biker buddies to exact revenge.

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Director

Lee Madden

Production Companies

American International Pictures

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Angel Unchained Audience Reviews

Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Micitype Pretty Good
Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike
AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Uriah43 After a rumble with another motorcycle gang one of the bikers named "Angel" (Don Stroud) decides it's time to leave and make it on his own. So he gives up his colors and drives off down the highway. It's at this time that he rides into a small town and while filling up at the local gas station comes upon two hippies who are subsequently denied service by some redneck cowboys who inhabit the area. He helps them out and to express their gratitude they invite him to stay at their nearby commune. Since he has nowhere else to go he takes them up on their offer. Unfortunately, after only a few days the rednecks come and destroy the crops that the hippies had worked all summer on after which the cowboys give them an ultimatum to leave or they will return in a week. So in desperation the leader of the commune who goes by the name of "Jonathan Tremaine" (Luke Askew) pleads with Angel to bring his old gang to help them out. Although he explicitly warns them about the potential danger these bikers could create they continue to insist so he then rides out to ask them. The bikers accept the invitation and all kinds of mayhem follows not long afterward. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was an okay "biker film" which could have been better if it had flowed a bit more smoothly from one scene to another. In any case, I found it to be an adequate movie for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Average.
Wuchak Released in 1970, "Angel Unchained" features Don Stroud as an Arizona biker who decides he's had enough of the biker lifestyle. He roams off and ends up at a hippie commune where he hooks up with a young Tyne Daly. It doesn't take long for redneck cowboy dune buggy riders to enter the picture (I'm not making this up). They try to chase the hippies away so Stroud goes back to his biker buddies to enlist them to help stave off the rednecks."Angel Unchained" is definitely a low Grade "B" flick. You'll observe this right off at the silly carnival brawl sequence. This is not top-notch filmmaking, that's for sure. Despite this, after about 30-40 minutes I strangely started getting involved in the story; I actually started caring about the characters and what would ultimately happen, even though I shouldn't have. The bikers are depicted as wild outcast revelers who drink and use drugs, but they're generally likable at the same time. The scenic Arizona locations are a highlight.The end credits showcase each actor individually in that dramatic way that used to be popular (e.g. "The Dirty Dozen"); all it did for me was make me bust out laughing. NOTE TO THE FILMMAKERS: It wasn't a good or serious enough film to warrant this type of venerable closing.BOTTOM LINE: "Angel Unchained" wasn't made very well or very seriously; however, if you make the necessary psychological adjustments and give it a chance (i.e. 30-40 minutes of your time), it's fun, likable, entertaining and even a mite engrossing. I shouldn't like it, but I do. Go figure.The film runs 86 minutes.Grade: C+PS: If you want to see a great late 60's/early 70's biker flick, catch the very first one, the infamous "The Wild Angels" from 1966 starring Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, Nancey Sinatra and Diane Ladd. "The Wild Angels" is simultaneously shocking and profoundly brilliant (yes, even though it's essentially a Roger Corman 'B' film). See my review for full details.
MisterWhiplash Angel Unchained has the ingredients of your basic AIP picture- bikers, 'cowboys' (rednecks), hippies, and lots of action. Unfortunately, it isn't entirely synthesized. Perhaps I could've known this by seeing it had been re-rated a PG-13 by the MPAA, but I also thought 'hosh-posh, it still probably has that real violent, grungy feel of dueling off between the forces of hicks and bikers'. Turns out the cooler elements of the film, some of which are some of the more amusing and awesomely bad moments from AIP biker movies, are juxtaposed against a core of a story that's kind of tame, even soft. It's actually got a Seven Samurai-style story to it, with the roles of the bandits and samurai reversed here- this time it's the so-called bandits (bikers) fighting off against the good-old boys (cowboys). This starts off some interest even as knock-off material.The acting as well is not that terrible, at least for what's required on such an ultra-low budget. Regulars like Don Stroud and Luke Askew are dependable (more so Askew who the year before had a memorable role in Easy Rider), though Tyne Daly, a strange early part for her before The Enforcer and later Judging Amy, keeps the love story a little too mellow for its own good. Angel (Stroud) wants to get away just for a little while from his old gang, so he hooks up with Daly's character and starts working at a commune/farm, complete with dazed bearded help and a token Native American with a special 'mix' of cookies. But as they get terrorized by cowboys on go-carts (yes, go-carts, one of the real highlights of the movie), Angel enlists the help of his biker gang, with some consequences that unfold. All of this is tricky material, and the co-writer/director Lee Madden isn't totally able to balance out the scenes and moments (and just visual sights like with Bill McKinney's retro glasses) with the sappier parts. The latter of which also includes a soundtrack that borders on soft-rock, the specifically wrong tone that suddenly makes the material quite dated.So, if you're looking for lots of carnage, immoral action, and the stomping out of almost everything in sight, you might be disappointed. Even as there is a neat B-movie style climax involving go-carts vs. bikers that does garner up excitement and laughs, the very end adds a point to what ends up being the lesser qualities of the film. It's intentions are swell, but it gets confused as whether it should be more hippie or biker style, with the poor Injun (yes, that's his character name) caught in the middle. Worth watching once, especially for genre fans, but not top-shelf AIP material.
Vornoff-3 What really struck me about this film was its accuracy in depicting two of the most frequently exploited subcultures of the American 1960's. The Hippies are young middle-class idealists, with no evident skills or systematic approach to philosophy. The bikers are violent degenerates, but not over-the-top barbarians who kill at a moment's notice. Their behavior was so similar to stories and books I've read that I wonder if some of the scenes were actually reminiscences of some former Hell's Angel the writer knew. Unfortunately, I never could make out the name of the motorcycle club on the backs of their jackets. It looked like "Exiles Nomads", but what kind of a name is that? Overall, the movie is satisfying, if nothing particularly new. Fits well into the "Born Losers" category of film, but definitely in a class apart from "Satan's Sadists" or "Wild Angel."