Johnny Showtime: Russ Meyer and FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!

 by JB

In which we near the end of our yearly exploitation journey, race around the desert in our hot jalopies, and attempt to kill some innocent lovebirds and a family of three...

Russ Meyer is one of the original exploitation auteurs. He predates Joe Sarno, Jess Franco, Larry Cohen, Jack Hill, Doris Wishman, and Fred Olen Ray. Meyer was a contemporary of Jack Arnold, Roger Corman, Herschell Gordon Lewis, and William Castle. Only Dan Sonney and Kroger Babb pre-date him.

According to Nathan Rabin of The AV Club, “Meyer [...] got his start making films while serving in the US Army's 166th Signal Photographic Company during WWII. He had a reputation for running strictly regimented film shoots with a small crew composed largely of former army buddies. Charles Napier, who appeared in five of Meyer's films, said that ‘working with Russ Meyer was like being in the first wave landing in Normandy during World War II.’ Meyer considered the Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! shoot no different, saying ‘It was the usual thing with me. It's like being in the military. Everybody has to get up and do their jobs to get things together, and that's it.’"

It certainly helped Meyers’ eventual career as a filmmaker that his army experience turned him into an ace cinematographer. Say what you want about the content of his exploitation pictures, they all look magnificent.

THE PLOT IN BRIEF: Go-Go dancers Varla, Rosie, and Billie (Tura Satana, Haji, and Lori Williams) finish their shifts at the club and go riding off into the desert in their souped-up roadsters. Eventually, they come upon Tommy (Ray Barlow) doing a time trial of his racecar with girlfriend Linda (Susan Bernard). Varla kills Tommy; the three of them drug and kidnap Linda.

Our homicidal trio (with comatose Linda in tow) chance upon an old man (Stuart Lancaster) living like a hermit on the edge of the desert. He lives there with his two sons, Kirk (Paul Trinka) and The Vegetable (Dennis Busch). Rumor has it that the old man is hiding a fortune in cash somewhere on his property. Our three go-go protagonists vow to find it and take it from him.

Like many eventual cult classics, Faster, Pussycat! was not a success upon its original release. It took many years of reparatory screenings and eventual home video releases to garner the film its current reputation as an exploitation masterpiece. In this, the film shares a demented point of pride with many other beloved films: The Wizard of Oz, Blade Runner, and The Big Lebowski spring to mind. These films were considered financial failures in their first release, and only garnered praise and esteem over time; The Big Lebowski even spawned a religion.

The film has also influenced other filmmakers. Writer-director John Waters stated in his book Shock Value that "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is, beyond a doubt, the best movie ever made. It is possibly better than any film that will be made in the future."

Like the films of fellow exploitation auteur Ed Wood, Russ Meyer’s Faster, Pussycat! contains ENDLESSLY QUOTABLE DIALOGUE:

Narrator

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, anytime, anywhere, and with anybody. Who are they? One might be your secretary, your doctor's receptionist... or a dancer in a go-go club!

And...

Verbose Gas Station Attendant

(staring at Varla's chest as he pumps gas)

Just passing through, huh? Boy, that motor's sure hot!

You gals really must have been moving on these little machines.

Yessir, the thrill of the open road. New places, new people,

new sights of interest. Now that's what I believe in, seeing America first!

Varla

You won't find it down there, Columbus!

And...

Billie

I'm of legal age for whiskey, voting, and loving.

Now the next election is two years away, and my love life

ain't getting much better, so how about some of that 100 percent?

And...

The Old Man

They let 'em vote, smoke and drive — even put 'em in pants! So whaddya get?

A Democrat for President! A lotta smoke up your chimney,

Russian roulette on the highway! You can't even tell brother from sister...

'less you meet 'em head on.

Though it does not contain the copious nudity that fills Meyer’s other films, Faster, Pussycat! might just be the ideal Meyer “starter film,” a chance to stick your... um... toe in the water... so to speak. In this film, we enter a fictional world that would stay pretty consistent throughout Meyer’s oeuvre—a sweaty, white trash, oversexed backwoods Anytown of the mind. A small hamlet south of the Mason-Dixon line that hides many secrets. Meyer’s created genre seems to channel Erskine Caldwell’s God’s Little Acre, Grace Metalious’s Peyton Place, and Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Let’s call it Southern Horny Noir. The men are compromised and cuckolded; the women possess heavy bosoms and insatiable sex drives. The stifling heat and lack of any abiding moral code eventually drives everyone crazy. Many of Meyer’s films end with a long speech by an unseen narrator, exhorting us to live a better life. The following screed from the conclusion of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is representative of all of these:

Narrator

The act of death has caused another life to be reborn. Together we share the wonder of human existence, and let there be no doubt that all of us are brothers. There can be no beginning or ending that does not in some way touch another, for our actions affect the lives and destinies of many. Z-Man, he forgot that life has many levels, and by choosing to live on only one, lost sight of reality [....] Kelly, with her selfish involvement, was so ready to turn her back on friendship. The road back is painful, but by her pain, she will never again forget.

YOU must each decide what your life will be. YOU must always know that a hand extended to your fellow man is a gesture of love; love that asks nothing, expects nothing, yet is simply there. And if love is in YOU, then gentle will be all your steps as YOU walk beyond this valley.