MOTORCYCLE GANG (1957)

Randy (Steve Terrell) is out racing his motorcycle with friends when they engage two young women in a friendly chase in the outskirts of town. A cop comes after them and they manage to elude him, but Terry (Anne Neyland), one of the girls, hits a rock and falls. Randy helps her and the two hit it off. A bit of a rebellious rich girl, she's spending the summer with her elderly uncle while her parents visit Europe. Randy and Speed take Terry to the Blue Moon diner where their motorcycle club meets. They're a fairly clean-cut group of kids, and the club is run under strict rules enforced by a friendly cop who, aware of the earlier off-limits racing, lays down the law. Nick (John Ashley), a former friend of Randy's, returns from a year in jail, holding a grudge against Randy for it (a pedestrian death in which they were both involved). He also holds his old buddies in contempt for accepting the stodgy rules of the cops. He's a jerk, but he's slick and handsome, and Terry starts to date both him and Randy. Frustrated because he's tired of being just "average," Randy responds to taunts from Terry when she wants him to man up against Nick. The day before a sanctioned race (from which Nick is barred), Terry goads Randy into racing Nick across a railroad bridge. Realizing he's leaking oil, Nick doesn't fix it, hoping that Randy will slip on his oil track. Randy does, and falls off the bridge. He gets only minor injuries but is allowed to race the next day. When a drunken Nick and his buddies terrorize the Blue Moon, Randy gives up his first-place position in the race to go help the cops subdue the bad guys.

After DRAGSTRIP GIRL was a hit for American International, they shot this quickie with the same writer, director, and male stars, and it was released just six months later. If not exactly a remake, it was certainly inspired by the earlier film, featuring teenagers, vehicles, club hangouts, and a love triangle with an undecided woman in the middle. Also fisticuffs, comic relief (chiefly in the person of Carl Switzer, Alfalfa in the Our Gang movies who keeps using goofy slang, like calling a hot girl a "miger" for "mad tiger") and climactic road races. Terrell and Ashley play versions of their characters from Dragstrip Girl, not quite as convincingly as before but adequately. Russ Bender also repeats his role as the cop. Anne Neyland is fine as the gal in the middle. There's a cute scene with the Chinese owner of the Blue Moon playing Chinese guitar in a duet with Terry's uncle playing fiddle. Fine for fans of the genre. Pictured are Ashley and Terrell. [YouTube]