Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind.
Speaker 2: This is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And
Speaker 2: it's Monday, so we are bringing you an older episode
Speaker 2: of Weird House Cinema. This is our episode on the
Speaker 2: Russ Meyer classic Faster Pussycat Kill Kill. Oh, the Crimes
Speaker 2: to be had?
Speaker 1: Yes, Yes, let's dive right in.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb.
Speaker 2: And this is Joe McCormick. And today we are going
Speaker 2: to be discussing a cult classic, the nineteen sixty five
Speaker 2: let's see, what would you call it, the Go Go
Speaker 2: murder exploitation film, Faster Pussycat Kill Kill. I think I'm
Speaker 2: to understand a favorite of many filmmakers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, especially a filmmaker John Waters. He is the ultimate
Speaker 1: champion of this film. And I'm going to be touching
Speaker 1: in on his thoughts regarding this film several times, especially
Speaker 1: in the run up to the plot here. But yeah,
Speaker 1: this is a very well known cult classic film. And
Speaker 1: as we're approaching the Halloween season here, Joe, when I
Speaker 1: had this discussion, like, well, maybe we should we should
Speaker 1: avoid doing horror movies until we get either to October
Speaker 1: itself or right to the edge of October, so as
Speaker 1: to enhance the punch of all that horror. So last
Speaker 1: week we did The Man Who Fell the Earth science
Speaker 1: fiction drama, and this week, yeah, basically a crime yarn
Speaker 1: a sixties go Go dancer desert crime movie.
Speaker 4: What brought you to this pic? Rub?
Speaker 1: You know, I don't remember specifically. It's one of those
Speaker 1: that I've always been aware of, just because it does
Speaker 1: have its B cinema cult following footprint firmly. It was
Speaker 1: more of a bootprint firmly implanet, you know, in the
Speaker 1: face of the American public. So I've always been vaguely
Speaker 1: aware of it, and I've heard samples from it, seen
Speaker 1: some stills from it, but I've never watched it in
Speaker 1: its entirety. And yeah, I think I was just I
Speaker 1: did a quick brainstorm. It's like, what's something that doesn't
Speaker 1: have horror, What's something even further, it doesn't have a
Speaker 1: speculative element at all that would still fit the profile
Speaker 1: for weird house cinema. And I was like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: it's got to be faster. Pussycat Kill Kill.
Speaker 2: I had never seen this movie before a couple of
Speaker 2: days ago, and I was very impressed by it in
Speaker 2: multiple respects. But one of the ways that impressed me
Speaker 2: was how entertaining it is for a B movie. Now,
Speaker 2: we love B movies, but a common problem with a
Speaker 2: lot of B movies is that they they often have
Speaker 2: dull stretches, not all, but a lot. You often get
Speaker 2: the sense that, like, you know, a B movie director
Speaker 2: is trying to like work up to the monster scene
Speaker 2: and that's really what they're excited about, and they're like, Okay,
Speaker 2: before we do that, we got to have like a
Speaker 2: love scene here, we got to have like a character
Speaker 2: explaining how the monster was made to kind of dry
Speaker 2: you know, scientist explaining the origin of the monster whatever.
Speaker 2: And these scenes feel kind of perfunctory. It's just like
Speaker 2: they're even the director is not very excited about them.
