Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)

Russ Meyer’s 1965 opus Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is another of those movies I’ve been meaning to see for a long time. It’s the story of three bad girls in fast cars. After one of them commits a murder they end up at a deserted farm inhabited by an appalling old man and his two sons. The girls are hoping to get their hands on the money they believe the old man has stashed away. General mayhem results.

I think one of the reasons this movie has stood the test of time is that for all its trashiness it’s extremely well-made trash. In a cheap exploitation movie you expect grainy washed-out photography and uninspired direction. In Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! you get black-and-white cinematography that looks crisp and fabulous and imaginative and lively direction. The action sequences and the fight scenes have a real vitality to them. As for the acting – it may be bad, but it’s interesting bad. The dialogue, like that of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, comes from no specific sub-culture that ever existed but from an imaginary world of Russ Meyer’s. It’s a very funny movie and it’s camp to a degree that is truly awe-inspiring. It’s also remarkably stylish – Meyer had a very individual visual imagination. The camera angles and the editing are actually rather arty. The movie is very Pop Art. The Go! Pussycat! Go! featurette included on the DVD is a very worthwhile extra, and the DVD (the Region 4 one anyway) also includes two commentary tracks – one by Russ Meyer and one by the pussycats themselves. I loved this movie.