She-Devils on Wheels
DVD Image Entertainment
1968, 82 minutes

review by Shade Rupe

Yee-haw! Woo-hoo! Well, there's more intense excitement in those two phrases than in Herschell Gordon Lewis' '68 biker pic, but hey, you get to hear the bad girls whoop it up too!
 
Is this a feminist film? Hardly. These women are tough and ready to rumble at all times. That's pretty much all they do really. Just like real bikers! Except their ManEaters logo is like a big pink kitty. Okay...

I do have a lot of fun with this one. The 'actors' are all quite spirited, delivering the silliest of lines with as much seriousness as they can muster. When one of their members sticks with a guy, rather than just sticking him, they gotta give it to her! See, sticking with a man is against the rules. So her boyfriend gets tied to the back of a bike and he's dragged around in the parking lot.

I'd have to rewrites the whole script to capture all the great lines. "Sex, guts, blood and all men are mothers" is their motto. Like, doesn't make much sense to me to refer to the hated men as 'mothers,' but I'm not a ManEater so I may not get it...

Overall, it's just one funny movie. Action-packed if you consider stocatto music playing while the women bike down the road. And bike down the road. And bike down the road. There is a bit of 'filler' here in this Lewis pic. The main title painting of a chick on a bike is seen several times throughout the film also, usually between shots of the girls on the bikes, driving down the road.

I guess it's one of those sick pleasures films for this reviewer. I just like this movie. The twangy '50s/'60s grind beat behind the girls' biking adventures is nice background, especially for the big fight between the ManEaters and a group of male bikers they accost. One fun scene has the girls picking out their men for the night from a group of eager studs.

Lewis commentary is truly fun and his memories of the pic are a blast. Movies like this made today just lack so much. The clothes, the music, the sense of actually wanting to make a movie. She-Devils on Wheels was meant to be seen, wherever it would play, not designed for a home video system and its appeal comes through much 'broad'er due to this.

Image compiles the original theatrical trailer, a gallery of Herschell Gordon Lewis exploitation art, and a funny, hip, biker 'expose' with tripped-out voice-over, Biker Beach Party, along with the film.

We're on the road!

Official Website:

http://www.image-entertainment.com