Speaker 2: They're just trying to get through them to show you
Speaker 2: the stuff that's that you're really here for. This film
Speaker 2: was made with the idea clearly that every moment should
Speaker 2: be thrilling and entertaining in some way, even when it's
Speaker 2: just kind of routine plot execution or just exposition that's
Speaker 2: setting up later scenes. The script is written in such
Speaker 2: a way that like every line a character says is
Speaker 2: weird in a way that makes the scene entertaining. Like
Speaker 2: I think the sensibility that russ Meyer, and from what
Speaker 2: I've read, russ Meyer to a great extent, credits one
Speaker 2: of the main cast members, touras Satana as also being
Speaker 2: a sort of a not just a member of the cast,
Speaker 2: but a true like creative influence behind like the movie
Speaker 2: and its style. Whoever is responsible for the dialogue in
Speaker 2: each scene knew that it is more important to be
Speaker 2: entertaining than to be realistic, and I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think this is a strong point. I
Speaker 1: mean you even see it in the title, Like the
Speaker 1: title is faster pussy Cat Kill Kill, And I've read that,
Speaker 1: like the whole take on this is that like you have,
Speaker 1: you know, a hint of sex in the title, you
Speaker 1: have speed, you know, racing in the title, and you
Speaker 1: have murder and death in the title, and it doesn't
Speaker 1: actually make all that much sense as a statement or
Speaker 1: a title. Like John Waters, when we're in writing about
Speaker 1: the film, often refers to the Gang of three here
Speaker 1: as the Pussycats. I don't think they ever refer to
Speaker 1: themselves as such. But you know, fair enough, I guess,
Speaker 1: but you do have to sort of twist the title
Speaker 1: to make it work in a literal sense. Now, as
Speaker 1: we'll discuss, this is certainly a film produced through the
Speaker 1: main it's about go go dancers starring go go dancers,
Speaker 1: or at least two of them. And while it's not
Speaker 1: as provocative as you might expect by modern standards, I mean,
Speaker 1: this is a mid nineteen sixties movie that was shown
Speaker 1: at the drive in. You know, it's still clearly intended
Speaker 1: to title ate, but it's also action packed. And it's
Speaker 1: especially interesting to read various reviews that talk about it's
Speaker 1: kind of dual nature because at the time of its release, Yeah,
Speaker 1: a lot of people saw it as just a sexist
Speaker 1: B movie, and a lot of people didn't like it.
Speaker 1: To understand, it didn't actually perform all that well, but
Speaker 1: it was later embraced as this kind of iconic counterculture
Speaker 1: film with a grandiose vision of female power to match
Speaker 1: the grandiose visions of masculine power found just everywhere else
Speaker 1: in cinema. So this is this film that has been
Speaker 1: very influential. It was a major inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's
Speaker 1: Death Proof from two thousand and seven, and both Tarantino
Speaker 1: and more recently actor Norman Retis have expressed an interest
Speaker 1: in remaking it in one form or another. I think
Speaker 1: you can ask a lot of questions about what form
Speaker 1: a remake of Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill would take in
Speaker 1: the twenty first century, But you know, maybe they have
Speaker 1: a particular vision or visions in mind.
Speaker 2: I was actually thinking without knowing that, I was thinking
Speaker 2: about Quentin Tarantino when I thought about modern filmmakers who
Speaker 2: had clearly been inspired by this movie. I can see
Speaker 2: direct lines of influence going from this movie to Yes
Speaker 2: to death proove his half of the release that was
Speaker 2: originally called Grind Grindhouse.
Speaker 1: Is that what it was called, Yes Grindhouse.
Speaker 2: But then also to the kill Bill series. There is
Speaker 2: some strong shared material there. Of course, I knew about
Speaker 2: the John Waters connection, and we can talk some more
Speaker 2: about some things that come through in John Waters' films
Speaker 2: as well that seemed to be inspired by this movie.
Speaker 2: But coming back to your comment about Norman read Us,
Speaker 2: I have to lodge a complaint that is not about
Speaker 2: this movie, but about how Google search results are now
Speaker 2: we were just recently talking about how, for some reason
Speaker 2: it seems like Google search results are just getting worse
Speaker 2: and worse. I think I don't know exactly the reason
Speaker 2: for this, but I would suspect it has to do
Speaker 2: with just like the Web is getting worse and worse,
Speaker 2: more packed with junk and you know, search engine gaming,
Speaker 2: AI generated content and garbage. So the other day, when
Speaker 2: I just googled this movie Faster Pussycat Kill Kill the
Speaker 2: top result, what do you think it should be an
Speaker 2: image of the poster of the movie, an image of
Speaker 2: the cast of the movie, or a promo still from it. No,
Speaker 2: it's a picture of Norman Reatas.
