The Young Cycle Girls — The Young Cycle Girls( Blu Ray)

Released at the tail end of the ’70s The Young Cycle Girls (aka Cycle Vixens), is one of the later and lesser-known examples of the popular ’60s/ 70’s bikersploitation genre. It follows three late teen girlfriends travelling from Colorado to California to see the sea for the first time. Unlike a lot of biker films, the girls manage to keep getting the upper hand- battering back a sleazy sheriff, stealing junkies, etc. Though there’s still a fair bit of leering flesh, drug use, and a shocking downbeat end- after a largely upbeat ‘n’ breezy film. Here on Dark Force Entertainment is a region free blu ray of the picture- which is a barebone affair, with just the picture with a new 2k scan and a trailer reel.

The Young Cycle Girls appeared in the year 1978, and was clearly aimed at the grindhouse circuit- with its decidedly dubious title, flashes of flesh, and drinking ‘n’ drug-taking elements. On IMDb the film has a joint directors credit of Peter Perry Jn and John Arnoldy. Perry was known for a fair few sexploitation films like 1963 Knockers Up (!) as AJ Gaylord, 1966’s The Notorious Daughter of Fanny Hill as Ap Stootsberry(!), and 1970’s The Joys of Jezebel. The Young Cycle Girls was Arnoldy one and only directors credit, though he wrote the film's script as well as penning scripts for the likes of Supervan(1977), Jukebox( 1978), and the rather interestingly titled The Last Of The Blue Devils(1979) which was a doc about Kansas City jazz players.

The film kicks off by introducing us to its lead characters as they ride their motorcycles- we have Pris(Loraine Ferris) a brunette with a controlling/ domineer father. And sisters blond Sherry( Daphne Lawrence), and Sheri( Deborah Marcus)- whose the brunette firecracker/ devil may care of the trio. The three are fed up with Colorado small-town life, and as easter break is coming up they decide to go on a three-state road trip on their first trip to the sea. Sherry and Sheri's bearded, pipe-smoking, jazzy shirt wear father is fine with the three go off- but makes them promise to ring when they can. But Pris's dad says a firm no, so she sneaks out early morning to meet her friends.
 
The threes journey starts off in a decidedly slapstick and lightly sleazed manner, as they pick up two young African American men, and one of their larger girlfriends. Here we get foundling, a fruit throwing disagreement with an apple seller, and the bike with the larger passengers tire blowing out. The sisters go into town to get a new tire, coming across a believe anything old hick, and a creepy staring man, who the pair flash. Meanwhile, Pris gets an encounter with a droopy moustached sheriff who tries to force her into his crutch- thankful the sisters turn up, and we a very Dukes Of Hazards car chase. As the three go on they find a huge steel river side slide & a burger bar where a runaway teen works, encounter a junky couple, and a few other events/encounters.

The film runs at just over the one hour and twenty-minute mark, and acting-wise it starts off very shaky- but as we go on the acting of the three leads improve, sure we not talking Shakespeare, but they bounce off each well enough, and each have relatively developed character tropes. The acting of the supporting cast is extremely mixed- going from barely getting the lines out, to competent. This was the lead threes only credit. And sadly Deborah Marcus, who played Sheri the feistier and fierier of the three died in the year 1981.
 
Over the film's length we get a fair bit of flitting and leering flesh from the three, and also we get tame sexual encounters including a rape on one of the three, while the others are tied in their sleeping bags. We have darts of violence, and on the whole, it’s all eventful enough biker romp. The film is soundtrack mainly by low-grade short of Grateful Dead-like country rock with upfront banjo playing, this at points becomes a little overused-  we do get more dramatic/ moody standard soundtrack too, though this sounds rather music Library like. The film largely flows by brightly and breezily enough, though there is a jaw-dropping and very surprising downer resolve.
 
Moving onto this new region free blu ray- and we get a 2k print, this looks good enough for an old grindhouse film, and is largely clean and crisp, with just a few moments of print damage. There are no extras on here aside from a trailer reel.
 

I’d say if you enjoy cheap ‘n’ largely cheerful 1970’s road movies/ bikersploitation then I’d say give The Young Cycle Girls a go. And it’s nice to see Dark Force Entertainment diving digging deep into 70’s grindhouse sea to fish out and release this film.