Cult Cinema: Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) - Reviewed

Courtesy of RM Films International

 Cult indie/exploitation filmmaking legend Russ Meyer had already built up a miniature oeuvre of sexploitation flicks chock full of camp comedy, voluptuously large-breasted sassy ass-kicking female characters and an overload both satirical and sensory before arriving on his first foray into serious filmmaking with his 1964 film Lorna followed by what he called his “Gothic” period.  This consisted of three similarly themed films all of which were made in 1965: Mudhoney, Motorpsycho and the film which Russ Meyer is most well known for: Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
 
Co-written by Meyer and Jack Moran, the film trails three go-go dancers, Billie (Lori Williams), Rosie (Haji) and Varla (Tura Satana) in the middle of a California desert who engage in a murder spree replete with kidnapping, drugs, extortion, sex and ferociously snappy dialogue.  As the saga goes on, they stop at a gas station and cross paths with a wheelchair-bound elder (Stuart Lancaster) and his muscle-head son Kirk (Paul Trinka).  Soon learning the boys are sitting on a large sum of money, the stage is set in motion for a cat-and-mouse game as the disparate groups engage in a battle of the sexes rife with catfights and a whole lot of ass-kicking of its lecherous male characters.

Courtesy of RM Films International

Initially a commercial failure written off as another skin flick replete with softcore sex scenes and nudity compounded with many scenes of its buxom bombshell characters beating up dumb men keen on trying to disrobe and exploit the women, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! has since gone on to garner a strong cult following and is now regarded second to Beyond the Valley of the Dolls as the quintessential Meyer property.  Not unlike fellow progenitor of strong female characters in the annals of exploitation cinema Jack Hill, Meyer pushed against the norm with fast talking, funny and fiercely intelligent women who proved to be a viable threat to men.
 
Meyer and actress Tura Satana have clearly created one of the most badass femme fatales in cinema history and paved the way for other such transgressive tongue-in-cheek provocateurs as John Waters who cites it as his favorite film and Quentin Tarantino whose Death Proof segment in the film Grindhouse provided special thanks to Meyer’s film in the end credits.  Notable for Satana’s wise-cracking meta dialogue often referring to characters and plot developments as they come in Hollywood terms, the character of Varla is at once beastly and deathly cool.  Dressed in black donning leather boots and gloves, Varla might be the most honest and true character of Meyer’s whole career.

Courtesy of RM Films International

Shot in the open California desert terrain in crisp black-and-white by Walter Schenk with many tense scenes of dangerous car chases and brutal hand-to-hand combat fights, one gets the sense even that Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! may have influenced the development of what would or would not become the Mad Max film franchise.  The film’s soundtrack by Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter equally amplifies the film’s sassy attitude and gives the thing an impish flavor, inviting you not to completely take the whole thing too seriously.
 
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! would not be the iconic piece of exploitation filmmaking turned cinema history without the participation of Tura Satana who gives what can be put mildly as an utterly fantastic performance.  So alive, full of personality, a vicious edge and a no-nonsense attitude, even when she starts brutally murdering people and taking the survivors hostage you still want to root for her, a true villainess you love to hate.  Also equally strong and funny are Lori Williams and Haji who both recite endlessly quotable dialogue and get into more than a few tussles with one another on their wild and reckless ride through the desert.

Courtesy of RM Films International

While the goofily over-the-top exercise itself is somewhat hard to come by now due to ongoing unresolved rights issues involving Meyer’s estate, the film has nevertheless amassed a stronghold on popular culture in terms of film, music and especially videogames.  On its own terms outside of the ongoing feeding frenzy it has amassed among cult moviegoers, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is a splendid slice of mid-60s exploitation cinema made by a legendary independent filmmaker arguably at the peak of his creative powers.  One of a kind and maybe even the first of its kind.

--Andrew Kotwicki