Speaker 4: Oh Man.
Speaker 1: I mean, I love Norman Reada's a very fun actor,
Speaker 1: been in a lot of things I love. But come
Speaker 1: on now, coming back to John Waters, I did pick
Speaker 1: up his book Shock Value where he talked He talked
Speaker 1: about a lot of things in that book, but he
Speaker 1: does specifically talk a little bit about Faster Pussycat Kill Kill.
Speaker 1: He writes that this film, russ Meyer's tenth film quote
Speaker 1: is beyond a doubt the best movie ever made. It
Speaker 1: is possibly better than any film that will be made
Speaker 1: in the future.
Speaker 2: Don't try to argue with him. You don't want to
Speaker 2: get pulled into this. He's had more practice having this
Speaker 2: conversation than.
Speaker 1: You have exactly. I mean yeah, Like I say, he's
Speaker 1: the ultimate champion of this film, and I think the
Speaker 1: ultimate expert on it. He has meditated on this movie
Speaker 1: more than any other person. In this book, he goes
Speaker 1: on to talk about how initially he was drawn in
Speaker 1: by the radio ads during the film's initial release they
Speaker 1: promise that the movie would leave a taste of evil
Speaker 1: in your mouth. And then he went and saw it,
Speaker 1: and he fell in love the picture and ended up
Speaker 1: seeing it every night at the local drive in, often alone,
Speaker 1: for the remainder of its run there. So he cites
Speaker 1: this movie as the primary influence on all of his
Speaker 1: characters in all of his films.
Speaker 2: I can absolutely see that in many ways, and I
Speaker 2: think he so. In one sense. You can see the
Speaker 2: similarity in the way that John Water movies, I think
Speaker 2: often go for that feeling of trying to make every
Speaker 2: single moment interesting and entertaining rather than going for realism obviously,
Speaker 2: and so it's like more important that a character say
Speaker 2: something that is shocking or funny or entertaining in some
Speaker 2: way than that they like strictly stay in character or
Speaker 2: I don't know, do something that would be realistic. But
Speaker 2: another big similarity I see is this may be a
Speaker 2: weird thing to single out, but I think you'll have
Speaker 2: to agree with me, is in a very strange and
Speaker 2: idiosyncratic style of line delivery that is characteristic of this movie,
Speaker 2: like especially Toursatana, but also the character Billy. They have
Speaker 2: this way of saying lines where they're almost not really
Speaker 2: acting them. They are just like shouting their lines, like
Speaker 2: just spitting them out with this forceful, venomous, high octane
Speaker 2: delivery for every line, just the same every time, And
Speaker 2: that comes through in a lot of performances in John
Speaker 2: Waters movies.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this this feeling, especially in this movie, that it
Speaker 1: often feel any given scene will often feel like a
Speaker 1: pro wrestling promo. Yeah, you know, it has that kind
Speaker 1: of energy. It maybe one note, but that note is
Speaker 1: played super loud and there's no missing it, and it
Speaker 1: delivers something about that character very loudly.
Speaker 2: Like I'm specifically thinking of a lot of Divines line
Speaker 2: delivery and pink flamingos feels like Varla's line delivery in
Speaker 2: this movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think there's a direct connection there. So
Speaker 1: we will keep coming back to some Waters quotes, because
Speaker 1: again I think he's the authority on all these all
Speaker 1: things faster, pussy, get, kill, kill. But as we you know,
Speaker 1: normally we'd touch in the elevator pitch. I'm just going
Speaker 1: to read you how John Waters describes this movie as
Speaker 1: a quote violent Gothic melodrama built around three bisexual sych
Speaker 1: Caught It Go Go girls, Varla, Billy and Rosie.
Speaker 2: There's an interesting angle that the movie approaches you with,
Speaker 2: and I wonder what you think about this. Rob It
Speaker 2: almost feels like it's trying to imply that this movie
Speaker 2: is connected to current events. And those current events, which
Speaker 2: you must have seen in the news, are that now
Speaker 2: every day women are like breaking men's necks in the desert.
