BURY ME AN ANGEL (1972) *** ½

Dixie Peabody stars as a tough-talking, hard-drinking biker named Dag who is searching for the man who killed her brother.  The scene of him being shot is rather disturbing and is repeated several times throughout the picture.  (Even when she looks at herself in the mirror!)  Despite the fact we see it again and again, it never loses its punch. 

If you can’t already tell, director Barbara (Humanoids from the Deep) Peeters isn’t content on just delivering a run-of-the-mill biker movie.  Sure, she gives us all the scenes you’ve come to expect from the genre.  There are long scenes of motorcycle maintenance, campfire chill-outs, and more than a few montages of motorcycles riding down the highway while (not-bad) classic rock plays.  However, Peeters also gives us some trippy visuals, bizarre flashbacks, and a genuinely unnerving finale that makes Bury Me an Angel stand out from the rest of (the leader of) the pack.   

In addition to the finale (which I wouldn’t dream of spoiling) Bury Me an Angel has a couple of oddball sequences that keep the viewer amused.  I mean how many biker pictures do you know feature bikers meeting a witch in the desert for a bowl of “Pot Stew”?  And how many of those feature Dan Haggerty as a hippie art teacher? 

Speaking of teaching, there’s a great gonzo sequence where Peabody and her crew break into a school looking for her brother’s murderer.  They barge into the office, hold the principal at gunpoint, and taunt his secretary (all while “comedic” music plays).  Before they enter the school though, they’re stopped by two young students who say, “You can’t bring a gun to school!” 

Peabody replies, “I think it’ll be alright this once!” 

Wow. 

There’s also a psychological aspect to Bury Me an Angel that makes it memorable.  We really get under Dag’s skin and get to know what makes her tick.  A lot of that is due to Peabody’s great performance as the vengeful biker.  Even though she’s tough and mean, she gets to show off her delicate side too.  She’s especially memorable during the jaw-dropping ending.   

It’s not all perfect though.  The film has one of the most unconvincing bar fights in screen history.  All the breakaway furniture is painfully obviously, the fight choreography is childish, and the comic relief is more dumb than funny.  Still, just on the strength of its WTF moments and Peabody’s impressive performance, Bury Me an Angel is one biker picture worth digging up.