Stone
Director: Sandy Harbutt Run Time: 132 min. Release Year: 1974
Starring: Deryck Barnes, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Ken Shorter, Roger Ward, Sandy Harbutt
Sandy Harbutt’s seminal biker movie, Stone, packed out drive-ins in Australia in the early 1970s with its potent mix of sex, drugs, rock’n’roll and unbridled horsepower… and in the process helped kickstart the Ozploitation explosion. Ken Shorter (Sunday Too Far Away) is Stone, an undercover cop who infiltrates an outlaw motorcycle gang to investigate a series of grisly killings. He is thrown into the world of the Gravediggers – alienated Nam Vets who live in a fortress by the sea and have their own law, their own satanic religion, their own bevy of bikie chicks (including Rebecca Gilling, Return To Eden, in her film debut) and a nasty habit of getting into violent and bloody gang battles. This movie kicks of the Ozploitation quarter of action films and is a precursor to Mad Max. Both depict anti-social biker gangs, both have cop protagonists who are as rough as the criminals, and they share cast members Hugh Keays-Byrne, Roger Ward, Vincent Gil, David Bracks and Reg Evans.
Part of the Ozploitation Quarter in Film Geeks SD’s BACK IN ACTION Series