Wild Guitar/The Choppers

"Considered by many as one of the worst directors of all time, Ray Dennis Steckler is indeed an acquired taste. But to rank him among the worst cinema criminals of all time is missing the point. Sure, his films are usually technically inept or not as slick as a bigger-budgeted Hollywood film or even a lower-budgeted independent film. But unlike many a bloated big-budget extravaganza or the typically banal indie snoozefest starring a cast of faceless twentysomethings whining about their jobs and lack of romantic success, Steckler's oddball outsider films are thoroughly watchable and refreshingly anarchic. Wild Guitar, starring the one-and-only Arch Hall Jr. as the na?ve yet ambitious rocker Bud Eagle, is a perfect place to start if you've never had the pleasure of watching a Steckler film. Something Weird Video's disc presents the film in a very nice black-and-white print with its original mono soundtrack. The disc also contains over an hour of extras, including a number of theatrical trailers for other cool teenage drive-in classics, two short-subject films called Dance Craze! and Twist Craze!, and a gallery of Trash-O-Rama exploitation art and radio spots. But if that isn't cool enough for you, the disc also contains Arch Hall's lean and not-so-mean teenage morality tale The Choppers as well. Like Wild Guitar, the film stars young Arch Hall Jr. (his pop also produced, wrote, and starred in the film) as the brains of the group of choppers who are hell-bent on turning Southern California into one big junkyard of twisted metal and scrap. The film is a mere 56 minutes, but it's definitely worth the ride, especially considering that the disc is fitted with the above-mentioned Wild Guitar and a whole list of supplemental material. The disc comes with the original theatrical trailer, a whole bunch of trailers for other teen drive-in fare, a couple of Twist-O-Mania short films, an anti-chopper police short, and a gallery of cool trash film exploitation art and radio spots."