Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)

Sick Product of a Sick System

Pretty Good

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

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.

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+

The cult of Russ Meyer had its heyday back in the late 70's and 80's when his work was embraced by people as different as John Waters and Roger Ebert, who championed his sex and violence epics as works of art with far greater depth and meaning than their sleazy appearance. It seemed that Meyer's trash was as profound as the serious work of Hollywood's best.But that was a long time ago and the culture has come a long way since then. As a kid, I remember VIXEN and HARRY, CHERRY, and RAQUEL playing at local theaters, but alas, I was far too young to see them. And as I have gotten older, I have learned that nothing ages faster than what was pushing the envelope yesterday.Only recently did I have an opportunity to finally see FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! and I can say that while it shows its age, there is much about the film that still holds its own. What makes FASTER, PUSSYCAT! look like a senior citizen: the clothes for one thing; Billie's miniskirt, Tommy's plaid shorts and Linda's bikini all scream 1960's. But more to the point, it is Meyer's leering, dirty old man point of view that makes FASTER, PUSSYCAT feel not only dated, but absolutely ancient. The way he asks us to pant at the sight of these bad girls gone completely out of control reeks of an era when Hugh Hefner was the epitome of hip and daring. What makes FASTER, PUSSYCAT! still have punch: it's depiction of a world devoid of morality and goodness, where almost all the characters are murderous and lecherous; where the only innocent person, Linda, is constantly beaten and victimized by the three go-go dancing amazons or the old man and his mentally damaged son. In this way, FASTER, PUSSYCAT! beats NATURAL BORN KILLERS to the punch by a good thirty years.Meyer got terrific performances out of his actors and actresses that still hold up, especially six foot plus Tura Satana as Varla, the leader of the three bad ass women on a rampage in the desert. Varla, who karate chops Linda's boyfriend to death early in the film, is one of the cinema's all time great female villains, a character with no redeeming attributes beyond the obvious physical ones. She is matched all the way by Lori Williams's Billie, whether she's taking a shower outside under a water tank, getting drunk at lunch or throwing down with Haji's Rosie. And Stuart Lancaster perfectly captures the Old Man's pathetic situation as well as his vileness.And Meyer had a keen eye for the action that was as unique as his gander for the female form; just look at the scene where Varla tries to crush the muscle bound Vegetable with her car, there's nothing quite like in any other movie.To answer my question, yes, FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! holds up pretty well, kind of like an old Ford Mustang whose paint is chipped and fender's dented, but whose motor still purrs like a pussycat.

I remember i watched a documentary about it and that's why i wanted to watch it. It's not common to see action movies with only girls, the last one i noticed was "Sucker Punch". This movie is one of the favorite movies of Quentin Tarantino, i'm not a big fan of him but it can be also a reason to watch it if you like Tarantino. Honestly i didn't think i will enjoy much. I thought it was going to be boring but many scenes were good. I mostly liked the final fight and the race at the beginning. It's interesting to ask "why they are not many movies like this, with girls as protagonists?". A guy will probably much more appreciate it than a girl. Recommanded for peoples who are bored bad guys.