10 Alternative Films For Valentine's Day

Faster Pussycat begins the way most movies do, with a narrator warning us about the “rapacious new breed” of dangerously evil females that hunts alone and in packs, operating at any level, anytime, anywhere and with anybody.

After killing a drag-racing stranger, a psychotic go-go dancer leads her two equally deranged girlfriends to the desert ranch of an old cripple and his retarded son. Alerted to the old man’s hidden fortune, the girls scheme, seduce and double-cross their way to the loot in ways that suggest there won’t be anybody left standing when the credits roll.

If you didn’t know that Russ Meyer was a former glamour photographer, you’d be able to guess from Pussycat’s portrayal of women. Dressed in tight trousers or short shorts, with their ample bosoms practically spilling out of their low-cut blouses, Meyer’s femme fatales tower over the men and seem to enjoy berating and beating them up more than they do seducing them. They also get all the best lines. “I’m of legal age for whiskey, voting and loving,” says Billie (Lori Williams). “Now the next election is two years away, and my love live ain’t getting much better, so how about some of that one hundred percent?”