Hey folks, sorry for the lack of exclamation marks in the above title, but the damn 'controls' on my headlines wouldn't allow me enough characters. Sigh... Just leave it to ol Russ Meyer to BUST my headline with excitement! Anyway, I am a HUGE Russ Meyer fan and while at first this may not seem like big news, in the Q&A afterwards he did mention the possiblity of future films... But there were some physical descriptions of Meyer's health that scared me just a bit. So... let's hope...
Hello, Roger O. Thornhill here, love your column, thought I'd contribute.
When mother is away at her bridge games I have plenty of time for such things. Some strange men tried to kill me last night at the Townsend estate, tried to get me drunk and drive me off a cliff, thought I was a chap named George Kaplan... Luckily I escaped, but mother thinks I'm making it all up. I plan to head to the U.N. this morning to meet find Townsend and confront him, I haven't much time.... So, here's the scoop on a favorite film of mine...
FASTER PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!
Just saw a great screening of the 1965 classic of "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" tonight at The American Cinematheque. It was the kickoff for the Russ Meyer retrospective. Russ and all the original pussycats were there! Tura Satana (Varla), Haji (Rosie) Lori Williams (I) (Billie), Sue Bernard (Linda) also attending in a wheelchair (just like in the film) was Stuart Lancaster (The Old Man). Stuart is now really old, but seemed into the event. Lori Williams looked amazing and the all other stars had aged perty decently as well. The print was gorgeous and then afterward followed a quite strange Q&A.
Russ seemed out of it. He came in and out of paying attention. Later on, when I got close to him I noticed there was dried blood on his left ear with dried blood on his neck? A karate chopping spectacle before the show? We'll never know. Damn odd though. Most of the Q&A consisted of the Pussycats promoting their web pages and Susan Bernard promoting her new book, etc. Here's the highlights and what was disclosed.
Russ at one point said, 'Tits, I like tits. I wouldn't have been doing those films right without 'em. You've gotta have superwomen!' The crowd enthusiastically agreed. He also talked about how if he did a new film and got a lot of superwomen back together, he'd probably get the 'thumbs up' from Roger Ebert, writer of 2 Russ Meyer films, 'Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls' and 'Beneath The Valley Of The Ultra-Vixens' Meyer talked briefly about how in his day, Ebert had his own thing for Superwomen, maybe that's why he stuck around for two films...
Russ really wants to direct again (and should be allowed to) he talked a bit about how he is currently obsessed with directing a project based on Hemmingway--which he is writing and may shoot in Europe, and is also considering a followup to Pussycats (Tura said that they could never truly die).
Then they talked about the film-shoot. The film was shot in 4 weeks with about $72, 000 (1964/65 $) and had a crew of about 6 people. The actors also talked about Russ's hands on approach in which he picked his shot, set it up and bam, knocked it out. He wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty (has a bit of a photography background to boot).
They all did their own stunts and Tura acted as stunt cordinator as she really is a blackbelt in a bout 5 different kinds of self defense! Both she and Haji had also been real go-go dancers, and at one point all 4 women stood up and proved that they can still swing. YES, they go-go danced! They still had their magic too. Some of their stories told, included; Tura talking about kissing the 'good brother' who was a health nut and never brushed his teeth, she almost fainted. Susan Bernard not being old enough to drive (and couldn't learn stick in 2 minutes the way Russ wanted her to) and was literally sitting on one of the other actors who drove the car for her in the final battle scene. Also of amusement was the fact that years later all three of the pussycats were still kind of tormenting Susan Bernard. Susan talked about really being scared of them, and they talked about how fun it was to scare her (She was only 16 at the time of filming). Haji and her had a few strange exchanges, that still showed the tension!
It finally came to an end, and the cast and Russ stayed around to sign stuff. All very cool and responsive. Overall a great night. L.A. Citizens, come on down to the Cinematheque over the next week and meet Russ. Show your support and convince himto get behind a camera again!
I'm off to the U.N. to meet up with Townsend. Thornhill out.
