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January 20, 2025 70 mins

In this classic episode of Weirdhouse Cinema, Rob and Joe discuss the 1965 cult classic crime thriller “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” directed by Russ Myers and starring Tura Santana, Haji and Lori Williams. (originally published 09/22/2023)

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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
This is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And
it's Monday, so we are bringing you an older episode
of Weird House Cinema. This is our episode on the
Russ Meyer classic Faster Pussycat Kill Kill. Oh, the Crimes
to be had?

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yes, Yes, let's dive right in.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
And this is Joe McCormick. And today we are going
to be discussing a cult classic, the nineteen sixty five
let's see, what would you call it, the Go Go
murder exploitation film, Faster Pussycat Kill Kill. I think I'm
to understand a favorite of many filmmakers.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yeah, especially a filmmaker John Waters. He is the ultimate
champion of this film. And I'm going to be touching
in on his thoughts regarding this film several times, especially
in the run up to the plot here. But yeah,
this is a very well known cult classic film. And
as we're approaching the Halloween season here, Joe, when I

(01:22):
had this discussion, like, well, maybe we should we should
avoid doing horror movies until we get either to October
itself or right to the edge of October, so as
to enhance the punch of all that horror. So last
week we did The Man Who Fell the Earth science
fiction drama, and this week, yeah, basically a crime yarn

(01:42):
a sixties go Go dancer desert crime movie.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
What brought you to this pic? Rub?

Speaker 1 (01:49):
You know, I don't remember specifically. It's one of those
that I've always been aware of, just because it does
have its B cinema cult following footprint firmly. It was
more of a bootprint firmly implanet, you know, in the
face of the American public. So I've always been vaguely
aware of it, and I've heard samples from it, seen
some stills from it, but I've never watched it in

(02:11):
its entirety. And yeah, I think I was just I
did a quick brainstorm. It's like, what's something that doesn't
have horror, What's something even further, it doesn't have a
speculative element at all that would still fit the profile
for weird house cinema. And I was like, oh, well,
it's got to be faster. Pussycat Kill Kill.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
I had never seen this movie before a couple of
days ago, and I was very impressed by it in
multiple respects. But one of the ways that impressed me
was how entertaining it is for a B movie. Now,
we love B movies, but a common problem with a
lot of B movies is that they they often have

(02:47):
dull stretches, not all, but a lot. You often get
the sense that, like, you know, a B movie director
is trying to like work up to the monster scene
and that's really what they're excited about, and they're like, Okay,
before we do that, we got to have like a
love scene here, we got to have like a character
explaining how the monster was made to kind of dry

(03:07):
you know, scientist explaining the origin of the monster whatever.
And these scenes feel kind of perfunctory. It's just like
they're even the director is not very excited about them.
They're just trying to get through them to show you
the stuff that's that you're really here for. This film
was made with the idea clearly that every moment should
be thrilling and entertaining in some way, even when it's

(03:30):
just kind of routine plot execution or just exposition that's
setting up later scenes. The script is written in such
a way that like every line a character says is
weird in a way that makes the scene entertaining. Like
I think the sensibility that russ Meyer, and from what

(03:51):
I've read, russ Meyer to a great extent, credits one
of the main cast members, touras Satana as also being
a sort of a not just a member of the cast,
but a true like creative influence behind like the movie
and its style. Whoever is responsible for the dialogue in
each scene knew that it is more important to be

(04:13):
entertaining than to be realistic, and I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yeah, yeah, I think this is a strong point. I
mean you even see it in the title, Like the
title is faster pussy Cat Kill Kill, And I've read that,
like the whole take on this is that like you have,
you know, a hint of sex in the title, you
have speed, you know, racing in the title, and you
have murder and death in the title, and it doesn't
actually make all that much sense as a statement or

(04:37):
a title. Like John Waters, when we're in writing about
the film, often refers to the Gang of three here
as the Pussycats. I don't think they ever refer to
themselves as such. But you know, fair enough, I guess,
but you do have to sort of twist the title
to make it work in a literal sense. Now, as
we'll discuss, this is certainly a film produced through the

(04:59):
main it's about go go dancers starring go go dancers,
or at least two of them. And while it's not
as provocative as you might expect by modern standards, I mean,
this is a mid nineteen sixties movie that was shown
at the drive in. You know, it's still clearly intended
to title ate, but it's also action packed. And it's
especially interesting to read various reviews that talk about it's

(05:21):
kind of dual nature because at the time of its release, Yeah,
a lot of people saw it as just a sexist
B movie, and a lot of people didn't like it.
To understand, it didn't actually perform all that well, but
it was later embraced as this kind of iconic counterculture
film with a grandiose vision of female power to match
the grandiose visions of masculine power found just everywhere else

(05:43):
in cinema. So this is this film that has been
very influential. It was a major inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's
Death Proof from two thousand and seven, and both Tarantino
and more recently actor Norman Retis have expressed an interest
in remaking it in one form or another. I think
you can ask a lot of questions about what form

(06:03):
a remake of Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill would take in
the twenty first century, But you know, maybe they have
a particular vision or visions in mind.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
I was actually thinking without knowing that, I was thinking
about Quentin Tarantino when I thought about modern filmmakers who
had clearly been inspired by this movie. I can see
direct lines of influence going from this movie to Yes
to death proove his half of the release that was
originally called Grind Grindhouse.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Is that what it was called, Yes Grindhouse.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
But then also to the kill Bill series. There is
some strong shared material there. Of course, I knew about
the John Waters connection, and we can talk some more
about some things that come through in John Waters' films
as well that seemed to be inspired by this movie.
But coming back to your comment about Norman read Us,

(06:55):
I have to lodge a complaint that is not about
this movie, but about how Google search results are now
we were just recently talking about how, for some reason
it seems like Google search results are just getting worse
and worse. I think I don't know exactly the reason
for this, but I would suspect it has to do
with just like the Web is getting worse and worse,
more packed with junk and you know, search engine gaming,

(07:16):
AI generated content and garbage. So the other day, when
I just googled this movie Faster Pussycat Kill Kill the
top result, what do you think it should be an
image of the poster of the movie, an image of
the cast of the movie, or a promo still from it. No,
it's a picture of Norman Reatas.

Speaker 4 (07:33):
Oh Man.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
I mean, I love Norman Reada's a very fun actor,
been in a lot of things I love. But come
on now, coming back to John Waters, I did pick
up his book Shock Value where he talked He talked
about a lot of things in that book, but he
does specifically talk a little bit about Faster Pussycat Kill Kill.
He writes that this film, russ Meyer's tenth film quote

(07:56):
is beyond a doubt the best movie ever made. It
is possibly better than any film that will be made
in the future.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
Don't try to argue with him. You don't want to
get pulled into this. He's had more practice having this
conversation than.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
You have exactly. I mean yeah, Like I say, he's
the ultimate champion of this film, and I think the
ultimate expert on it. He has meditated on this movie
more than any other person. In this book, he goes
on to talk about how initially he was drawn in
by the radio ads during the film's initial release they
promise that the movie would leave a taste of evil

(08:32):
in your mouth. And then he went and saw it,
and he fell in love the picture and ended up
seeing it every night at the local drive in, often alone,
for the remainder of its run there. So he cites
this movie as the primary influence on all of his
characters in all of his films.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
I can absolutely see that in many ways, and I
think he so. In one sense. You can see the
similarity in the way that John Water movies, I think
often go for that feeling of trying to make every
single moment interesting and entertaining rather than going for realism obviously,
and so it's like more important that a character say

(09:13):
something that is shocking or funny or entertaining in some
way than that they like strictly stay in character or
I don't know, do something that would be realistic. But
another big similarity I see is this may be a
weird thing to single out, but I think you'll have
to agree with me, is in a very strange and
idiosyncratic style of line delivery that is characteristic of this movie,

(09:39):
like especially Toursatana, but also the character Billy. They have
this way of saying lines where they're almost not really
acting them. They are just like shouting their lines, like
just spitting them out with this forceful, venomous, high octane
delivery for every line, just the same every time, And

(10:04):
that comes through in a lot of performances in John
Waters movies.

