6. Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)
Varla, Rosie and Billie are a trio of go go dancers who take a trip out to the desert to indulge their passion for car racing. They meet a soppy little girl and her dipstick boyfriend. After a race, Varla takes exception to the dipstick and starts an argument with him that results in Varla killing the square with her bare hands. They take the little sop with them and skedaddle. They end up at the house of a wheelchair bound, bitter as hell old man who was paralysed saving a girl from death by train. He lives with his two sons - one of whom is a very muscular but mentally debilitated man and the other is a sensible book worm. Varla knows that the old man has a heap of money and she is intent on finding it - trying to seduce the bookworm whilst Rosie - her lesbian lover looks on in anguish. Of course it all goes to hell in a hand basket. Billie, the man mad blonde of the group is trying to get the vegetable interested in her, but he lets her down and she goes straight for the scotch. She gets plastered and passes out only to remarkably wake up and sober up five minutes later. The old man tries to rape the little sop and then a free for all breaks out in which Varla goes on a killing spree and the bookworm and sop must stop her. I was so gutted at the end of Faster Pussycat when Varla died. She is a fierce baddie - a woman without a heart and she just looks so awesome and commanding, clad in black with her leather gloves and cigarillos. Tura Satana plays the character with such gusto, it is hard not to fall under her spell. The film sounds lurid, but there is negligible nudity - the focus is more on violence. The use of black and white in the movie is in keeping with Meyer's previous films - Mudhoney, Lorna and Motor Psycho and it definitely gives the film a distinctive edge. The three female leads look so impressive in black and white, it is hard to imagine them in colour. The film moves along at a nice zippy pace - as per usual for a Russ Meyer films. There is a ton of quotable sublime dialogue in the movie which adds immeasurably to its appeal - the wisecracking Varla spouts one beautiful one liner after another the whole way through the movie as do all of the characters in the movie. The setting in the desert is made more ominous for having been shot in black and white. The film is only around 75 minutes long, but packs more action and excitement in to that short time than most two hour long movies. Simply unmissable.