The Hellcats, also known as Biker Babes, is a 1968 biker film directed by Robert F. Slatzer (who also co-wrote the script), starring Ross Hagen, and released by Crown International Pictures.
A crime boss named Mr. Adrian (Slatzer) uses the titular motorcycle gang to carry out his drug runs. A policeman, Detective Dave Chapman, is in with the Hellcats and trying to get solid evidence on Adrian through them. However, the girlfriend of the Hellcats' recently deceased leader, Sheila (Sharyn Kinzie), informs Adrian of Chapman's plans, and he is assassinated while out on a drive with his fiancee, Linda Martin (Dee Duffy).
Dave's brother, Monte (Hagen), has returned from active Army duty and vows to go after his murderers, learning about the gang from his notes. Joining up with Linda as his would-be girlfriend, they present themselves to the Hellcats as fellow bikers and work their way into properly joining the gang to find information on the drug ring. Through the gang's escapades with a rival gang, Monte gets involved with Sheila, who eventually trusts Linda enough to take her out on a run. It goes afoul when Betty, who is carrying the drugs, crashes off the road and dies. Her bike (holding the stash) is impounded by the police, forcing the Hellcats to send Moongoose in to retrieve it, but he, too, is caught.
Sheila rides off to talk to Adrian, and both Linda and Monte follow her; Adrian ties up Sheila, and while Adrian is interrogating Linda, Monte's rescue attempt fails, getting him tied up as well. Sheila manages to free them both, and as she runs to a pay phone to call the Hellcats, Monte again fails to save Linda, and they are both taken to the harbor by the crime ring. The Hellcats arrive, beat up all of Adrian's thugs, and free Monte and Linda. His brother avenged, Monte says his goodbyes to Linda, then rides his bike into the distance.
Check out the Mystery Science Theater 3000 recap page here.
The Hellcats provides examples of:
- Badass Biker: The Hellcats, with special note to Sheila and Linda.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Hiney, from lots of drug use.
- Creator Cameo: The director plays the Big Bad.
- Eyepatch of Power: Rita
- Face Palm: Linda while Monte is being smacked around.
- Info Dump: Three parties at the beginning of the film clumsily lay out the exposition and Back Story of the characters.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Monte, often.
- The Not-Love Interest: To the movie's credit, Linda and Monte never hook up. Despite almost being his sister-in-law, most B Movies would have them falling for each other.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: the bike race during the party in the middle. We just see the onlookers for a very long time as they watch the race instead.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Detective Chapman's assassination gets Monte and Linda involved.
- Sadly Mythtaken: There's one scene where some character asks what a cyclops is and another responds with some nonsense about "The silver cyclops of the sunny alps, the most beautiful creature in all of ancient Cardiff, second only to a unicorn" as anyone familiar with Greek Mythology knows, that's not what the cyclops is like at all. He could have just been making shit up to impress her, though.
