She-Devils On Wheels

They're wild, they're tough, they wear crazy clothes, they ride motorbikes and they're looking for trouble. If you don't get the message, look out for the legend 'Man-Eaters' scrawled on the back of their cheap nylon jackets. That's the name of their gang, and this is their turf - don't you forget it.

The biker movie was in its heyday when Herschell Gordon Lewis decided he wanted a slice of the action. This wasn't the first film to focus on a female biker gang, but the director's inimitable style made it a landmark nonetheless, and it has survived as one of the best known examples of the genre. Although not much else about the film is believable, the bikers themselves are authentic, members of a real Florida-based gang. They're clearly at easy with their machines, easily able to stage the races that provide the film's early action scenes. What they can't do is act, and Lewis' famous rehearsal-free, single take method doesn't help. The result is a film whose charm is as much a product of accident as design.

A fair bit of design has gone into it. The clothes are striking even by Sixties standards, and despite looking as if they've all been picked up from one second hand shop and distributed at random. The stars' hair is elaborately styled in defiance of the elements. The theme tune is cheap and cheerful but delivered with passion and hard to forget. The sets are brightly painted, in keeping with a persistently upbeat vibe. Although the women have a fight on their hands when a male gang invades their patch, there's never much doubt about who's going to come out on top.

Despite Lewis' reputation, what we see here is really very tame - often wonderfully so. In the evenings, the women entertain themselves by taking it in turns to pick from a group of decidedly sub-average 'studs' before engaging in wild orgies in which everybody remains fully clothes but wriggles around a bit and makes ecstatic noises. A bit of domination is suggested by a woman riding around on one of the men and whooping, and later there's a splosh scene with implied sex to follow. In fights, one of the women wields a chain delicate enough to be work as an accessory at a suburban dinner party, but it doesn't really put her at a disadvantage, as her male opponents fall over on cue like so many pieces of polystyrene set.

It may lack the leather and lesbianism usually associated with the subgenre but She-Devils On Wheels has no shortage of camp. It's short enough to stay punchy and connoisseurs of bad movies continue to cherish it.

She-Devils On Wheels is currently available on the Arrow Video Channel.