Review of Pink Angels

This flick sure ain't your run of the mill biker exploitation item. The biker gang in this highly peculiar picture are a bunch of openly swishy and flamboyant homosexuals who encounter various forms of harassment and prejudice while embarking on a road trip to a Los Angeles drag convention. During their merry trek our endearingly campy protagonists get hassled by the cops, have a run-in with a hostile rival heterosexual biker club, eat a fancy lunch on the side of the road, engage in a food fight at a roadside hot dog stand, and try on dresses at a clothing store. Director Larry Brown and screenwriter Margaret McPherson treat this gleefully lowbrow nonsense with an appropriately lighthearted touch, maintain a zippy pace throughout, and keep things way too inane for this movie to ever seem even remotely offensive. Sure, the titular bunch are depicted as broad limp-wristed queenie stereotypes, but they're also the most affable and appealing characters in the entire feature. Moreover, the actors who portray this jolly group play their parts with delicious eye-rolling gusto: John Alderman as tough, scruffy leader Michael, Tom Basham as the effeminate David, Bruce Kimball as temperamental hulk Arnold, Henry Olek as dandyish Brit-accented aspiring poet Edward, Maurice Warfield as the mincing Ronnie, and Robert Biheller as the equally epicene Henry. Plus familiar B-movie regulars Michael Pataki and Dan Haggerty appear as belligerent straight bikers. The soundtrack of insanely groovy songs hits the funky spot. Michael Weyman's sunny cinematography likewise does the trick. The totally unexpected surprise downbeat ending packs a pretty strong and lingering punch. A real nutty one-of-a-kind vintage 70's grindhouse hoot.