Speaker 5 (10:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah, this this feeling, especially in this movie, that it
often feel any given scene will often feel like a
pro wrestling promo. Yeah, you know, it has that kind
of energy. It maybe one note, but that note is
played super loud and there's no missing it, and it
delivers something about that character very loudly.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
Like I'm specifically thinking of a lot of Divines line
delivery and pink flamingos feels like Varla's line delivery in
this movie.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
Yeah, yeah, I think there's a direct connection there. So
we will keep coming back to some Waters quotes, because
again I think he's the authority on all these all
things faster, pussy, get, kill, kill. But as we you know,
normally we'd touch in the elevator pitch. I'm just going
to read you how John Waters describes this movie as
a quote violent Gothic melodrama built around three bisexual sych

(11:00):
Caught It Go Go girls, Varla, Billy and Rosie.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
There's an interesting angle that the movie approaches you with,
and I wonder what you think about this. Rob It
almost feels like it's trying to imply that this movie
is connected to current events. And those current events, which
you must have seen in the news, are that now
every day women are like breaking men's necks in the desert.

(11:28):
It's just something that's happening in this crazy world we
live in today, and this is a movie about that phenomenon.
But I don't think that there really was a phenomenon
to base this on.

Speaker 5 (11:39):
No.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
I mean, maybe it's exploiting a little bit this idea
that they actually you call out in some dialogue in
the film, or it's like women they're doing all these
things now that they didn't.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
Used to do in.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
One of those things is perpetrating violent crimes in the desert.
You've come a long way, baby.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
I mean, I'm sure it happens sometimes, but I don't
get the feeling that this was like there was a
sudden spike in the sixties of women just doing assassinations
related to auto racing.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
Now, I mean, obviously, yeah, women have always engaged in
murder and violence just as men have. I mean, we
have tales in the Old Testament and various myths and
legends and so forth. There are plenty of there have
been plenty of varlas throughout history. All right, let's go
ahead and listen to the trailer audio for Faster Pussycat

(12:28):
Kill Kill.

Speaker 5 (12:32):
If you want, ladies and gentlemen, gold cod for a
wild wild ride with the Watusi cuts. But beware, the
sweetest kittens have the sharpest claw. By your own safety
see Faster Pussy Cuts Kill Kill, Wild Women, wild whales,
race the fastest pussy cats and they'll be Jill top

(12:54):
debt So far woman Felton Wild and cootd.

Speaker 6 (13:03):
You're pating yourself on this kid. They're hanging itself for nothing.

Speaker 4 (13:06):
For nothing, got nothing to do with the money.

Speaker 6 (13:09):
Jis the money.

Speaker 5 (13:10):
Jack and Jill.

Speaker 6 (13:12):
They make a mafia look like Brownie.

Speaker 5 (13:14):
He's a good one. Anything that muscle.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
All we do here?

Speaker 6 (13:17):
Yeah, ten percent of your action be enough for anyone.

Speaker 5 (13:22):
Too much for one man to handle. And again you
never can town.

Speaker 6 (13:26):
You get us a bunch of newies.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
You just uh short of clothes.

Speaker 6 (13:31):
Right now you're first on my lists and I oh
go to you go only go one chill and your
channel's busy tuning and outside you really should be a benefit.
So who do I get to take care of the
muscle man? You got two of everything and some left over.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
You did one you wanted big rst or side.

Speaker 5 (13:59):
Are Why did you take one of these?

Speaker 6 (14:01):
Son?

Speaker 5 (14:02):
Both look tender.

Speaker 6 (14:04):
He's got a big motor to feed.

Speaker 4 (14:08):
Did you eat fer my man?

Speaker 6 (14:10):
Never ro shout David?

Speaker 5 (14:16):
Would you rough the last time?

Speaker 6 (14:20):
I here's how it works. Everybody's gotta go.

Speaker 5 (14:24):
You name it, We've got it. Past pussy hat kills,
delivers tongue board on the opposition, I'm ladylike karate chops,
ungentlemanly haymaker spirit, a gymnastics corrective table at sandbox jousting
or a muscle bound chat wrestling with a roaring sports
car that's intent upon squashing him like a grape, bizarre

(14:45):
kidney and chessie rattling chases, and for the first.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
Time on the screen, hay.

Speaker 5 (14:49):
Making, belly busting, karate charming, judah flipping, fight, Go in
Them All, Sober Woman against Man, the Prize life Itself, slashing, tackling,
gouge hacking, glittering, spelting, smashing, and muscle to muscle lone
to Bow, or an Incredible Evenings entertainment, a film so
totally satisfying see russ Meyer Faster. Of course, the time

(15:13):
Kill Kill.

Speaker 1 (15:18):
See really sells it. You can you can imagine being
the young John Waters hearing that or some version of
that trailer for the first time. All Right, As for
availability on this one, I do wish it was easier
to get a copy of it or to have an
official stream of the movie. It doesn't seem to be
widely available on disc right now, and I couldn't find

(15:39):
an official stream video. Drum has a copy of it
here in Atlanta. But yeah, given this film's cult status,
I would I would want it to be more available
than it is. But if you look hard enough, I
think you can probably find it somewhere. So if you
if you need a break and go see this movie,
you know, come back. We're going to talk about the
cast and some of the filmmakers, and then from there

(16:01):
we're going to get into a more spoilery discussion.

Speaker 4 (16:03):
Of the plot.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
All right, Well, let's start, yeah at the top, with
the director, the producer of the editor. He also is
a story credit. It's Russ Meyer, who lived nineteen twenty
two through two thousand and four, American exploitation director known
for campies exploitation films from the nineteen fifties through the
nineteen eighties, with a couple of brief returns after that.
He directed the nineteen seventy film Beyond the Valley of

(16:33):
the Dolls, the only film that film critic Roger Ebert
ever wrote.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
I think that movie was also not super well received
when it came out, but I've heard people kind of
appreciate it now. It's also allegedly just wild. The moment
to moment weirdness quotient is apparently quite high.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
So Meyer's film immediately prior to Faster Pussycat was nineteen
sixty five's Motorcycle, same year, same release, here about a
violent gang of male bikers, so he essentially flipped the
script on that for this movie, focusing on female characters instead.
His films are often categorized as being very technically proficient,

(17:14):
ludicrous in their dialogue, campy, and often using leering, low
angle shots. But those low angle shots often do create
this sense of weird kind of almost like mythic tension.
Likes it makes the characters in the film feel larger
than life. I mean, not just their physical bodies, but
like their sort of hero or villain status.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
I would say that russ Meyer's style is very much
in that category of schlock, but not hack. Somebody who
is creating what is supposed to be you know, yeah,
lowbrow exploitation cinema, but who actually is bringing quite a
bit of style and in a weird way. You could

(18:00):
almost say say taste to the experience.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yeah, Like I say, never a dull moment. If nothing else,
you're just wondering what are these characters going to say next,
And at any moment someone might get like slapped in
the face as well. Again, John Waters idolized russ Meyer,
called him quote the good old boy of exploitation films,
and in Water's view on things. Quote, exploitation films are

