Chrome and Hot Leather (1971)

For the most part, I agree with most of the previous user comments - "Chrome and Hot Leather" is a terrible movie. It's hard to believe that American-International Pictures, who were usually experts at drive in movies, would pick this up for distribution. It's a slow-moving exercise that has very little exploitation material - no nudity or sex, no foul language, and the violence is almost totally confined to the opening and closing. No one in the cast gives a good performance, and the musical score is one of the worst I've heard from a movie for a long time.Still, the movie is not completely without merit. Praise should be given to the movie by going against the norm of the time and depicting the military protagonists as real heroes. They are loyal and professional, and of sound minds. And they manage to defeat the bikers without killing any of them! It's too bad these likable heroes couldn't have been in a better movie.

William Smith who during the Seventies and Eighties played a lovely garden variety of villains bordering on the psychotic is top billed here in Chrome And Hot Leather. Smith heads a biker gang which harasses and later kills young bride Cheryl Ladd. They soon have reason to regret that bit of fun because Ladd's intended was Tony Young of the Green Berets who is stateside training other would be Green Berets.Young enlists his three Green Beret sergeant buddies, Michael Haynes, Peter Brown and Marvin Gaye to track and fine the bikers responsible and bring them to justice.Bikers are tough, but Green Berets are combat trained and Young borrows a few of their toys to help round them up. It's really no contest once his pals arrive.Most interesting performance in the film is that of Joey Bishop's son Larry who plays a gay biker who spends his time playing pinball and giving Smith wistful glances. Toss him out of the gang if he gets too explicit.After giving Young a really serious motive, the film devolves in the end to some dopey type comedy. I'm sure the drive-in crowd loved it back in 1971 as they wouldn't miss much as they concentrated on other things.

Sad but true, this double feature of CHROME AND HOT LEATHER plus GOD FORGIVES, I DON'T was a crowded night of goggle eyed teen adventure (I secretly went without mum and dad knowing) and saw it in 1971 at Sydney's home of the crap double feature The Capitol Theatre. Lots of customers there that Saturday night, plenty of couples (I wonder what the girlfriends thought) and me and my pals scoffing lollies and staring at the screen. One memorable scene in CHROME was a bikie being stopped by a cop on a rural road. The cop comes over and we all expect him to harass the bikie. Instead the cop shows what a nice guy he was by telling the bikie how much he liked his bike, admiring those hot chrome exhaust pipes..... I do not know if a sex scene followed and was edited out, but today that would play like a pick up to raucous laughter. GOD FORGIVES I DON'T was a terrible Italian or Spanish western with Terence Hill. However we all went home satisfied. Cost 70c I remember. The 70s were such fun.

In the beginning there was "The Wild One", and it was good. The great Hollywood attraction to 2 wheel action extended to Steve McQueen jumping the fence on a Triumph in "The Great Escape", The murderous, Moto Guzzi-riding traffic cops in "Magnum Force", and, who can EVER listen to "Born To Be Wild" without thinking of Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper heading east on their Harley choppers. "Chrome and Hot Leather" is to these great movies what "Plan 9 From Outerspace" is to "Psycho".Synopsis: Bad guys on choppers vs. ex-GI good guys on dirt bikes. What this film lacks in story line it makes up for with weak acting. Good lord -- what a stinker!I first saw this as a double feature Saturday Matinee with an equally horrible film called "The Hard Ride," which starred Robert Fuller of "Emergency!" fame. At least "The Hard Ride" was partially redeemed by the presence of an incredible Harley chopper called "Baby" which was second in beauty ONLY to Peter Fonda's "Captain America".The only reason I even remember "Chrome and Hot Leather" is because on that Saturday in 1971, The Florida Theater in Starke Florida raised it's youth matinee ticket price to .40 cents, and I was determined to enjoy the show in spite of my pubesecent outrage.There is one memorable scene involving an arm-wrestling match. Two huge, ugly Scorpions were lashed to the very spot where the arm of the loser would fall...Oooooo! Now THAT'S what I call EVIL!