The Born Losers (1967)

Director:

Tom Laughlin

Writer:

Elizabeth James (writer)

Release Date:

18 August 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

CORNERED! A HOT SUMMER NIGHT...A PACK OF STRAY 'CHOPPER JOCKEYS'...

Plot:

Billy Jack battles outlaw motorcycle gang in a small California beach town.

Plot Keywords:

Gang | Motorcycle | Motorcycle Gang | Rape | Beating

Cast

Tom Laughlin	...	Billy Jack
Elizabeth James	...	Vicky Barrington
Jeremy Slate	...	Daniel 'Danny' Carmody
William Wellman Jr.	...	Child
Jack Starrett	...	Deputy Fred
Paul Bruce	...	District Attorney George Davis
Robert Cleaves	...	Mr. Crawford
Paul Prokop	...	Speechless
Robert Tessier	...	Cueball (as Robert W. Tessier)
Jeff Cooper	...	Gangrene
Stuart Lancaster	...	Sheriff Harvey (as Stewart Lancaster)
Anne Bellamy	...	Mrs. Prang
Gordon Hoban	...	Jerry Carmody
Susan Foster	...	Linda Prang
Janice Miller	...	Jodell Shorn
Julie Cahn	...	LuAnn Crawford (as Julie Cohn)
Jane Russell	...	Mrs. Shorn
Ruth Warshawsky
Bill Carey
Paul Napier
Art Eisner
Michael Ivey
Edwin Cook	...	Crabs
Timothy Hall
Robert Coutu
Susan Baumann
Susan Winfield
Robin Corum
Tom Middleton
Wayne Cappasso
James Smith
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robert Apollo	...	Dr. (uncredited)
Clegg Hoyt	...	Mr. Carmody (uncredited)
Randee Lynne Jensen	...	Extra (uncredited)
Teresa Kelly	...	Pedestrian (uncredited)
Mike LeSage	...	Pedistrian (uncredited)
Delores Taylor	...	Pedestrian with Children / Opening Off Screen Narrator (uncredited)

Directed by
Tom Laughlin		(as T.C. Frank)

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Elizabeth James		writer (as E. James Lloyd)

Produced by
Tom Laughlin	....	producer (as Donald Henderson)
Jay Loughrin	....	associate producer
Delores Taylor	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Mike Curb
Davie Allan		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Gregory Sandor

Film Editing by
John Winfield

Production Design by
Richard Beck-Meyer

Makeup Department
Louis Lane	....	makeup supervisor

Production Management
Paul Lewis	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jonathan Hayes	....	assistant director

Art Department
Mike Ezzes	....	property master

Sound Department
Le Roy Robbins	....	sound

Special Effects by
Gary Kent	....	special effects: AIP

Stunts
Lightning Bear	....	stunts (uncredited)
Tex Hall	....	stunts (uncredited)
Walter Robles	....	stunts (uncredited)
Robert Tessier	....	stunt coordinator (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Bill Pecchi	....	grip

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Katharine Free	....	wardrobe

Music Department
Mike Curb	....	conductor
Al Simms	....	music supervisor

Other crew
Samuel Z. Arkoff	....	presenter
Barbara Bouvet	....	production assistant
Alan Chase	....	production coordinator
T.J. Healy II	....	production assistant
Joyce King	....	script supervisor
James H. Nicholson	....	presenter

Production Companies

• American International Productions
• Fanfare Films
• Otis Productions

Distributors

• American International Pictures (AIP) (1967) (USA) (theatrical)
• Gloria Filmverleih AG (1967) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• American International Pictures (AIP) (1974) (USA) (theatrical) (reissue)
• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1977) (USA) (TV) (network premiere)
• Fanfare Films
• Vestron Video (video)

Special Effects

• Edit-Rite (sound effects)
• Westheimer Company (optical effects)

Other Companies

• Armie Associates  casting
• Switched-On  special costuming

Runtime:

113 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

New Zealand:(Banned) | Hungary:16 | Sweden:(Banned) | UK:18 (video rating) | USA:PG | West Germany:18 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Huntington Shores Motel - 21002 Pacific Coast Highway, Huntington Beach, California, USA

Company:

American International Productions

Trivia:

Tom Laughlin used the pseudonym T.C. Frank for his director's credit. The name stands for his two children, Frank, and Teresa Christina.

Goofs:

Continuity: At the beginning of the scene at the Shorns' house, the LP record Jodell is looking at while talking to her mother changes from David Rose's 'The Stripper' into 'Music to Strip By' and then back again. These were both actual stripper-themed LPs released in the 1960s (perhaps suggesting Mrs. Shorn's previous occupation?)

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Mad Max (1979)

Iconoclastic And Colorful

Given its low budget, this is not a bad movie. A motorcycle gang, led by the scruffy Jeremy Slate, terrorizes a small California town, and in the process rapes several college girls. There's lots of tough talk, motorcycle noise, and violence, as you would expect for a biker film.

Of course, to balance out all the villainous mayhem, you gotta have a hero on the scene. And for the era in which the film was made, there was no better hero than the charismatic loner, half-breed Billy Jack, played with serene gusto by Tom Laughlin. He's a one-man show of moral and physical strength, as he outwits and outfights the biker roughnecks. The film makes the point that bad parenting and ineptness in traditional law enforcement foster an environment conducive to delinquency.

Interestingly, although this is the first Billy Jack film, Laughlin played a similar role ten years earlier, in a movie called "The Delinquents" (1957). His character was Scotty, a good guy teenager who gets mixed up with a bunch of high school hoodlums. Whereas in "The Delinquents" all the villains are kids who drive around in jalopies, in "The Born Losers", the kids have grown into adults who ride motorcycles.

In "The Born Losers" the characters tend to be stereotypes. In a time period that immediately preceded the women's lib movement, the film's female characters are very, very subservient. The film's plot does depend on contrivances to some extent. Dialogue lacks subtext. Production design is ... colorful. And the costumes reek of late 60's garish "hip" (love those pink walls and pink clothes), all perfectly in sync with the Age of Aquarius. Tom Laughlin's direction is excellent. Color cinematography is very good. The outdoor scenery is wonderful, as is the music in the opening title sequence.

I've seen a number of biker films. "The Born Losers" is one of the best. It was highly successful at the box office, and led to later Billy Jack films. It has a cinematic style that is almost iconoclastic; not insignificantly, it preceded "Easy Rider" by a couple of years. Such was the impact of "The Born Losers".