HELLS BLOODY DEVILS (DVD) DVD

Hell's Bloody Devils
Bikers, Nazis, Mafiosi, and the FBI all clash in this wild and wooly exploitation picture from director Al Adamson. Mark Adams (John Gabriel) is an FBI agent who has been assigned to infiltrate an organized crime ring that has obtained a set of printing plates that will allow them to produce nearly perfect counterfeit 20-dollar bills. The plates were made in Germany during World War II, and were discovered by a radical right-wing group hoping to restore the Nazi Party to power. The American gangsters are in cahoots with a group of wealthy American neo-Nazis sympathetic to the new German cause, led by fugitive war criminal Count von Delberg (Kent Taylor); the count has in turn recruited a vicious motorcycle gang, the Bloody Devils, to do his dirty work. Also featuring Broderick Crawford, John Carradine, and Col. Harland Sanders (the latter in a shameless plug for Kentucky Fried Chicken), Hell's Bloody Devils was produced under the titles The Fakers and Operation M as a straightforward espionage Thriller; when distributors balked at the finished product, Al Adamson and producer Samuel M. Sherman added the Biker subplot, and gave the product a more exploitive title. Shorn of the motorcycle gang footage, the film was also released as Smashing the Crime Syndicate. Nelson Riddle co-wrote the film's theme song, and Laszlo Kovacs and Gary Graver were among the cameramen. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Cast John Gabriel as Mark Adams Kent Taylor as Count von Delberg

Crew Al Adamson - Director John Winfield - Editor Don McGinnis - Composer (Music Score) Nelson Riddle - Composer (Music Score) Robert Kinoshita - Production Designer Laszlo Kovacs - Cinematographer Gary Graver - Cinematographer Frank Ruttencutter - Cinematographer Al Adamson - Producer Jerry Evans - Screenwriter

Hell's Bloody Devils
Drive-in auteur Al Adamson cobbled Hell's Bloody Devils together in his usual waste not, want not spirit, and even if the result is more incoherent than his other patchwork productions, it's brawling, brainless fun nonetheless. It is easy to see how indiscriminating audiences might be fooled by the assemblage of cool spy hriller and hot-blooded iker fantasy; if one isn't paying close attention (not unusual at drive-in theaters), Adamson's ruse is nicely spliced, with team player Vicki Volante serving as a bridge between the separate stories to simulate cohesion. However, producer Samuel M. Sherman has lovingly restored the full version of Hell's Bloody Devils for DVD release after over 30 years in limbo, and modern audiences watching the film in their homes without distraction will immediately see the seams strain. Aside from Volante's character, the titular biker gang and the Nazi counterfeiters have no interaction whatsoever, and the cyclists' sleazy activities (including LSD orgies, rape, and motorist abuse) exist only to pad time and add exploitation value. That said, Adamson was a director who could always substitute energy for logic, so Hell's Bloody Devils is as vigorous as it is nonsensical, with a great music score that buzzes with fuzz guitar and spy-theme clichés. Along with Volante, the cast is classic Al Adamson stock company, with Robert Dix as a iker named "Cunk," Kent Taylor as Nazi royalty, Broderick Crawford and Scott Brady as the FBI, Greydon Clark and Gary Kent as thugs, plus John Carradine as a bird-shop owner with secret information for the hero. KFC icon Col. Harland Sanders' cameo ("Isn't that the best chicken you've ever tasted?") was exchanged for free lunches for cast and crew over the course of the shoot, proving Al Adamson to be an early pioneer in the now-pervasive art of product placement, a cinematic crime far worse than exploiting the public's taste for sex and violence. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
 

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General Specifications: Language Options: English Subtitle Options: Sound Processing: DD1: Dolby Digital Mono Additional Features: Commentary by legendary producer Samuel M. Sherman Original trailer Photo gallery Interview with John Gabriel And more DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1: Pre-1954 Standard MPAA Rating: NR DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 1 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 92 min   DVD Chapters: Side #1 -- 1. Chapter 1 [3:10] 2. Chapter 2 [6:29] 3. Chapter 3 [7:32] 4. Chapter 4 [7:02] 5. Chapter 5 [2:43] 6. Chapter 6 [11:00] 7. Chapter 7 [6:48] 8. Chapter 8 [9:19] 9. Chapter 9 [5:11] 10. Chapter 10 [12:37] 11. Chapter 11 [19:38] 12. Chapter 12 [:41]