(18:24):
the only ones that come close to that dreaded word art.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
That's an interesting idea. I almost feel like I've heard
John Waters talk about this in some other context, that
there's almost kind of a like a horseshoe theory of
taste where, for some reason, a lot of people who
seem to have some of the highest tolerance for I
don't know, avant garde art and and you know, the

(18:54):
like the I don't know what you call it, the
kind of fine art that really asks you to open
minded and go outside of your comfort zone. For some reason,
are also often people who are into very low brow
B movie type stuff.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
Yeah, yeah, sort of putting yourself in a place of
open minded vulnerability where art can potentially hurt you, but
it's what does it make me feel? It's creating feelings,
and then I'm supposed to make sense of those feelings. Yeah,
it's not unlike the place you have to put yourself
in with various exploitation films. Though, to be sure, not

(19:32):
all exploitation films are created equal and in many different ways.
All right, Moving on to the screenplay itself, written by
Jackie Moran, who lived nineteen twenty three through nineteen ninety.
As a writer, he only worked on a handful of
produced screenplays, all russ Meyer pictures, but as an actor,
his credits go back to Believe the mid nineteen thirties.

(19:53):
As a child and youth actor appeared in various old
serials such as Buck Rogers, as well as a nineteen
thirty eight adaptation of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Oh
and he was also in a nineteen thirty nine film
called Gone with the Wind.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
So I mentioned that a lot of what makes this
movie unique is the the sort of high high grit
of the script, you know, like the way that each
line just kind of like grips you and rubs your brain.
And I don't know exactly where to put the credit
for this. It should should we be thinking about this

(20:27):
as like a feature of Jackie Moran's screenplay, or since
this seems to be, from what I've read, a characteristic
of russ Meyer films, is this something that's coming more
from Meyer's influence. But then again, as I said, also,
I've read that the tourist Satana is usually given credit
for shaping a lot of the tone and style of

(20:48):
the movie.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
Yeah, I mean, you probably want to sign with Varlain
this one, because otherwise she's gonna chop you in kidney.
So I mean, it does seem like a lot of
those lines are coming from the heart. So yeah, I
don't have a lot of clarity on this, but I
kind of have the suspicion that the screenplay was one place,
and then maybe the actors and or the director on

(21:11):
the set kind of like punch things in a different direction. Okay, Well,
let's talk about Toura Satana, not Santana, as I sometimes
keep mispronouncing it. This is her show name, leaning into
the sort of evil nature of her persona. So Satana
lived nineteen thirty eight through twenty eleven, and yeah, this

(21:33):
she plays the leader of our gang of three of
violence loving, fem fatal criminal, mastermind and goth queen of
the Desert. Satana was born Tura Yamaguchi. She was a
Japanese American exotic dancer and burlesque performer turned actor. She
started out in the early sixties with bit parts for
TV and film, including the TV series Hawaii and I

(21:55):
and The Man from Uncle. Then came This film, followed
by an uncredited role a dancer on sixty six is
Our Man Flint, and then the role of Satana, essentially
playing herself to some degree in the nineteen sixty eight
low budget sci fi horror film The Astro Zombies starring
Wendell Corey and John Keradine.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
That's a movie I have seen and remember almost nothing about,
which is a feature of most films I've seen starring
John Carradine.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
Oh well, you know, peep busted. He's in a lot
of films, but he is in a lot of forgivable films,
It's true. Astro Zombies is definitely one of those. It's
a classic B movie in anyways. It has this super
cool mask, very cool poster, but as I remember it,
a very plotting pace. I believe Satana plays the Mad

(22:45):
Doctor's evil hinch woman, but I cannot remember a thing
that anyone does in this aside from you do get
some creeping astro zombies from time to time.

Speaker 4 (22:54):
That was a Ted V. Mickels movie, wasn't it, I think?

Speaker 1 (22:58):
So. After this, she was in seventy three Is the
Doll Squad, a kind of Charlie's Angels inspired romp. She
left acting after that, but emerged again in the two thousands,
appearing in two thousand and fours, Mark of the Astro Zombies,
two thousand and nine, Sugar Box rob Zombies, The Haunted
World of Al Superbisto, and Astro Zombies M three cloned

(23:19):
in twenty ten. I mean, what can you say? Though
she's a force of nature in this movie, alluring is intended,
but also just believably mean and above all cool, Like
she's she's so cool that even though she is and
a lot of people have pointed this out, like she
is arguably the villain or one of the two main
villains in the picture, but at the same time, you're

(23:42):
rooting for the whole time where I was. It's like,
even if she's engaging and kidnapping and mass murder, I'm
kind of on team Varla the whole way. And Yeah,
it's just an amazing performance and you can't look away,
you can't stop listening. What is she going to say next?
Who is she gonna hit next?

Speaker 2 (23:58):
I love how she's just autumnally immediately rude to everyone.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
Yes she is. She's rude and cutting to everyone. No
one is safe, and it's just one step away from
murder at all times.

Speaker 2 (24:12):
Also, I'm pretty sure in all her fight and action scenes,
we're not looking at a stunt double, are we.

Speaker 4 (24:17):
No.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
No, I believe she did all her own stunts, and
to understand, she also did her own fight choreography. So
when we see her beating up various folks and throwing
them to the ground and chopping them like she she
brought the technique.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
I'm trying to think of another movie. I know there
are movies like this. I can't call examples to mind
right now of a movie where really, essentially the main
character is also the main villain and you're just you're
basically on their side and seeing the world through their eyes,
even though they are in a technical sense the bad
guy that must be defeated at the end.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
Yeah, like what we discussed talking about Riddick, there's always
this temptation to to have this sort of redemption arc
to your your anti hero, and that is not what
goes on here.

Speaker 4 (25:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
You know, you might be fooled into thinking that's where
it's going at some point, but it's not.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
She does not get a heart. She is not a
go go dancer assassin with a heart of gold. She
has a heart of a drain cleaner. I would say
a heart of the most caustic, toxic substance. Maybe you
could say she has a heart of raidon.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
Yeah, all right. So she's the leader of our trio
of Go Go witches here, our gang of three Up
next is the character Rosie, played by the actor Hodgi.
Hodgi is her screen name and based on her New
York Times ah bit from twenty thirteen. This was a

(25:47):
nickname that her uncle gave to her. So she was
born Barbarella Katon in nineteen forty six so Canadian American
dancer turned actor. She also appeared in Motorcycle, Also Pops Up,
and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. She was in
nineteen seventies Bigfoot starring John Carradine once more Christopher Mitcham

(26:08):
as well. She was also in She Also Pops Up.
It's kind of in the background in some bigger films,
like she's in John Cassavetti's The Killing of a Chinese
Bookie from seventy six starring Ben Gazara. It's like a
bit roll as a dancer. She also pops up in
the nineteen eighty one horror film Demonoid starring Samantha Agger.
I've seen part of this. This is like set in

(26:29):
Mexico and has some sort of a demonic disembodied hand.

Speaker 4 (26:33):
Oh, demonic hand movie. You know what.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
We've mentioned so many of those in passing in episodes.
Since we did The Beast with Five Fingers and Mad Love.
I wonder if we should just do a whole hand
monster series.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
We easily could. Yeah, there are a number of I
mean a number of them are based on the hands
of Warlock and part of that direct tradition. But then, yeah,
you have other films like the Michael Caine film The
Hand and so forth.

Speaker 4 (27:01):
Was that the one directed by Oliver Stone?

