Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)

In 'King of Nudies' director Russ Meyer's hard-core, low-budget, sex-ploitational cult film - his best and most popular work popular with male audiences in grindhouse theatres - has been reassessed and re-interpreted by some as a pro-feminist 'female empowerment' short epic, for its overly dramatic, trashy, semi-fantastical violent content (although without overt nudity or extreme bloodshed!). It featured fast cars, catfights, shapely outlaw females, go-go dancing, murder, and karate. Its tagline was:

SUPERWOMEN! Belted, Buckled and BOOTED!

In its gender reversal, the female characters were seen as fierce, cunning, powerful, supercharged, aggressive and sexually predatory, while the males were either weak, decrepit, sexually impotent or mindless brutes. The cult favorite was considered hard-core in its day, and originally failed at the box office.

• the very nasty, trashy crime thriller opened with the narrator's (John Furlong) (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 were buxom go-go dancers by night, who went on a murderous California desert rampage by day in their drag-racing hot-rod sports cars:
  
  
  • Billie (Lori Williams), a vivacious, hip-swiveling, bi-sexual blonde with a bare midriff
  • Rosie (Haji), masochistic and lesbian-leaning, Varla's sultry lover
  • Varla (burlesque dancer Tura Satana), a villainous, tough, black-haired, masculine-acting, black leather-clad dominatrix lesbian bad-girl, trash-talker and skilled karate expert; she wore dominatrix boots, and sported Kabuki-styled eyebrows, black bangs and cat-eye makeup, and a super-tight totally-black outfit with significant breast-cleavage exposure

Billie (Lori Williams)

Rosie (Haji)

Varla (Tura Santana)

• at a lake, Varla urged Rosie to fight Billie already wet in the water, and Rosie complained: "So I have to get all wet because the Lady Godiva wants to swim?"; Billie and Rosie engaged in a vicious 'cat-fight' as Varla watched from the shore - first in the water and then nearby, including throwing sand in each other's faces
• the trio then encountered a young couple on the salt flats: All-American clean-cut Tommy (Ray Barlow) and his timid, naive "cutie pie" bikini-clad girlfriend Linda (Susan Bernard, December 1966 Playmate); Billie instantly flirted with the racer by asking "Would you like to look under my hood?"
• Tommy was compelled to compete in a "friendly" drag "chicken race" once around the circular salt flat race track against Varla and the others, when Billie taunted him: "I'll bet you're a real tiger in disguise"; Tommy lost when she cheated and he was run off the track and spun out); afterwards, when Tommy objected and Varla suggested they fight, Varla karate-chopped him in the side and then in the neck and lethally back-crunched and spine-cracked him; Linda fainted from shock after witnessing the murder - and then was taken hostage-captive and kidnapped, drugged and gagged

Linda Witnessing Tommy's Murder

Linda Drugged, Kidnapped and Taken Hostage

Linda Gagged by Varla

• at a gas station in town, while the dumb attendant (Mickey Foxx) cleaned Varla's windshield, he 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!"
• as they waited to have all three cars filled with gas, Varla threatened her evil companions, claiming that they were not only witnesses but accessories to Tommy's criminal murder, when Billie retorted back to Varla: "Oh, you're cute. Like a velvet glove cast in iron. And like the gas chamber, Varla, a real fun gal!"
• nearby, Billie noticed a hunk of a man loading his truck, and carrying his crippled father who had suffered a railroad accident; according to the gas attendant, the nutty, hateful father had received "a big hunk of money for a settlement," but the funds hadn't been deposited in a bank and were hidden somewhere at his property
• the group (with hostage Linda) followed the truck to the dilapidated ranch of the crippled, wheel-chair bound rich "Old Man" (Stuart Lancaster), the lecherous father of muscle-bound, dim-witted Vegetable (aka "Veggie") (Dennis Busch) and his more normal older son Kirk (Paul Trinka); their scheming intent was to steal the lascivious old man's alleged inheritance money stashed somewhere at the ranch

"Old Man" (Stuart Lancaster)

Vegetable (aka "Veggie") (Dennis Busch)

Kirk (Paul Trinka)

