It's A Maidenform And It's MINE!

I'm still slightly at a loss to describe this movie that I just watched this afternoon, the 1971 bikesploitation flick The Pink Angels, which despite the title still shocked me just as much as it did the hitchhiker picked up at the beginning of the picture to discover that the the group of young toughs on motorcycles and sidecars were actually gay. The hitchhiker, at first hesitant to ride along with potential Hell's Angels, continues to stick around as they stop for lunch at an A&W roadside stand, but bolts in horror the moment he gasps "faggots!" as if that's a potential fate worse than being shanked for his wallet. And he almost gets rammed by a train making his escape on foot, which seems almost intentional in context.

And indeed the deplorable "f" word does make an appearance often enough in this politically incorrect flick about a gang of cross-dressing bikers heading down the Pacific coast to attend a drag show in Los Angeles, besieged by enthusiastic hookers, a justice-obsessed army general, gung-ho highway patrolmen and a vengeful rival gang (featuring Dan "Grizzly Adams" Haggerty in all his ripped washboard abs glory). But the Pinks don't take no guff, and I find it admirable that in the midst of all the mincing stereotypes these fellas are also portrayed as clever, resourceful, and tough. When their roadside picnic in the rocky hillside (complete with wine and candelabras) is invaded by a rival gang who is suspicious that they don't have any "old ladies" on hand, one of the Pinks heads off to quickly procure a small band of loose women and invites their enemy into their drunken orgy, only waiting until they are good and passed out to smear make-up on their faces and tie their beards in ribbons and bows before our heroes make their wily escape back out on the road.

The movie is of course done on the serious cheap, with some of the most amazingly bad dialogue I have ever heard (and I thought that I've heard it all) and an ending that nearly threw me off the sofa for it's sheer abruptness. I think Joe had read somewhere online that they were running out of money and that the producer was basically insane and nobody had written an ending for the damn thing. Honestly, I couldn't tell you what audience this "Gay Easy Rider" road movie was intentionally meant for, but I found myself strangely charmed by it. Maybe it was meant to be taken as social commentary on the blight of homophobia in America. Or perhaps meant to be taken in the pure "Queers -- they're funny!" exploitation spirit that it was given. For me, it seems somewhere in between. But that ending is just... damn. I mean..... DAMN.....!