SHORT TAKES
BORN LOSERS (American International): : Don�t let the presence of that tomahawkneyed geek Billy Jack deflect you from one of the finest biker films ever made. Born Losers actually duts even The Wild Angels by dint of the dingiest hog ridin� fools ever seen on the screen.
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SHORT TAKES
BORN LOSERS (American International): : Don�t let the presence of that tomahawkneyed geek Billy Jack deflect you from one of the finest biker films ever made. Born Losers actually duts even The Wild Angels by dint of the dingiest hog ridin� fools ever seen on the screen. Led by TV vet Jeremy Slate, they all look like leftover beatniks with bad teeth, and the heroine, who gets raped by the badskis, is a snotty little bitch who comes across as a sleaze Liza Minelli. Special cameo by Jane Russell in her last screen appearance before turning total Jesus Freak. Great lines abound: �Why do they call him Crabs?� asks Liza in ref to this big pig drooling on her. �Because he�s got �em,� catarrhs Jeremy. Don�t miss it. PARALLAX VIEW (Paramount):: Investigative reporter (Warren Beatty) uncovers indications of a conspiracy to assassinate political figures. Suggestions of The Manchurian Candidate, and a neat neo-Hitchcockian paranoid structure, but nothing holds together. Also, Paula Prentiss gets killed off real fast, which is a drag �cause she�s the main reason we went. Two good yoks. Yok 1: Reporter goes to Managing Editor and says, �I�ve gotta have a two-week advance on my salary.� Wise-ass journalist in the preview audience: �Well, guess the movie�s over.� Yok 2: Industrialist tries to bribe reporter by offering him ten grand. �The story�s worth more than $10,000 to me,� says the reporter. Same wise-ass journalist: �Yeah, he�s ' got an agent who can sell the paperback rights.� No-thrill thriller.
Lester Bangs
Michael Goodwin
DIRTY MARY, CRAZY LARRY (20th Centpry Fox):: I can�t figure out why Mary�s dirty, and I saw the movie already. Is it because she window shops at a roadside flea market and four bikers sneer at her? Anyway, Susan George is miscast, because Elizabeth James plays a police precinct dispatcher in this movie too, and she�s the original dirty lady, way back when she wore white and teased bikers all over the California coast in Born Losers. And Crazy Larry�s not crazy, he�s just stupid Peter Fonda; when he removes his sunglasses you see how shrunken his face is from where his brain used to be. I don�t think he had one in The Wild Angels, either, and after Easy Rider, well . . .
Georgia Christgau
