jhanks-45230
I didn't find this movie very entertaining. Yes, it is fun for it's 60's camp and the girls, but the script is so awful that it makes even that hard to enjoy. I did however look up the star, Tura Santana, and wow, what a bad@$$ in real life. Five of the six stars I gave this movie are for that. The movie may be corny, but she sounds like the real deal.
Red-Barracuda
Considering its fame, it comes as a bit of a surprise to learn that this Russ Meyer movie wasn't successful on first release. In fact it did a lot worse than Meyer's subsequent effort Motor Psycho. The latter was essentially a more traditional exploitation flick in which a gang of thugs go around causing violence. The chief difference between this movie and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! was that in the latter the villains were a gang of girls. It seems audiences in 1965 weren't ready for the kind of dangerous women that Meyer unleashed; women as amoral and violent as traditional male villains. Nowadays, there will be very few people indeed who consider Motor Psycho the better film, while Faster Pussycat is not only regarded by many as Meyer's best film but also one of the very best exploitation films ever made. The reason it didn't connect at the time was really because it was too far ahead of the game.For a film made in the mid-60's Faster Pussycat has a very modern feel. One of the reasons for this was because of Meyer's sharp photography coupled with his precision editing. His films were very stylised and Faster Pussycat is a great example. His camera-work is always consummate and great looking, while the three lead women are consistently well shot – Meyer always ensures that they look fantastic. These women are of course the pussycats – go-go dancers, drag racers, killers - and a cooler gang of villains there has never been. The leader Varla is truly a one in a million. Played by the indescribably sensational Tura Satana, she is clad entirely in black and goes around shouting lines of great dialogue at whoever comes within distance. Has there ever been a temptress as cool and dangerous as Varla in cinema ever since? No, there certainly has not. Then there is Billie played by Lori Williams who is the loose cannon of the group. On the surface she seems the least threatening of the trio but she is under no one's thumb and Williams is extremely seductive. Completing the trio is Rosie played by the one and only Haji. Personally, she is my favourite of the three. She has the most magnificent over-the-top (Latino?) accent and gestures I have ever seen. Needless to say, all three pussycats are glorious. The male characters are much less interesting – how could they not be? – but still Meyer regular Stuart Lancaster is once again very good in the role as a wheelchair-bound nasty misogynist, while it would be remiss not to mention that he has a simple minded son who is known simply as The Vegetable.But Faster Pussycat is not all about the visuals. The script by Jack Moran is extremely memorable and full of brilliant one-liners. Varla in particular spits out this dialogue with some verve. It remains a very amusing film because of the sheer funniness of the script. The movie even begins with a voice-over that starts with the genius line 'welcome to violence!' We are subsequently warned of a new type of woman, a dangerous female who will kill without warning. All of this is accompanied by a black screen with audio distortion lines. Directly after this we are in a go-go club where we are immediately introduced to the pussycats. And we are off, driving through the desert along with the ultra-cool theme tune by The Bostweeds. It's one of the greatest openings to any film in my personal opinion.Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is a film full of entertainment from start to finish. There are many moments to savour and it shows - if evidence was really needed - that Russ Meyer was a really great film-maker. And yes, this really is one of the greatest exploitation movies ever made!
morrison-dylan-fan
Before picking up a boxset of his films in the Christmas sales last year,I had heard about 2 Russ Meyer movies,due to both of the titles later being used as the name for some bands,with Mudhoney being one of the earliest bands from the Grunge sub-genre,and Faster Pussycat being a Hard Rock band,whose music video for the single "Don't change that song" was directed by Russ Meyer!.With having found Mudhoney to be a great,southern-fried Drama,I decided to find out how wild Meyer's cats could be.The plot:Searching round for a place to do some test laps before a big race,Tommy and Linda are pleased to find a deserted desert area,that will give Tommy all the room he needs to run his test laps.Reaching the centre of the area,Tommy and Linda discover 3 parked up cars,that belong to a group of go-go dancers called Varla,Rosie and Billie.Attempting to politely introduce themselves,Tommy and Linda are instead pushed around by the gang,who tell Tommy that if he wants to prove the he is a "real man",then he must go against them in a race,right now.Aggreing to the challenge,Tommy is left dazed and confused after the gang reveal their less than "traditional" driving skills.Taking advantage of the situation,Varla,Rosie and Billie grab Linda,and tell her that they are going to kidnap her,so that they can put Linda up for ransom.Rushing to save his girlfriend from being kidnapped,Tommy inadvertently runs into Varla's deadly karate chops,which lead to Tommy being left for dead,face down in the desert.Filling Linda up with sleeping pills so that she keeps her mouth shut,the gang head to a peteral station,so that they can fill the cars up,and get of there with Linda as quickly as possible.Waiting for the peteral station guy to finish filling up the cars,the gang notice a fellow,wealthy-looking,wheel-chair bound customer being helped into a truck by the man's son.Keeping their interest under wraps,the girls ask the peteral station attendant if he knows anything at all about the man.Taken by the girls sudden interest in local knowledge,the attendant tells the gang that the man lives in an isolated farm house with his two sons,and that their have been rumours going around the town for years that the man is sitting on a suitcase full of cash.Excited over the opportunity of grabbing more cash then she originally expected,Varla tells Rosie and Billie,that before they run off with their bounty in Linda,that it might be a good idea,if they pay this kind,wealthy old man a surprise visit.View on the film:Reuniting with co- screenwriter Jack Moran, (who wrote one of the last titles from Russ Meyer's "Nudie-Cutie" era with Wild Girls of the Naked West)co-writer/co-producer/editor and directing auteur Russ Meyer shows in his eye-catching stylised directing a tremendous skill in combining the cartoon style aspects of his Nudie-Cutie movies,with the Film Noir path that he is currently on,so that Meyer can create an unforgettably wild,cartoon-bonkers,deranged Film Noir.Introducing each of the rough'n tumble amazonian women, (played by the splendid,and very easy on the eye's Haji,Lori Williams and Tura Satana) in a go-go dancing nightclub,Meyer bravely keeps away from building a "safe" centre-ground that the movie can relay on,to instead push everything contained within the film right to the edge of the sanity,with each of the actress's delivering their cracking dialogue with extremely over exaggerated pronunciation,which helps to create an irresistible animated atmosphere.Keeping away from making any of the stunning girls mere 2D characters,Meyer shows a surprising amount of subtly in the way that he reveals the "true" relationship that Varla,Rosie and Billie have with each other,with the relationship between Varla and Rosie being one the is filled with glances that last just that bit too long,which become much more noticeably on repeat viewings of the film. (In an interview on the DVD,Haji mentions that Meyer did not give her the full details of Rosie's relationship with Varla until the movie had finished shooting,due to Meyer wanting the "true" meaning of their relationship to be one that was hidden from the suffice of the film.)Along with the deadly kittens,Meyer and co-writer Jack Moran give the film a strong Horror element,with the old man,who the gang think they'll be able to steal a huge bundle of cash from,being revealed as not being a kind old man at all,but instead being one who is wicked,that also holds some pretty unsettling "family values" close to his heart,which lead to the gang having to risk everything that they have got,in the hopes that they end up becoming the cats who got all of the cream.