Speaker 1 (27:03):
It is, Yeah, Oliver Stone directed that one where.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
You find out that the CIA was actually behind the
Hand all along.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
Yeah, I think it's a rare. You know, it's from
that period of time when he almost directed a Cone
in the Barbarian movie.

Speaker 4 (27:15):
All Right.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
So the character Rosy in this different, different style, different presentation,
she is she doesn't really have time for any of
the crap that's going on in this movie. She isn't
necessarily down with all of Varla's violence, but she is
devoted to Varla. Nonetheless, Hodgy's performance is I would say,
richly entertaining at times, it seems like maybe the greenest

(27:39):
she has this. I think she's doing an Italian accent
in this. I'm not entirely sure.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
I interpreted it as an Italian accent.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
Yes, Yeah, Waters and shot in the in the book
I referenced earlier says quote. She's a mean Mexican with
a weakness for switchblades who emphasizes her many moments of
disgust by spitting or picking her teeth with whatever is handy.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
Yes, she is the most disgusted of our three anti heroes.

Speaker 4 (28:10):
Yes, that is her.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
That is her one note played loudly discussed, but also
occasionally a little bit like she's the only one of
the three that also shows like a little bit of
empathy or even remorse at times, So in a weird way,
she has her role has more range.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
I agree, she's the only one of the three that
seems to have any hint of a soul or kindness
at all. And it's not much of a hint, but
there's a little spark in there somewhere. She is often
set against the third of the gang Billy. They're kind
of butting heads a lot of the movie.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
Yeah, Billy is played by Laurie Williams born nineteen forty six.
He's our blonde, sassy, provocative, wise cracking, sensation junkie. This
is just always down for a swim or some just
extracurricular dancing, fighting a little race, saying well, you know whatever, whatever.
She's up for anything. She's also ridiculously laugh out loud,

(29:06):
seductive in a manner that reminds me of Gina Morony
from thirty Rock. Yes, so many moments where she's being
sexy and it's just hysterical.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
She just like sees a man with muscles fifty feet
away and it's like.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
Hey, hot stuff, Yeah, exactly now. Williams was not a
go go dancer, but was a beach party film actor
for the most part. Her other credits include mostly dancer roles,
but in some notable films, including nineteen sixty three's The
Prize starring Paul Newman, the Elvis movies Viva Las Vegas
and Kissing Cousins in sixty four, as well as the

(29:43):
Elvis movies Girl Happy and Tickle Me both in sixty five,
so multiple Elvis movies here. She was an Arman Flint
in sixty six. She has a passenger role as an
extra in nineteen seventy two, It's The Poseidon Adventure, and
an uncredited victim role in nineteen seventy four, ninety nine,
and forty four out of one hundred percent Dead, directed

(30:04):
by John Frankenheimer and starring Richard Harris Waters in Shock
Value says quote, Billy is the film of the group,
the main things on her mind being sex and alcohol.
In her white short shorts, halter top, and knee high
patent leather go go boots, Billy is forever breaking into
torrid go go steps whenever trouble arises.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
Yes, she so they're professional go go dancers, but Billy
likes to go go dance when they're off the clock.
And her gang, her fellow gang members will say, you know, hey,
why are you doing that? You know that's we left
that behind at work, And She's like, I do what
I want.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, she does. In a way like she's
the perfect opposite but equal of Varla because they both
do whatever they want. They have their own compass, but
the things they want to do are drastically different.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
Okay, so we've got our vicious murdering gang of Go
Go dance series. We got to have some innocent people
in here to be victimized by them, right.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
That's right, And so the main victim being Linda, played
by Sue Bernard, who lived nineteen forty eight through twenty nineteen.
She plays likable American every girl and the Gang of
Three of course not impressed with her here. But Bernard
has the interesting history. She was the daughter of legendary
glamour and pin up photographer Bruno Bernard. She was an author, actress, model,

(31:39):
and businesswoman. She was a playboy model in nineteen sixty six.
This was her first film role, followed by a couple
of notable films. I Guess nineteen sixty nine, is the
witch Maker in nineteen seventy two's Neck Romancy. A noteworthy
family connection is that at one point she was married
to actor and playwright Jason Miller, who, of course is
famous for having play father Damien in The Exorcist. Ah Yes,

(32:03):
Father Chris Yeah, and their son is was actor Joshua
John Miller born nineteen seventy two. He has a number
of interesting credits, but his first film role as a
child actor was playing the hero's son Willie in Halloween
three season of the Witch.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
Okay, wait, how many degrees of separation is that from
Halloween three to Faster pussy Cat. I guess it involves
a family connection.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
Yeah, it's a family connection, so it's harder, but it's
close enough. It's in close orbit.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
I'm just imagining a film that could have been like
the Go Go Murder Gang here versus Tom Atkins from
Halloween three. Doesn't he seem like the perfect victim of
their treachery.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yeah, I could see him taking a beating from this bunch. Now,
speaking of taking a beating, the character Linda has a
boyfriend named Tommy, and Tommy is one of, if not
the only, likable male characters in the whole picture. Wiston caveats,
we'll come back to that. He's a kind of square
and nice guy who just wants to work on his car,
improve his race time, and spend a little quality time

(33:13):
with his girlfriend Linda. He doesn't know leer at any
of the women, or speak to them in a sexist manner.
And you might think this means, well, this might be
the hero of our picture, but he's certainly not.

Speaker 5 (33:26):
No.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
No, he's a nice guy, which means he's marked for death.

Speaker 4 (33:29):
Mark for death.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
We'll get to that death in a bit because it's
pretty spectacular. Played by Ray Barlow. I don't think any
dates are known for this actor. This was one of
only four credits for him, alongside nineteen sixty seven's a
Countess from Hong Kong and the nineteen seventy one TV
series The Goodies. Oh and also a single episode of
Highway to Heaven from the late eighties. All right, now,

(33:52):
we do have another sort of villainous trio to cancel
out our main villainous trio, but these are This is
a male villainous trio of a family they encounter in
the desert, the leader of which is the Old Man
played by Stuart Lancaster, who lived nineteen twenty through the
year two thousand. American actor with credits going back to

(34:13):
the early sixties. He appears in the original Outer Limits
episode Tourist Attraction, but he's mostly known for appearing in
Russ Meyer films and various other exploitation titles. However, you
can also find him in such films as nineteen seventy
three's God Monster of Indian Flats and Tim Burton cast
him in two films. He plays a retired man in

(34:33):
Edward Scissorhands and he plays the penguin's doctor and Batman returns.
What oh, not a role I remember, but you know
I can you can see the kind of thing Tim
Burton was going for and that weird Weird Batman sequel
Batman returns, Does we could do? Batman returns on Weird
House Cinema? I agree that does penguin go.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
For a checkoup in?

Speaker 5 (34:56):
There?

Speaker 4 (34:56):
I really don't.

Speaker 1 (34:58):
I don't remember when this would be, if this would
be like a flashback to when he's a baby, like
maybe that's the penguin's doctor, or maybe it's some time later,
because there's that whole yet intro to the character that
involves who isn't that who plays his father? Pee wee
Herman plays his father?

Speaker 2 (35:13):
Yeah, oh, I'd forgotten that too. Well. So anyway, this character,
the old man, it's playing on the principle that we
talked about just recently with like a danger diabolic in
a movie where you have an anti hero, though I
don't know if you call Varla an anti hero, just
where you're like, main character is bad, it always helps
to up the ante by having to meet a character

(35:35):
who is much worse.

