There is an environmental protest group holding a meeting in the park, and as they listen to the speech from their leader railing against corrupt big business polluting the beaches, a group of Hell's Angels called the Grave Diggers show up and jeer, but are ignored. One of their number, Toad (Hugh Keays-Byrne), is tripping on LSD and stumbles into the crowd, then past it to the council building nearby, eventually ending up on the roof. It is there he sees the assassin who has a rifle pointed at the speaker, then fires, killing him instantly. With Toad the sole witness, could this be the reason his gang are being bumped off one by one?
Stone is an important film in the great scheme of Australian exploitation cinema, as much for the depiction of sex and violence as for its unlovely storyline which may have appalled the establishment in its home country, but was embraced by the rest of the population hungry for thrills. It was the sole directorial feature for Sandy Harbutt, for whom this was a project he threw himself into, covering such requirements as producer, co-writer (with Michael Robinson), star (he plays the gang boss, The Undertaker) and even production designer.
Not that this is a one man show, but as a labour of love the effort does show through and indeed pay off to some extent. A pity that the finest part of the film is that first ten minutes, not that the rest of it is unwatchable, it's just that nothing quite lives up to the mayhem we see in that opening. Not only is there that assassination plot to get the bikers in hot water, but we see three of them being murdered as well: one has his head cut off by a wire stretched across the road, another is blown up, and most spectacularly of all legendary Aussie stuntman Peter Armstrong rides his bike off a huge cliff, which still looks absolutely stunning.
But at the plot we must arrive, and it involves the Grave Diggers being infiltrated by - horror of horrors - a cop, the Stone of the title played by Ken Shorter. Stone actually has a well to do life that he leaves behind to join up with the bikers, and they are extremely sceptical that he can do them any good until someone starts shooting at them with a crossbow. The film could have done with more murder attempts, to be honest, as after a while it grows plain that there won't be another one before the grand finale in a graveyard. What you are offered in the meantime is a lot of musing over what it means to be a Hell's Angel.
This middle bit does feature scenes of action, including such striking sequences where the crew have attached a camera to the front of a motorbike and let the stuntman drive it as fast as they can through the coastal roads and streets: this is supposed to be Stone proving his worth, even though he's a cop. Although you'd never know he was a cop if it wasn't for a couple of bits with him doing a spot of investigating for about two minutes, and near the end where duty calls. Of course, that's not the real end, and the film climaxes with a daring anti-police message to show that the Grave Diggers bow to no man in their pursuit of personal justice or living free on the road. Of its time this may be, but it is entertaining for twenty-first century audiences even if it never completely delivers on that initial act. Music by Billy Green.
[Severin's two-disc Region 0 DVD has two documentaries, one vintage, a trailer and more as extras, making it a must for fans.]
