Wuchak
Released in 1965 and conceived & directed by Russ Meyer, "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" is a campy melodrama/crime thriller starring Tura Satana as a sneering vixen who, along with her two go-go dancing pals (Haji & Lori Williams), entertain themselves in their spare time by hot rodding in the desert. After a mishap wherein the trio apprehend a winsome bikini girl (Susan Bernard) they smell easy money at a remote ranch in the desert, inhabited by a rich old man (Stuart Lancaster) and his two sons (Dennis Busch & Paul Trinka). Ray Barlow plays a "nice boy" desert racer while Michael Finn is on hand as a gabby gas station attendant.The movie has a big reputation as a cult flick and Meyer's definitive film, along with 1970's "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls," so I was very interested in finally viewing it. The first 20 minutes or so are fun and entertaining in a swingin' 60s kind of way, highlighted by the voluptuous female cast in which Meyer takes full advantage in illustrating their beauty (no nudity). The music, cars, apparel and thrills are additional highpoints.Unfortunately, once the women happen upon the ranch with the mad "Ben Cartwright" and "Hoss" & "Adam" (sorry, no "Little Joe") the lousy writing and corresponding eye-rolling histrionics manifest. It's as if Meyer and fellow writer Jackie Moran were attempting to make a mid-60s desert version of one of Tennessee Williams melodramas, but didn't have the writing expertise or professional cast to pull it off. As such, the story loses the viewer's interest and you're left to laughing at the exaggerated antics and trying to enjoy the attractions noted above. Being shot in B&W doesn't help matters.For a better movie that treads similar terrain (albeit with a wholly different plot) I suggest the contemporaneous "Village of the Giants," which was released a mere 2½ months after "Faster" and is in glorious color. The women are just as good, if not better, and the music is superior, not to mention it lacks an utterly scornful one-dimensional she-devil (don't get me wrong, Tura's great, but her character is so one-note disdainful it gets old after 25 minutes and you just want someone, ANYONE, male or female, to knock her silly). "Village" also doesn't pretentiously try to be a serious 60's tragedy à la "A Streetcar Named Desire" in the desert.The movie runs 83 minutes and was shot in the Mojave Desert (Lake Isabella, Lake Cunniback, Johannesburg, Randsburg & Ollie Pesch's Musical Wells Ranch) and Van Nuys (The Pussycat Club), California.GRADE: C+
SnoopyStyle
Varla, Rosie and Billie are nightclub dancers with attitude. They go out to the desert looking for trouble. They meet Tommy who wants to drive the salt flats and his innocent girlfriend Linda. Varla kills Tommy and they kidnap Linda. They drive onto the property of an old cripple and his muscle-bound slow-minded son, the Vegetable. They supposedly is hiding a money stash. The old man is interested in Linda who manages to escape. She's picked up by Kirk but he turns out to be the old man's son. He brings her back despite her loud objections.This is super camp. There is real bad acting. The line delivery by the girls is horrendous. Russ Meyer picked them mostly for their giant double assets. The fake laugh is laughable. Sue Bernard never stops screaming. Paul Trinka is forced to be dumber than the Vegetable and he's horrible at it. The writing is a mix bag. At times, it's painfully bad. At other times, it is pure cheese heaven. Overall, it is surprisingly watchable and awkwardly hilarious.
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.
chow913
Grindhouse At Its Best! I've only recently gotten into Russ Meyer films and I find him to be one of the most underrated screenwriters ever. His films are a lot more than just sex and violence. Sure there's plenty of it. But it's done within the context of original characters and gripping stories that keep you hanging on to every last scene.One forgotten aspect of the grindhouse genre is the lack of profanity. While 1965 standards didn't allow four letter words Russ Meyer out smarts the sensors by proving just how imaginative he can be with sexual innuendos and dirty insults. Much like Frank Miller comics. It's much more imaginative than just the same old, "F you mother effer." The plot: Three bad girl beauties Varla, Rosie, and Billie are on the hunt for trouble in the deserts of the South West.After drag racing a couple, Varla beats the boyfriend to death just for kicks, and the trio keep his innocent girlfriend as their new plaything.A gas station attendant tells the girls about an elderly man "The old Man" whom recently got a huge cash settlement from the railroad after an accident left him paralyzed. The girls drive out to his desert ranch looking for a big and easy score.What they don't know is The Old Man lives with his two slow witted sons the peaceful Kirk and the dumb ox Vegetable. Ever since being paralyzed the family has been picking up pretty girls to murder for fun.It's the bad girls versus the psycho guys! Each thinking they're smarter than the other by pretending to be something they're not.