Speaker 4 (35:37):
Yes, So Yeah, our.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Main characters character or characters are bad and they do murder.
But what if there's somebody who also wants to do
murder but is even grosser.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
Yeah, and that's that's the old Man, as old discuss,
he's pretty villainous. He lives in the desert with two
of his sons, one of which I forget if he
even has a name aside from the vegetable he's. They
call him this because he's it doesn't say much, but
he's a big muscle guy. And then the other son,
the elder of the two sons, is Kirk, played by

(36:10):
Paul Trinka, who lived nineteen thirty two through nineteen seventy three.
Mostly a bit player on TV, this is his most
well known role. He also appeared on Hawaii and I
My Three Sons, Gomer Pyle USMC, Voyage to the Bottom
of the Sea, Land of the Giants, and an episode
of Night Gallery. Now we also hear a little bit
from the narrator. We'll touch on that in a second.
The narrator for this film is John Furlong, who lived

(36:33):
nineteen thirty three through two thousand and eight, American actor
who I believe got his start in russ Meyer films
and worked for him several times, you know, often being
dubbing the director's voice or being this narration voice. He
ultimately accumulated a lot of TV and film credits over
the course of his career, having appeared in the likes
of nineteen seventy four's Blazing Saddles, ninety four's Wyat, and

(36:54):
nineteen ninety eights Vampires, the John Carpenter film, along with
many others. And as for the music on this one,
I'm not going to go into a lot of depth here,
but Ego Kantor was a music director who lived nineteen
thirty through twenty nineteen. Interesting fella in a name that
weird cinema fans may have noticed in the credits before,
you know, sometimes kind of stands out. It worked a

(37:17):
lot in doing the music for various films, but also
was a producer as far back as nineteen seventy one
and such films as Kingdom of the Spiders, nineteen seventy
nine Is the Dark and nineteen eighty four as Mutant
starring Wingshauser and Bo Hopkins.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
We could come back and do Kingdom of the Spiders
as well, because that is a killer Tarantula movie starring
Captain Kirk.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
Yeah, it's also a reference to a warren Zevon warren
Zevon song. Rather so, I always like a nice musical
nod to be cinema. All right, shall we get into
the plot?

Speaker 2 (37:55):
Yes? Now, I think this is another movie where we're
not going to recount every scene order. I think instead,
maybe we'll talk about the intro in some detail, maybe
the you know, the first chunk of the movie, and
then do a basic recap on everything else and then
focus on some things that stand out. But first thing,
this movie begins with a narration and has one of

(38:17):
the all time great opening lines I've heard in any film.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
Yes we hear that, that rich velvety narrator's voice say,
ladies and gentlemen, welcome to violence.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
To violence. It goes on to say the word and
the act. While violence cloaks itself in a plethora of disguises,
its favorite mantles still remains sex. Huh. Okay, So the
opening narration here, it goes on for a while, and

(38:51):
there's while this guy's talking is just sort of a
black screen with these lines that are undulating as if
showing like a like an audiogram or something. They're vibrating
with the sound of the narrator's voice, and the narrator
goes on to explain in a rather wordy and roundabout
manner that America's most trusted brand, violence is still in business,

(39:13):
but it is under new management.

Speaker 4 (39:15):
Women.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
The narrator says, you know, you guys out there, you
might think women are beautiful, you might think women are nice,
but also they will cut your head off with a
power saw. The women of today they murder all the time.

Speaker 4 (39:30):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
Women are more dangerous than they've ever been in human history.
This is a new breed of violence out.

Speaker 4 (39:35):
There, alrighty.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
And so the narration ends with him saying who are they?
One might be your secretary, your doctor's receptionist, or a
dancer in a go go club. Smash cut to a
go go club.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
Yeah, and this is where we get our first look
at our trio of evil go go dancers here, all
black and white sequins and tassels. Yeah, we had and
mentioned it already. This is a black and white film.
It looks pretty gorgeous, and we have the theme song
playing in the background, but also we have do we
keep cutting to these brutish men who were chanting at them.

(40:12):
They're chanting go go, And I was wondering, like, I
didn't even look this up though. Is this the origin
of the term go go dancer? It's just you're supposed
to yell go and shout go at them.

Speaker 4 (40:24):
I have no idea.

Speaker 2 (40:26):
But also this scene is so funny because of the
lack of like humor or enjoyment evident in the men
who are shouting at the go go dancer. Is just
I have to applaud the deadly seriousness with which the
dudes are shouting go, let's go, come on go. They

(40:48):
sound like like Hollywood cowboys yelling at their horses. And
they're puffing on cigars by the way.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
Yeah, I mean, watching this, especially from a modern perspective,
you can't help but assume that the message here is
that are gross and terrible, and that you're supposed to
take that with you into the film proper. And I
don't think the film really presents us with any any
information to counter that thesis. But I just don't know,
like what what was really intended by this?

Speaker 2 (41:15):
Oh do you mean, like maybe there's there's an unspoken
understanding that because in their day job. These women are
like dancing for these horrible creeps all the time, and
so they take that with them to the other scenarios
in their life. So like when they murder a man
in the desert, that they're sort of like seeing in
that man all of the like the go go guys.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
I mean, I don't know. I think one looks for
nuance in this film at their peril. You know, Varla
would not stand for that. You know, if I were
to broach that hypothesis, she would she would shot.

Speaker 4 (41:50):
Me in the neck, so she would just kill you.

Speaker 5 (41:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
Yeah, it is interesting, Like why do they seem so mad?

Speaker 1 (41:58):
Yeah, I mean, well they are also they're criminals. They're
out for that. They want the quick score. Oh you're
talking about the audience.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
I mean the guys they're yellow. Why do they sound angry?

Speaker 1 (42:09):
Yeah, I don't know, unless again, we're supposed to take
something home about this that that that men in general
are awful. So I don't know, worth something we're thinking about.
But then again, this is a film that I don't
think necessarily well, you know, it goes two ways. I
think it's a film that is also about like surface
level interpretation. But this is a film that a lot

(42:30):
has been written about there. I glanced at a number
of serious film critic papers out there, and that in
film papers that we're looking at at this film and
talking about like gender dynamics and various forms of representation
that are going on in the film. So there is
a lot to chew on. You can certainly have it

(42:51):
both ways.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
Well, yeah, there's a very interesting duality and that in
one sense, this movie is straightforwardly very sexist, but on
the other hand, it is presenting a more kind of
empowered and larger than life vision of female characters than
you would get in pretty much anywhere else in movies
of this time.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
Yeah, and I think a lot of the interesting commentary
comes from like trying to to piece it apart and
figure out, well, how much of this was intentional, how
much of it is you know, sort of happy accident, etc.
I mean, that's often the case with films that really
stand out, you know, that really stand out to the
future interpretation.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
But okay, there's another great smash cut here, because so
like the Goga, the ladies are dancing, the guys are screaming,
go and then it just like suddenly we're somewhere else.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
Suddenly we're in the desert. Here's our lead character, Varla,
laughing maniacally as she races her sports car through the desert,
and then we quickly see that there the two other dancers,
Rosy and Billy, are racing behind her in their own
sports cars, laughing as well.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
It's like they're already fleeing the scene of a crime
when we first meet them here, and who knows, maybe
they are. We don't They never mentioned that.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
Right, right, I mean it would make sense, Yeah, they're
going because there is a there's a desperation to a
lot of what they do, and there's a you know,
they clearly don't care about the future.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
Well, I see what you're saying about the desperation, though,
I don't want to convey the wrong feeling in the scene,
because instead they feel it's like they're having fun.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
They are, Yeah, they are completely free.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Another thing I will say is that
the soundtrack really adds a lot of pep to this movie.
It's like good hot music selections, and they change so fast.
I think I noted by the time we're like four
minutes into the movie, we've already heard like five different songs.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, a lot of saxophone too, a lot
of jazz saxophone. And yeah, so they're racing through the desert,
but you know, Billy has needs. Billy needs a swim break.
So everybody stops so that Billy can have a swim.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
This scene, so, yeah, Billy's like, I want to swim.
I'm going to swim even if it's you know, this
is a muddy drainage canal, I'm going to swim in that.
And then I think Varla sends Rosie to go make
her stop. She's like, get her out of there, and
so Rosie goes to do it, and this leads to
a fight scene where they're just like beating each other
up on the beach.

