{"id":34501,"date":"2023-11-20T07:24:33","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T12:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=34501"},"modified":"2023-11-20T07:24:33","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T12:24:33","slug":"born-losers-1967-directed-by-starring-tom-laughlin-z-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=34501","title":{"rendered":"“Born Losers” (1967) directed by & starring Tom Laughlin \/ Z-View"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Born Losers <\/strong><\/em>(1967)<\/p>\n

Director: T.C. Frank <\/strong>(Tom Laughlin<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

Screenplay by: James Lloyd<\/strong> (Elizabeth James<\/strong>)
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring: Tom Laughlin, Elizabeth James, Jeremy Slate<\/strong>, William Wellman Jr., Jack Starrett, Robert Tessier, Jeff Cooper, Stuart Lancaster, Delores Taylor <\/strong>and Jane Russell.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tagline: KITTEN ON WHEELS WITH HER BIKE, HER BOOTS and HER BIKINI! Out for kicks… in for trouble! She’s going to Join the… BORN LOSERS<\/p>\n

The Story:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Born Losers motorcycle gang has begun to terrorize a small California town. Victims and witnesses alike are terrified to testify against them.<\/p>\n

Billy Jack is a former Viet Nam vet who lives a quiet life in the mountains.\u00a0 On a trip to town, Billy Jack sees gang members savagely beating a man.\u00a0 Although no one else is willing to help, Billy Jack grabs his rifle.\u00a0 He orders the gang to stop.\u00a0 One gang member says he doesn’t have enough bullets to get them all and they begin to surround him.\u00a0 Billy Jack shoots one in the leg.\u00a0 The police arrive and arrest everyone including Billy Jack.\u00a0 Billy Jack later learns that his fine for firing the gun was more than the gang members got for assault.<\/p>\n

News spreads that gang members have raped some young women.\u00a0 Only one is willing to testify.\u00a0 She is being kept in protective custody at a hotel.\u00a0 When gang members lure the cop guarding her away, others go to kidnap her.\u00a0 Billy Jack intervenes.<\/p>\n

Billy Jack plans to keep her safe until the trial.<\/p>\n

What chance does one man have against an outlaw biker gang?<\/p>\n

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tom Laughlin had the character Billy Jack in mind for years before he ever made it to the screen.\u00a0 Born Losers<\/em> was written to cash in on the biker craze and be a springboard for Billy Jack.\u00a0 Elizabeth James, the movie’s co-star wrote the screenplay using the name James Lloyd.\u00a0 The thought was who would want to see a biker movie written by a chick?<\/p>\n

Tom Laughlin, who played Billy Jack, directed Born Losers<\/em>. He used the pseudonym T.C. Frank. His three children are named Teresa, Christina and Frank. His wife Delores Taylor has a quick cameo as a mother with two children (played by Teresa and Frank).<\/p>\n

Movie tough guy, Robert Tessier, makes his film debut in Born Losers<\/em>!<\/p>\n

Born Losers<\/em> was successful enough for Laughlin to get financing to make Billy Jack.<\/em>\u00a0 When Billy Jack<\/em> became a breakout hit, American International re-released Born Losers<\/em>.\u00a0 They advertised it with a new poster that focused on Billy Jack.\u00a0 The box office of Born Losers<\/em> ended up being American International’s highest grossing release until 1979.<\/p>\n

Born Losers<\/em> generated 3 more Billy Jack movies; Billy Jack<\/em> (1971), The Trial of Billy Jack<\/em> (1974) and Billy Jack Goes to Washington<\/em> (1977).<\/p>\n

Jack Starrett plays a deputy much like the deputy character he played in First Blood<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Most folks may be surprised my rating for Born Losers<\/em> is so high.\u00a0 The film resonates with me.\u00a0 I saw Born Losers<\/em> on a double feature with Billy Jack<\/em> when I was in 9th grade.\u00a0 (The perfect age for both those movies.)\u00a0 My “date” was my girlfriend and future wife.\u00a0 I love that Tom Laughlin had a vision and despite many, many obstacles (losing financing, losing distribution, etc.) was able to make his dream come true and create a legendary character.\u00a0 Your mileage may vary.<\/p>\n

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Born Losers (1967) Director: T.C. Frank (Tom Laughlin) Screenplay by: James Lloyd (Elizabeth James) Starring: Tom Laughlin, Elizabeth James, Jeremy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,51,54,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebs","category-crime","category-movies","category-z-view"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34501"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34537,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34501\/revisions\/34537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}