The Choppers

source: The Choppers

Moviecut—The Choppers

The Choppers

This movie contains a cool t-bucket. It is the star of the movie in my opinion. (Sorry Arch!) The shifter was about neck-high. It had six carburetors. The slicks were all of 6 inches wide! I wonder where I could find some of those today. It was interesting to see the huge walkie-talkie "technology". Although the music was horrible and boring(includes monkey sounds!!!), it was a fun movie and worth the time to watch. I've enjoyed it 3 times. The '50's slang was fun to try to decipher. I don't think the junk yard dog nor any chickens were injured in the production of this movie, although a minimum of two feathers were plucked. They may have been the same feather, filmed at different angles.

And yet another of those oh sooo bad affairs from Hall and son. In this one, a young hot-rod enthusiast becomes involved with car thieves working at a 'chop' shop-hence the title. There IS a neat game you and friends can play with this one: count how many continuity errors you can spot. You'll be high in double digits, IF you make it to the end of this one.(Hint:watch for a police cruiser that changes from a Ford to a Plymouth and back again!)

Not sure. But that looks a lot like Tommy Ivo's Buick powered T bucket street rod that Arch Hall, Jr is zipping around in. The somewhat business-like pace of the story keeps this film from being completely laughable. There's a kind of sincerity of effort to 'The Choppers' that makes you stop laughing long enough to pay attention. The ex-Playmate of the Month in the role of the insurance guy's always hungry secretary provides another reason to pay attention.

Arch Hall, Sr.'s first attempt to make his son Arch Hall, Jr. a star was with this tale of juvenile delinquency Choppers. The film sat on the shelf for two years before being released in 1961. That fact in and of itself should have convinced the senior Hall that his son was not destined for stardom other than in family made vehicles. The junior Hall is a kid with a souped up hotrod and a gang who specializes in stripping cars. They're a real fine group of rejects and they've been taught the car stripping trade by Bruno Vesota and his sidekick Britt Wood who did a year as a sidekick for Hopalong Cassidy back in the day. Tom Brown who also saw better parts in his career and in his salad days played juvenile in much better films than Choppers is the detective from the auto theft squad. Shot on a G-string budget Choppers did not make Arch Hall, Jr. a star. But that didn't make dad give up. Even worse films than this followed. And people get down on Ed Wood.

This movie is so bad it is fun to watch. Typical story about teens gone bad. A group of young men, with nothing better to do, steal cars to strip for parts. Attempts to even rock 'n' roll falls laughingly flat. No stars, but participating in this mess are:Arch Hall Jr., Robert Paget, Bruno VeSota and Marianne Gaba.

Not in the league of THE SADIST or WILD GUITAR, this early Arch Hall, Jr. flick is fun, b/w, and low. Love Moose, junkyard mogul (great caricature of him on the sign as well). Whatever these guys were thinking when they made this type of exploitation film is okay with me. The slang dialogue is flowing and plenty of cheeseburgers to go around. A 4 out of 10. Best performance = the guy who plays Moose. This is on DVD with WILD GUITAR so check it out, daddy-o! Lame songs which are perfect, chicks just good-looking enough to seem like they'd be around these guys, and nice locale where they filmed it. Arch Hall, Sr. must have been a strange dude, bankrolling his kid's career this way, but what the hey!

As bad as this should be, it's kind of fun, and you could actually find yourself watching it a second and third time. Arch Hall Jr. was 16 when this was shot, and even gets a writing credit. What makes it work, kind of, is that the gang of car-stripping JD's are NOT stupid and embarrassing, but halfway interesting and believable. And it's got Bruno VeSota at his scintillating, stogie-smelling, sausage-fingered best. Continuity? Fageddaboudit. But it's got a simple little story to tell and does it well. And it does feature the inimitable "Monkeys In My Hatband," which you'll play again and again with your jaw dropped, wishing that YOUR dad had put YOU in a movie when YOU were sixteen and let you play that absolutely dumbass song you made up on the crappy $39 guitar you got for your thirteenth birthday and drove everybody crazy with. "The Choppers" IS available, but you'll have to hunt for it. Definitely worth tracking down if you're huge on beatniks, juvies, and playing chicken.