Speaker 4 (45:16):
Billy and Rosie are.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
And I think this establishes the dynamic between the characters
that will continue for the rest of the film. First
of all, Varla is the boss, mean, tough, dominant, violent.
She gives orders. If you cross her, you know, well
you don't want to cross her, you don't want to
find out. Meanwhile, Billy is the free spirit. She does

(45:38):
whatever she wants whenever she feels like it. To hell
with anybody who's trying to tell her it is not
time to go swimming in the muddy canal. Meanwhile, Rosie,
you know, we were sort of talking about this earlier.
Like Rosie is the most complicated of the three. She's
more resentful and reserved and sometimes seems kind of unsure

(46:00):
but somehow okay. So they end up Rosie and Billy
end up fighting. I guess about the fact that Billy
was swimming, and then they start they all start arguing,
and Setana eventually says, you want to prove something, Chicky,
Let's see who the real chicken is. Another smash cut
to they're playing a game of chicken in their cars

(46:21):
on the salt flats.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
That's right, let's settle this honorably with with with with
the dangerous vehicular action.

Speaker 2 (46:31):
If you're not familiar with vehicular chicken. Yeah, it's where
these cars, like they drive head on toward each other.
And I guess the first person to swar of loses.

Speaker 4 (46:40):
Yeah, but don't try this. Yeah, who wins? Varla of course?

Speaker 1 (46:45):
Oh yeah, because yes, she is the meanest and the
toughest and she will not stop.

Speaker 2 (46:51):
But after their game of chicken, I guess they're just
hanging out in the middle of the salt flats and
what do you know, Uh, oh, here here comes some people,
and things are not gonna go well for them.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
Yeah, here come Tommy and Linda, a couple of well
meaning squares who are just so pleasant, just so pleasant.
They're like, oh, strangers in the desert. This is great,
more people to hang out with. Little do they know
that this band of go go witches is gonna They're
going to be their their death and doom.

Speaker 2 (47:19):
It's a couple of teenagers who are just like meatloaf,
mashed potatoes, and canned peas.

Speaker 5 (47:25):
You know.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
They love cars, soft drinks, good clean fun. And Tommy
is here to do some timed trials because he loves,
you know, tuning up his car, which to me did
not look like a hot rod. I was like, really, Tommy,
he's the car guy and that's his car. But I
just don't know my sixties cars.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
I guess yeah, yeah, the sixties car expert can shine
in here and tell us what we're looking at.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
But so they're here to do timed trials, which Varla
makes fun of, by the way, time trials. You know,
I only race against the living. But I think Linda's
idea is she's gonna sit there and like enjoy some
soft drinks and do the stop watch for Tommy while
he drives around.

Speaker 4 (48:07):
That does it?

Speaker 2 (48:07):
It sounds like a great time. And at some point
Linda offers the the the The Go Go Murderers soft drinks.
She's like, would you like a soft drink from her
cooler here?

Speaker 1 (48:19):
Yeah, And Rosie says, honey, we don't like nothing soft.
Everything we touch is hard. So let's get some more
of that great russ Meyer dialogue here.

Speaker 2 (48:27):
But we should add like nearly every exchange in the
movie is like that. It's just like nobody says anything normal.
They're they're always like spitting one liners at each other.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
Yeah, And basically this whole interaction with Tommy and Linda
is they're just picking a fight within the whole time,
they're trying to tempt them into some sort of a confrontation.

Speaker 4 (48:51):
You know.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
It's a I thought that it ultimately has kind of
Varla especially has kind of like an Old Testament Satanic
aspect to her character, because in Tommy we see a
good man. You know, he's not leering, he's not saying
inappropriate things like the gas station attendant from from earlier.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
That's later the.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
Okay, yeah, that's right, because Lindas are even kidnapped by
that point. But you know, most of them, the males
in the film are like that. You know, they're saying
some some stuff here, or they're they're leering at our
at our trio. But you know, Tommy seems good. You know,
he couldn't possibly be provoked to violence. Uh, but you know,
our Satanic character might say, well, you know, he's been

(49:33):
protected from those temptations, but what if someone were to
criticize his racing. What if someone were to beat him
in a desert race and also take his girlfriend? Stop watch, So.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
You're you're talking about like the Satan from the Book
of Job Satan as the prosecutor of the Court of Heaven.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
Yeah, so I think Varla has that kind of energy here.
So yeah, so just constantly picking a fight. There's a
great bit where he's he's starting to a little annoyed
bow this. He's like, are you are you trying to
say something? And she's like, I never try anything, I
just do it, which awesome Varla line just sums it.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
Up prefigures Yoda as well. Mm hmm, Yoda Varla see that? Yeah, yeah,
she Also, at some point she's trying to get him
to do a dangerous drag race with her, and and
he's at first refusing, and she at one point says,
you're the all American boy, a safety first, Clyde.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
So eventually the Go Go Murder gang tricks, they like
goed Tommy into racing, and so they're you know, driving
around the track, and then it looks maybe like Tommy's
gonna win the race, but then Varla pulls some kind
of I didn't understand exactly what happened, but she pulls
some kind of dangerous stunt to like run him off
the course.

Speaker 4 (50:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:53):
Yeah. And so from here things escalate pretty quickly, and
Varla finally provokes nice guy Tommy into a fight, into
an actual physical altercation, and it is amazing because she
proceeds to just karate chop the crap out of him.
And I've said before, I love karate chops in these

(51:14):
old timey fights. I don't think we see enough karate
chops anymore. Today. It's all like Mma moves, and I'm
so bored with characters throwing out either a wrestling suplex
or certainly some sort of an arm bar scenario. I
want Karate Chops to come back in a big way
and all man, Varla throws out some wonderful ones. Finally

(51:37):
Tommy starts punching back, and she takes him down with
this cool arm based takedown thing and then proceeds to
apply a standing surfboard lock. So's he's laying on his belly.
She grabs both arms, puts her boot to the back
of his neck, and snaps his neck with her boot.
Just a complete, solid kill. This whole scene John Waters

(51:58):
described as just mine boggling.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
It is shocking, and you know, if you didn't understand
up until this point, you're like, oh, okay, this is
why this movie is so infamous.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
Yeah, because you just killed him in cold blood. Like
it escalates from just and she just met him. They
just met these people and they've already provoked him to
violence and then killed him.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
She does multiple times claim to be giving him a
chance to walk away, but it's like he didn't start it.
It's just like you can walk away if you just
allow me to like humiliate and insult your girlfriend some more.
Because they steal Linda's stop watch and they won't give
it back to her, and Linda's like help me, Tommy,

(52:41):
and Tommy's like, oh, come on, be nice, and no
they're they're not going to be nice.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
Yeah, so they kill They kill Tommy in cold blood,
and there's nothing left to do at that point but
to kidnap Linda.

Speaker 4 (52:52):
More crimes.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
Right, Tommy's dead, And in a way, I think this
is no big deal for them because killing men in
the desert, this is just a regular part of a
day off.

