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Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)
In 'King of Nudies' director Russ Meyer's hard-core,
low-budget, sex-ploitational cult film - a pro-feminist 'female empowerment'
short epic popular with male audiences in grindhouse theatres, for
its overly dramatic, trashy, semi-fantastical violent content (although
with no overt nudity or extreme bloodshed!):
- the narrator's (John Furlong) opening (voice-over)
monologue: "Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to violence, the
word and the act. While violence cloaks itself in a plethora of
disguises, its favorite mantle still remains - sex. Violence devours
all it touches, its voracious appetite rarely fulfilled. Yet violence
doesn't only destroy, it creates and molds as well. Let's examine
closely then this dangerously evil creation, this new breed encased
and contained within the supple skin of woman. The softness is
there, the unmistakable smell of female, the surface shiny and
silken, the body yielding yet wanton. But a word of caution: handle
with care and don't drop your guard. This rapacious new breed prowls
both alone and in packs, operating at any level, any time, anywhere,
and with anybody. Who are they? One might be your secretary, your
doctor's receptionist, or a dancer in a go-go club!"
- the three main stars: buxom go-go dancers by night,
who went on a murderous desert rampage by day in hot-rod sports cars:
- the vivacious, hip-swiveling, bi-sexual blonde Billie (Lori Williams)
- the masochistic and lesbian-leaning Rosie (Haji)
- the villainous, tough, black-haired, masculine-acting, black leather-clad
dominatrix lesbian bad-girl and skilled karate expert Varla (Tura Satana),
with dominatrix boots, black bangs and cat-eye makeup, a tight totally-black
outfit with significant breast-cleavage exposure, Kabuki-styled eyebrows
- the 'cat-fight' at a lake between Billie and Rosie,
first in the water and then nearby, including throwing sand in
each other's faces
- the encounter with a young couple on the salt flats:
Tommy (Ray Barlow) and his timid, naive bikini-clad girlfriend Linda
(Susan Bernard, December 1966 Playmate); cleancut racer boyfriend
Tommy competed in a drag race on the salt flat race track against
Varla and the others (and he lost when she cheated and he was run
off the track by Varla and spun out); afterwards, Varla karate-chopped
Tommy in the neck and lethally back-crunched and spine-cracked him,
while Linda was kidnapped, drugged and taken hostage-captive after
witnessing the murder
- the gas station dialogue when the dumb attendant (Mickey
Foxx) (while cleaning Varla's windshield) said he wanted to 'see'
America - as he stared down at Varla's bounteous chest: "Just
passing through, huh? Boy, that motor's sure hot! You gals really
must have been moving on these little machines. Yes, sir, the thrill
of the open road. New places, new people, and new sights of interest.
Now that's what I believe in, seeing America first!"; Varla
memorably growled back: "You won't find it down there, Columbus!"
- Varla's threat to her evil companions that they were
not only witnesses but accomplices to Tommy's murder, when Billie
retorted back:
"Oh, you're cute. Like a velvet glove cast in iron. And like the
gas chamber, Varla, a real fun gal!"
- the sequence of the trio's arrival (with hostage Linda)
at the dilapidated ranch of a crippled, wheel-chair bound rich
"old man" (Stuart Lancaster), the father of muscle-bound,
dim-witted Vegetable (aka "Veggie") (Dennis Busch) and his
more normal older son Kirk (Paul Trinka); the girls' intent was to
steal the lascivious old man's alleged inheritance money hidden somewhere
at the ranch
- the scene of Billie's attempted seduction of the shirtless
and clueless Vegetable, who was lifting weights, when she frustratingly
yelled at him: "What you need now is a playmate. I may not be
much in the muscle department, but I got a few things goin' for me
too, you know. What you need is a manager. Yeah! Ten percent of your
action be enough for anyone. I never took no course in anatomy, but
from what I can see, you got two of everything - and some left over.
I don't know what you're trainin' for, but as far as I'm concerned,
you're ready. Look, me Jane, you Tarzan. Now why don't you drop that
tree you're holding and let's grab a vine and swing a little, huh?"
- the demise of Billie after she told the others that
she was through with killing and that she was leaving them: ("Well,
I hate to break up the act, girls, but I always did want to do a
single. See you in church, huh?"); as she was walking away,
Varla threw Rosie's switchblade knife a long-distance into her back
as she cried out: "Much later, filly!" - Billie staggered
and arched backward before falling dead to the ground; Varla also
ran down the old man in his wheelchair with her car and killed him
(revealing the money hidden in the seat), because he was a witness
to Billie's death
Varla's Knife-Hurled Murder of Billie
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- when Rosie went to retrieve her knife from Billie's
back, Vegetable assumed that she was responsible for Billie's death
("I'll give you the knife") and he knifed her to death
- with three vicious stabs to her abdomen - she fell dead at his
feet ("Your knife is yours to keep now"); when Varla
saw her girlfriend Rosie dead with stab wounds, she vengefully
ran down Vegetable and partially crushed him with her car against
a wooden fence
- in the film's violent conclusion out in the desert,
during hand-to-hand combat between Varla and Kirk, Varla was gaining
the upper-hand until Linda smashed into her with the ranch's jeep-truck
and she soon died (with a clenched fist in the air about to strike);
afterwards, Linda cried out hysterically: "I killed her like
she was an animal. Like she was nothing!" - Kirk responded: "She
was nothing, nothing human! A real Jekyll and Hyde. You saved my
life, so stop cryin', huh?" As they were leaving, Linda asked: "Are
you gonna just leave her there?", Kirk coldly replied: "Well,
she's not goin' anywhere" - the film's last line
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Racing Sports-Cars
Billie and Rosie's Cat-Fight
Tommy (Ray Barlow) and Linda (Susan Bernard) on Salt Flats
Gas Station Attendant: Staring at Varla's Chest
The Three Pussycats
Linda Kidnapped and Terrorized After Tommy's Murder
Varla's Murder of Wheel-Chaired "Old Man"
Vegetable's Knifing of Rosie
Varla vs. Kirk (Varla Run Down by Linda)
Varla Left Dead in the Desert
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