By Scott Muoio

It was at The Common Ground in Allston, Massachusetts in 2000 where I first saw Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Although I had no idea what it was being projected on the enormous screen I was immediately entranced. Faster, Pussycat! had it all: a barren desert locale, ultra sharp focus, sporty race cars, giant breasted women with bad attitudes and cinched waists, goofy, expressive acting, and of course, the slight pretension of black and white film stock. And it wasn’t until a few years later that I discovered this woman empowering cult film was the Russ Meyer classic, one of the greatest exploitation films ever made, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

Faster, Pussycat! follows three top-heavy female thrill seekers taking an afternoon break from the go-go bar circuit. The ladies race their sports cars through the Mojave desert, beat up men, abduct a bikini clad teenage scream queen, take cold outdoor showers, and get mixed up with a wheel chair bound old hillbilly and his two sons who may or may not be hiding a small fortune in cold, hard cash. The women are proto-feminists doing anything and everything they want; that means bedding men one minute and kicking their ass the next. In Russ Meyer’s world women call all the shots and men are impotent slugs incapable of getting one over on their decidedly feminine yet brutally aggressive adversaries. And the formula works resulting in a film and worldview that is as thoroughly fresh and entertaining as it is way ahead of its time.

Indeed, the women in Faster, Pussycat! have giant breasts that mark territory like the faces on Mount Rushmore, but unlike most other films Meyer’s women use their assets to lure in men, use them sexually, grind them down physically, mentally, and emotionally and then discard them to the scrap heap. Tura, Haji, and Lori are the exploiters and anyone that thinks differently can taste their fists and feel the spike of their heels right where the sun don’t shine. It is a breathtaking turn of the events, especially considering that some 45 years later films still treat women as bit players, second-class citizens, and scripted after thoughts, a crying shame.

Say what you want about Russ Meyer the man, but no doubt his films make women the be all, end all of the powerful female: liberated, sexual, smart, funny, and independent all at once, a breath of fresh air for both the 1960s and today.

Director: Russ Meyer

Producer: Russ Meyer

Writer: Jack Moran, Russ Meyer

Starring: Tura Satana, Haji, Lori Williams, Susan Bernard

Original Music: Paul Sawtell

Cinematographer: Walter Schenk

Editor: Russ Meyer