Speaker 4 (53:01):
For Varla in company.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
Yeah, but yeah, Linda is a witness. So what are
they going to do with this goody two shoes teenager
who knows their fondness for Go Go assassination. They've got
to kidnap her, take her with them to somewhere. I
think they're planning to kill her also later. I don't
know why they don't just do it there.

Speaker 1 (53:18):
Yeah, it's they kind of skip over that, but at
any rate, Yeah, they throw her in the car, they
get some pills in her. They have a lot of
pills on hand for this sort of thing, and then
it's off to wherever. I guess they got to get gas.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
First, right, So next they go to the gas station,
and you mentioned the interaction with the gas station attendant.
This is where like, you know, the guy's like cleaning
the window and he is. He is ogling Varla and
at some point he says like, Wow, I'd really like
to see America one day, and she goes, you won't
see it down there, Columbus.

Speaker 1 (53:55):
Another great line. Yeah, all of our those lines are
just gold and all three of them, I think, say
you get to get to jab at this this sort
of happy go lucky gas station attendant. They say such
mean things to him, and they're all wonderful.

Speaker 2 (54:09):
He stays relatively pleasant despite the fact that they're just
all viciously insulting him over and over it.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
Yeah, yeah, in a way, he's the most pleasant male character,
if not the most pleasant character in the whole film.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
Also, while they're at the gas station, it sets up
the dynamic that will take over for the rest of
the movie, which is Billy She's wandering around and she
sees a hunk with muscles. She's like, wow, look at
that hunk a man, and the gas station attendant, I
guess he just happens to know everything. He explains that

(54:51):
that guy is the son of a local rancher who
lives way out in the desert, and the rancher, is
he some time ago was in injured and now has
to use a wheelchair because Rob correct me if I'm
getting any of this wrong. I think he says that
the old man was injured while rescuing a girl from
an oncoming train, and as a result of his injuries,

(55:16):
he was paid a huge sum of money. I don't
know if that was insurance or from the train company
or something. And then somehow the gas pump guy knows
about this and knows that he is hiding the money
in cash form somewhere on his land.

Speaker 1 (55:31):
That's right, So now he has like a lot of
paranoid delusions about the evils of trains. He hates women,
and he doesn't want to put his money in the bank,
so he has it hidden somewhere in the desert.

Speaker 2 (55:43):
It's the local lore, right, So first of all, he
is a nasty, lecherous old creep who is the most
leering of all the leering men in the film. But
he also you mentioned he hates women. So the way
I think this was explained is that he wants to
kill women for revenge because he was injured and disabled

(56:06):
while trying to rescue a woman.

Speaker 1 (56:08):
Is that the case I believe that's what they're laying out.

Speaker 4 (56:11):
Yes, Okay, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
All right, now, he can't do much on his own,
but luckily he has this muscular sign who they lovingly
call the vegetable.

Speaker 2 (56:21):
Yes, so the muscle son is portrayed as having some
kind of unspecified mental disability. Obviously this is not portrayed
in the movie with great sensitivity.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
No, and of course neither is the disability of the
old man. Yeah, but you know, you are in the
mid sixties exploitation film at this point, so right, that's
what you're watching.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
And then then you've got Kirk, the other son, who
he's the other son, that's his deal.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
Yeah, I mean he has an interesting place as well,
because he's I saw some papers pointing out, you know,
he's kind of the domestic and the domestic role of
the group. He looks after the old man, he looks
after his brother. He also seems to aspire and is
ultimately positioned in a place of moral superiority, but also
seems like he has turned a blind eye to a

(57:11):
lot of bad stuff in the desert. So I was
never really sure what to make of Kirk. And it
also this has helped tip the scales for me and
just rooting for Varla the whole time.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
You wanted Varla to succeed in murdering him and Linda.

Speaker 1 (57:26):
Yes, yeah, I'm sorry, but Varla's just compelling. I'm just
not going to argue with her.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
So the Go Go Killers set their sights on this ranch.
Varla wants the money that the old man apparently has
stashed somewhere there. I don't know why they believe the
gas station attended though, like why would he know this?
But so they just take his word for it. Varla
wants the money and Billy wants the muscle sun. So
they're going to go to the ranch and rob You

(57:51):
and I off Mike earlier were discussing this comparison. They
head for the ranch where the rest of the movie
is going to take place, and I could not help
but notice the similarity between the family on this ranch
and the family in the Texas Chainsaw Masker, which of
course came later.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
That's right, yeah there. I also thought that there was
kind of a solar esque vibe going on here. You know,
they're perverse, they're up to bad stuff out in the
middle of nowhere, but they're all but they don't go
all in on the horror in the same way that
the Texas Chainsaw Masker does obviously.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
Right, But I mean the comparisons are almost kind of eerie. Like,
so the old man there's like a nasty, mean spirited,
lecherous old man. There is the muscle son you know
who in I think you could compare to leather Face.
And I guess the difference is that in the Sawyer
family there is no Kirk. There's not like the nice,

(58:49):
normal sun.

Speaker 1 (58:50):
Yeah right, instead of Kirk, you either get the hitchhiker
or you or you get chopped up. Yes, yeah, totally
different vibe in that regard. But yeah, I feel like
there a lot of similarities. I wonder I wonder if
this influenced the shape of Texas Chainsaw Masker to any degree.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
Well, it also makes you wonder, like how Texas Chainsaw
Masaker would be different if the people who show up
at the Sawyer residence are not just like hapless teenagers
who are trying to go to a concert or trying
to you know, find visit their old family home or something,
but are instead just tough as nails dancer murderers.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
Oh, the Sawyers wouldn't have stood a chance, Varlow would
have made short work of all of them, leather Fays,
the hitch hike or any of them. No chainsaw would
be even revved up.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
She would snatch She would snatch the chainsaw out of
leather Face's hands, grab it by the blade and pull
it out of his hands, and then bend him over
and break his neck.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
Yeah, karate chop that neck, you know. Also like TCM,
a different vibe here, But we also get a big
sit down meal.

Speaker 2 (59:56):
That's right. Yeah, So it takes a while. They've got
a sort of elaborate plan that I'm not gonna get
into in great detail. But so like Varla and the
gang arrive on the property and they make a plan
to sort of trick the family while they search for
the money, and so they claim to have been stranded
there and need some water for maybe the radiators in

(01:00:18):
their car or something. But they end up getting invited
to lunch, I think, especially because the old man is
again nasty and lecherous and wants to ogle them and
do much worse. So they're all having like fried chicken
and whiskey at lunch. We're not all having whiskey. They're
all having chicken that Kirk cooked for everyone, and at

(01:00:40):
some point Billy is like, oh, and Linda's there at
the table with them, just the hostage is there, and
I think at some point she's begging for help, and
they're all like, I don't know what to make of this.
But Billy at some point is like, hey, give me
some of that whiskey, old man, and he's like okay,
and then she just proceeds to immediately get blackout, dry

(01:01:00):
and pass out and let Linda escape.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
Yes, yeah, it is interesting that the whole vibe of
this dinner is like the dinner table is this place
of decorum, but everyone there is either a villain or
a hostage, and yet there is this like weird like
truth in place here as they engage in this strange meal.
Of course, eventually Varla goads the old man by mentioning train.

(01:01:25):
I think she's the one who mentions trains and gets
him all upset and he ends up storming off. Oh
and there are also a lot of a lot of
comments about how much chicken the beefy son can eat.

Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
Oh yes, I think at one point he is advised
to help himself to both abreast and a thigh.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
Yes, a lot of winkie dialogue.

