Movie Info
Movie Name: Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
Studio: Eve Productions
Genre(s): B-Movie/Action/Adventure
Release Date(s): August 6, 1965
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Fast girls and fast cars!
Varla (Tura Satana), Rosie (Haji), and Billie (Lori Williams) like to drive fast cars, love to fight, and aren’t afraid to kill. When Varla kills Tommy (Ray Barlow) and takes his girlfriend Linda (Susan Bernard) as a hostage, the girls must plan their next move carefully to keep the law off their tail. When they learn about a small fortune being held in the home of an old crippled man (Stuart Lancaster), he seems like the perfect mark…but the old man and his strong silent son (Dennis Busch) could be even more dangerous. Linda finds herself in a hell that she cannot escape and her only hope could be the old man’s other son Kirk (Paul Trinka).
Written and directed by Russ Meyer, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is a sexploitation “roughie” film released in 1965. The film did profit when it was initially released, but due to its cult status, the movie has become a much bigger hit and even has made festival and art house tours.
Oh yeah…I’m totally eating this corn hot!
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is one of those movies you hear about. Even the title of the film is fun (Russ Meyers allegedly made it include everything that sold films…fast cars, sex, and violence). The movie is exploitive, ridiculous, but still a lot of fun.
The first problem with the film as a whole is that I’m not sure where they are going with it for most of the film. Linda and Kirk are obviously the “innocents” in the film and the characters the audience are supposed to connect with, but the other characters continue to flip-flop. Sometimes the leader Varla seems like a good guy protector against the lecherous “Old Man” and other times the Old Man and “the Vegetable” seem to be the ones that are the victims. The Billie character really has little direction and you don’t know what side she’s playing and why.
You don’t need this arm do you?
The cast is awful, but Meyer really wasn’t going for acting gold. Despite not having much acting skill, Tura Satana manages to be pretty hypnotic on screen but I find it odd that they cast Haji who looks a little like Satana…I would think they would have gone for three different types of women since they went blond with Lori Williams. The old man and his family is rather creepy. You get Kirk character who is rather like Marilyn Munster and doesn’t seem to fit with them. Everyone in the film just feels off and it gives the film a weird vibe.
What Meyer does with the poor plot and acting is put it in a nice visual style. The film’s shot really exploit the women and their looks, but oddly empowers them at the same time. Varla and their gang use their sexuality to their advantage which is progressive, but also a knock against women’s lib at the same time. The desert setting does work for this, but I wish they had used some more distinctive locations within the desert.
This guy is creepier than most horror movie guys…
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is a fun movie that isn’t as shocking as it was when it was released. It is surprisingly violent at points, but the sensual nature is quite timid in comparison to modern films. The movie’s powerful women give it a strange S&M nature that is part of the appeal for fans. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is campy, goofy, and worth seeking out for fans of the genre but also film fans who want to see how even low-budget films can still contain some style.
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