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| Steve Terrell and Anne Neyland |
MOTORCYCLE GANG (1957). Director: Edward L. Cahn.
Randy (Steven Terrell of
Invasion of the Saucer Men) importunes tough motocycle gal Terry (Anne Neyland) to join his club, but she isn't crazy about the rules set down by Lt. Watson (Russ Bender). Neither is Nick (John Ashley), who has just finished a 15 month spell in prison for which he blames Randy. Randy and Nick now hate each other and compete for Terry while a discarded Marilyn (Jean Moorhead of
The Violent Years) can only simmer. The rivalry really erupts when Terry convinces Randy to accept Nick's challenge to race on the railroad tracks, which will surely end in disaster.
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| Anne Neyland, Jean Moorhead, John Ashley |
The performances in
Motorcycle Gang, aside from the ever-mediocre Jean Moorhead, really aren't terrible, but the cliche-ridden script doesn't ask too much of its players. Steve Terrell is as appealing in this as he was in all of his movies. The same year this drek came out leading lady Anne Neyland, who has a certain saucy insolence, also had decent parts in
Jailhouse Rock and was John Payne's leading lady in
Hidden Fear. Alas this only led to a few minor TV credits; even Moorhead did better, so to speak. Clowning around all through the movie is a goofy character named Speed, whom I did not recognize at all as Carl "Alfalfa "Switzer of Little Rascals fame; he's okay. The picture has a spurt of excitement at the very end when Nick and his moronic buddies try to terrorize a cafe owner, his wife, and others only to get their clocks cleaned by Randy and his buddies. Overall this is rather dull.
Verdict: Try to miss it if you can. *1/2.
Doesn't sound like I would like, but would be interesting to see Alfalfa in later life. He is super-funny and adorable in his bit as the jealous classmate in the It's a Wonderful Life prom sequence. Too bad he hit the skids so badly.
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Got into debt and then murdered, and still very young. A shame. I saw other adult films if his (such as the Gas Gang Kids or whatever) where he was instantly recognizable but for some reason I wondered who he was throughout the whole movie\!
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