The Mini-Skirt Mob (1968)

Diane McBain far from her salad days as a Warner Brother starlet heads the cast in The Mini-Skirt Mob. These women are mini-skirt wearing girls who with their men drive Hondas. McBain is a woman scorned because her guy Ross Hagen has up and left her and married Sherry Jackson. She and her current boyfriend Jeremy Slate are going to teach Hagen and Jackson a lesson that no one leaves McBain even if she is more than slightly psychotic.So throughout this whole film McBain, Slate and the gang terrorize the two newlyweds. Even with Patty McCormack who is McBain's younger and saner sister siding with Hagen and Jackson, McBain don't want to hear any of it.The sight of McBain and McCormack in their mini-skirts riding the road on those Honda may give a rise in pleasure to more than a few red blooded males in the audience. This is typical drive-in fare from the late Sixties.It's also funny as all get out because it's so bad. But the girls are something to see.

Actress Diane McBain plays Shayne, the leader of a group of female bikers, who call themselves the Miniskirt Mob. Shayne's ex-beau, rodeo star Jeff Logan (played by John Wayne clone Ross Hagan), dumps her to marry another woman. Crazy with jealousy, Shayne is hellbent on harassing Jeff and his new bride. And she enlists the help of her motorcycle gang, which includes her younger sister, to accomplish this.This film is brimming-over with campy, late-60s energy. The women in the Miniskirt Mob, all wear the shortest of miniskirts, that women wore back then. They all have drop-dead gorgeous bods, and wear mile-high hair-sprayed 'dos, go-go boots, and heavy facial make-up. These women look more like 60s Vogue models, rather than tough biker chicks. Their boyfriends, who are allowed to ride with the gang, are all one dimensional oafs. These dudes drink copious amounts of beer, belch, and generally act like crude goons.Diane McBain as Shayne, is the only cast member that truly conveys a menacing personality. The other characters seem milquetoast by comparison. Ross Hagan as Jeff Logan, gives a particularly stilted performance. Patty McCormick as Shayne's sister Edie, does gives a decent performance. She really makes the toxic sibling rivalry between Edie and Shane, seem credible. The only other cast member who gives an interesting performance, is Harry Dean Stanton. Harry plays the dim-witted cowboy, called Spook. He infuses Spook with a haunting, pathetic, yet smarter-than-he-looks quality.The scenery in the film is gorgeous, but the lighting is a bit garishly bright. There's lots of vivid color contrasts, which gives the film quite a visual punch. The viewer can really get a sense of how uncomfortably hot the characters felt, as they sped down the highways on their bikes in the scorching, southwestern sunshine. There's also plenty of panoramic camera angles. Especially when the characters are racing around hairpin curves, while biking along deserted back roads.This film is hilarious at times, and can also be downright annoying in some scenes. The camp factor is definitely there though, for those who like these sorts of 60s B movies. Overall, it's an entertaining film, and definitely worth a watch, especially for Diane McBain fans.

The name of the production company - whose product nowadays regularly features in Incredibly Strange film festivals - alone should be enough warning as to what to expect in this silly, unintentional parody. "The Mini-Skirts" consist of four girl bikers, the brevity of whose skirts is compensated by the length of their eyelashes - plus, it seems, an equal number of chromosome-challenged boyfriends. The plot mostly consists of them "terrorizing", with varying degrees of enthusiasm, the pack leader's ex-boyfriend because he is now on his honeymoon in a caravan with another gal. Much of it naturally is an excuse for shots of the females riding around the wilds of Arizona on their Triumph motorbikes. Hmmm. Wouldn't it be rather cold dressed like that, how long would those hair-do's last? You also get regular glimpses of panties. As Leonard Maltin says in his movie guidebook, those who like the title should like the film.

Our story concerns a pack of females known as "The Mini-Skirts" and their accompanying rough riders in mountain terrain looking for trouble against an innocent trailer couple. The only things you'll appreciate from this hopelessly dated film are some nice pairs of legs and an appearance by Harry Dean Stanton as one of the rodeo rednecks. Everything else, the bad lighting, the fragmented story, leaves an awful lot to be desired, and even the title of this "biker" picture doesn't fully live up to anyone's expectations. To add even more scorching embarrasment is the opening theme song by Patty McCormack, also one of the gang members. Those who are looking hard to find this hidden cult movie will see the light as a limited cable TV offering, but remember, you get what you deserve! RATING: *