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Oh oh, but we forgot a part earlier on which
I think is that the old man is like, I
think it happens off screen, but he tries to assault
Linda the hostage, and she flees away into the desert
and is like, okay, I'm going to escape now, and
is picked up in a truck by a nice young

(01:02:07):
man who seems very helpful. But it turns out this
is Kirk, the other son, and he just like drives
her back to the house and she's like, no, no, no,
not back here, and he's like, oh no, it's fine.
This is my family's house.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
We'd probably been more impactful if we the audience didn't
already know that Kirk was a member of that family. Yes,
but it's still pretty great. She escapes a couple of
different times. They're not very good at keeping her in place,
but then she's not particularly good at getting away.

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
Oh. At some point I think also Varla seduces Kirk.
I do not recall why. I think somehow, I guess
she thinks this is going to help her get the money.

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
It's just is a multi stage plan to get that money.
That involves violence and seduction and dinner. I mean, don't
try and create a flow chart of all of this.
Just trust the plan.

Speaker 2 (01:02:58):
But at some point Kirk finally it takes a lot,
but finally Kirk wises up to the fact that not
only is his own family evil, but Varla and the
gang are evil as well, and so then he's like, oh, okay,
I need to help Linda. So at some point Kirk
and Linda try to escape into the desert. Meanwhile, back

(01:03:19):
at the house, Varla they've started murdering everybody and that
let's see, they murder Varla and Rosie murder Billy I
don't quite remember why. She's leaving at some point and
they like throw a knife in her back.

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
Yeah, great, great kill scene. Yeah, She's like I'm done,
I'll see you gals at church. And she's gone off
and was like, pass me the switchblade and throws it
into her back.

Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
So they end up murdering the muscle Son and the
old Man, and they discover where the muscle Sun kills Rosie.
The muscle Son kills Rosie, and then they they Varla
kills well, let's see, yeah, they kill him and the
old man. The old man it turns out had all
of the money that he was hiding stash somehow inside

(01:04:06):
his wheelchair, and when they hit him with their car,
it is all it like busts out all over the place.

Speaker 4 (01:04:13):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
Varla goes into revenge mode at this point though, and
she gets She's this great scene where she's trying to
run over the muscle and he's pushing back like he's hercules,
you know, against the horsepower of the car, and there's
just kind of a stalemate that of course eventually wears
him out completely and he topples. Oh, he's like Samson,
you've cut his hair. At this point, he's powerless. But

(01:04:35):
I don't think he dies. What I don't think he dies?
Does he?

Speaker 4 (01:04:39):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
Well, I don't recall actually that he has defeated. Yes,
But finally there is a showdown where okay, so Linda
are our good character and Kirk are I guess kind
of good character. They're escaping into the desert. They're trying
to run away from the farm and get out of
all this madness, and Varla must get revenge. So she's

(01:05:01):
like hunting them down in this truck. And I think
you compared her to the terminator at this point, and
I think that that is a good comparison. She is
just a machine out for destruction.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
Yeah, completely relentless. There's no way you can possibly get
You can't stop her, you can't get away from her
because she has no quit in her. At one point,
she's driving after them and they like cross over the
railroad tracks and I was I was afraid they were
gonna I was like, oh man, it is this how
they're going to defeat Varla, because they're going to bring
the train back into it somehow. But that's not what happens. Instead,

(01:05:36):
they end up reaching this point where the like the truck.
She gets out of the truck, Varla does, and and
now they're going to have this this final fight Varla
versus Kirk and Linda in the desert, just fisticuffs and
chops and boots.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
Well, at this point Varla is again beating Kirk up
totally because Kirk doesn't stand a chance against Varla. Of
course he would, she would kill him. But I think
Linda comes to the to the rescue with the truck.

Speaker 1 (01:06:06):
Yeah, she jumps back into the truck, starts it up,
and hits Varla with the truck. And so we end
up with again. Varla's already totally kicked Kirk's by it
at this point, like she hits first, She like kicks
him in the kidney or something. She's chopped in multiple times,
and she's now she's been hit by the vehicle. She's
laying there next to him, and she raises one last

(01:06:27):
karate chop into the air to bring down on him.
You just know it's going to be a death blow.
But then, uh, she succumbs to her injuries and dies.

Speaker 2 (01:06:36):
The ending is great, though I did have one note.
I was like, one way you could make this movie
better is if at the end of Varla, instead of
just succumbing to her injuries, is it somehow explodes like
the Shark and Jaws, you know, like they put like
a pressure air tank in her mouth and shoot that
and then she explodes into ten billion pieces.

Speaker 1 (01:06:57):
That would have been good, you know, I could see.
I could see the train ending having worked. I wonder
if that was ever on the menu as a potential
ending for this film. But I also like the idea
of I think Varla should have just won. I think
Varla should have murdered Kirk. But then again we back
come back to the question of well, what is the

(01:07:18):
where is she going to go with Linda? Like, what's
the plan here? Does she just kill Linda as well
and then go off into the desert or is there
some next step there? I'm not sure, So I guess
it ultimately is just as well that she that this
character dies.

Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
I think, let's see what would Varla have done if
she'd won. Yeah, she'd get the money. She would stand
there and declare that she is not sad that her
friends are dead. She's like, I don't miss them one bit,
and then she would get in her car and drive
away to her to the next adventure.

Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
Yeah, yeah, I think maybe just leave Linda alive in
the desert to you know, to surely die. That would
have probably worked. I feel like that's the ending this
film would have had in the seventies. But already, you know,
even mid sixties, ahead of its time, and there's only
so much meanness that it could muster.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
I just remembered something about the final dialogue exchange after
Varla is defeated, and I had to look it up.
So what exactly they say? It's so, you know, Varla
dies and then Linda gets out of the truck, and
she says I killed her like she was an animal,
like she was nothing. And then Kirk says she was nothing, nothing, human,

(01:08:26):
And so I wonder if the ending maybe means that
Linda now has has acquired a taste for violence and
she has been set on a path to become like them.

Speaker 1 (01:08:36):
Hmmm, well that would be interesting. Again, I'm not sure
how how deep we can dig into the into the
paint on this film, but I like that interpretation.

Speaker 2 (01:08:47):
Like immediately after the camera stops rolling, I imagine Linda
next is like, hey, Kirk, would you like to go
racing on the salt flats? We'll see who wins.

Speaker 1 (01:08:58):
All right, Well, there you have it. Astro pussycat, kill Kill. Yeah,
this one was a lot of fun. And I think
now just in general, in all movies that we watch,
I'm at least going to have that voice in the
back of my head. What would Varla do in this scenario. Yeah,
she's an unforgettable character. At the very least, she would
welcome us to violence.

Speaker 4 (01:09:19):
That's right. All right.

Speaker 1 (01:09:21):
Well, just a reminder that we're primarily a science podcast
here and the stuff to blow your mind feed but
on Fridays we set aside most serious concerns to just
talk about a weird film here on Weird House Cinema.
And if you want to see a list of all
the films we've done over the years, where you can
go to a couple of places. I blog about these
films at some meuti music dot com, but also over
at letterbox dot com. It's L E T T E

(01:09:43):
R B O x D dot com. You'll find we'll
find us. We have a user name there, weird House,
and we have a nice list of all the movies
we've covered. You can, you know, slice them up and
rearrange them by decade, by genre and so forth. So
it's a it's a pretty good way to see what
else we've talked about, and maybe if you haven't listened
to many of them, find some older episodes that interest you.

Speaker 4 (01:10:06):
In particular.

Speaker 2 (01:10:07):
Huge thanks to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway. If
you would like to get in touch with us with
feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest a
topic for the future, or just to say hello, you
can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your
Mind dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:10:27):
Stuff to Blow your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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