• upon seeing Varla trespassing with her two friends, the Old Man with a shotgun denounced the female: "They let 'em vote, smoke, and drive, even put 'em in pants. So what do you get? A Democrat for President. A lot of smoke up your chimney, Russian roulette on the highway. You can't even tell brother from sister 'less you meet 'em head on"; when Varla left to finish up borrowing water for their sports-cars, the "Old Man" remarked about her: "Boy, she's a cold one alright. More stallion than mare. It's too much for one man to handle"
• shortly later, the voyeuristic, dirty "Old Man" was wheeled up to Varla and Rosie by Vegetable, and he asked: "You girls a bunch of nudists or are you just short of clothes?"
• with the "Old Man's" encouragement, Billie attempted to seduce the shirtless and clueless Vegetable, who was lifting weights, and she became increasingly frustrated at him: "You got yourself quite a playroom here, buster. 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?"
• meanwhile, Linda ran off from the "Old Man" (who tried to molest her) and tried to escape with Kirk's help; after she explained how the other girls had murdered her boyfriend as she begged: "Just get me out of here before they get me, please!...They're murderers! They kidnapped me, and killed my boyfriend! They're vicious killers!", to her anguished surprise, he drove her back to the ranch
• at the lunch table inside the ranch, the "Old Man" encouraged the three pussycats to eat the fried chicken: ("Alright son. Start passin' that chicken 'fore it loses its juice!"), as Billie offered Vegetable a choice on a plate: "Breast or thigh, darlin'?"; the "Old Man" added: "Why don't you take one of each, son? They, uh, both look tender"
• after lunch, Varla invited older son Kirk to join her outside so that he could be seduced - as a means to finding the hidden money; to irritate Varla's lesbian lover Rosie, the very soused Billie taunted her about how Varla was cheating on her: "You've only got one channel. And your channel's busy tunin' in outside. You really should be AM and FM, you one-band broads are a drag"
• Kirk was receptive to big-busted Varla's seduction: ("You're a beautiful animal, and I'm weak, and I want you. Badly I want you!"), and she led him to some straw on the ground to lie down for sex: "Right now you're first on my list and I always start at the top. You did want. You wanted big, real big....Whatever you want. Your cup to fill. To overflow....Don't talk it, do it. Just do it"); they were interrupted by Rosie, who informed them that Billie had drunkenly passed out in the house, and Linda had again escaped

Varla's Seduction of Kirk

• both Varla with Kirk, and Vegetable with the vengeful "Old Man", raced out to look for Linda in separate vehicles [Note: In the backstory, the "Old Man's" spine had been seriously injured years earlier on a train platform when he helped a young girl (resembling Linda) onto a moving train, and ever since, he had been motivated to exhibit "hatred for women."]
• the "Old Man" and Vegetable were the first to catch up to Linda; Vegetable tackled her, and then with his father's encouragement, he approached Linda to rape her - but then he apologized and backed off from assaulting her; Kirk arrived and announced that he would take Linda home (on foot), and then promised that he would take care of the two "kooks" (his degenerate brother and father); Varla was incensed that Kirk was showing protective and loving behavior toward Linda as he walked her away
• once Varla drove back to the ranch in her car, she told a revived Billie and Rosie: "Everybody's gotta go. This way we're all safe and we can all go back to our gigs. This'll be just another deserted ranch house"; Billie disagreed with the plan to kill the "Old Man," Kirk, Vegetable, and Linda, to cover their tracks, and vowed to leave 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's Knife-Hurled Murder of Billie

• in the film's violent conclusion, with Varla in the car, Rosie ran down and killed the crippled "old man" in his wheelchair (revealing the hidden money that flew out of the seat of the capsized wheelchair), because he was a witness to Billie's murder
• when Rosie went to retrieve her knife from Billie's back, the traumatized Vegetable assumed that she was responsible for Billie's death and he knifed her to death: ("I'll give you the knife") - with three vicious stabs to her abdomen - and she fell dead at his feet ("Your knife is yours to keep now") near Billie's dead body
• when Varla saw her girlfriend Rosie dead with stab wounds, she vengefully ran down Vegetable and partially pinned and crushed him with her car against a wooden fence
• out in the desert, Kirk and Linda were confronted by Varla driving the "Old Man's" jeep-truck and pursuing them on railroad tracks; she caught up to them and told them that they were the only ones left: "Your old man's been blasted out of his wheels. And your king-sized brother's been twisted like a pretzel. You're all that's left, lover, and you ain't gonna be around for long"; 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