Speaker 2: It's just something that's happening in this crazy world we
Speaker 2: live in today, and this is a movie about that phenomenon.
Speaker 2: But I don't think that there really was a phenomenon
Speaker 2: to base this on.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe it's exploiting a little bit this idea
Speaker 1: that they actually you call out in some dialogue in
Speaker 1: the film, or it's like women they're doing all these
Speaker 1: things now that they didn't.
Speaker 4: Used to do in.
Speaker 1: One of those things is perpetrating violent crimes in the desert.
Speaker 1: You've come a long way, baby.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm sure it happens sometimes, but I don't
Speaker 2: get the feeling that this was like there was a
Speaker 2: sudden spike in the sixties of women just doing assassinations
Speaker 2: related to auto racing.
Speaker 1: Now, I mean, obviously, yeah, women have always engaged in
Speaker 1: murder and violence just as men have. I mean, we
Speaker 1: have tales in the Old Testament and various myths and
Speaker 1: legends and so forth. There are plenty of there have
Speaker 1: been plenty of varlas throughout history. All right, let's go
Speaker 1: ahead and listen to the trailer audio for Faster Pussycat
Speaker 1: Kill Kill.
Speaker 5: If you want, ladies and gentlemen, gold cod for a
Speaker 5: wild wild ride with the Watusi cuts. But beware, the
Speaker 5: sweetest kittens have the sharpest claw. By your own safety
Speaker 5: see Faster Pussy Cuts Kill Kill, Wild Women, wild whales,
Speaker 5: race the fastest pussy cats and they'll be Jill top
Speaker 5: debt So far woman Felton Wild and cootd.
Speaker 6: You're pating yourself on this kid. They're hanging itself for nothing.
Speaker 4: For nothing, got nothing to do with the money.
Speaker 6: Jis the money.
Speaker 5: Jack and Jill.
Speaker 6: They make a mafia look like Brownie.
Speaker 5: He's a good one. Anything that muscle.
Speaker 1: All we do here?
Speaker 6: Yeah, ten percent of your action be enough for anyone.
Speaker 5: Too much for one man to handle. And again you
Speaker 5: never can town.
Speaker 6: You get us a bunch of newies.
Speaker 2: You just uh short of clothes.
Speaker 6: Right now you're first on my lists and I oh
Speaker 6: go to you go only go one chill and your
Speaker 6: channel's busy tuning and outside you really should be a benefit.
Speaker 6: So who do I get to take care of the
Speaker 6: muscle man? You got two of everything and some left over.
Speaker 1: You did one you wanted big rst or side.
Speaker 5: Are Why did you take one of these?
Speaker 6: Son?
Speaker 5: Both look tender.
Speaker 6: He's got a big motor to feed.
Speaker 4: Did you eat fer my man?
Speaker 6: Never ro shout David?
Speaker 5: Would you rough the last time?
Speaker 6: I here's how it works. Everybody's gotta go.
Speaker 5: You name it, We've got it. Past pussy hat kills,
Speaker 5: delivers tongue board on the opposition, I'm ladylike karate chops,
Speaker 5: ungentlemanly haymaker spirit, a gymnastics corrective table at sandbox jousting
Speaker 5: or a muscle bound chat wrestling with a roaring sports
Speaker 5: car that's intent upon squashing him like a grape, bizarre
Speaker 5: kidney and chessie rattling chases, and for the first.
Speaker 3: Time on the screen, hay.
Speaker 5: Making, belly busting, karate charming, judah flipping, fight, Go in
Speaker 5: Them All, Sober Woman against Man, the Prize life Itself, slashing, tackling,
Speaker 5: gouge hacking, glittering, spelting, smashing, and muscle to muscle lone
Speaker 5: to Bow, or an Incredible Evenings entertainment, a film so
Speaker 5: totally satisfying see russ Meyer Faster. Of course, the time
Speaker 5: Kill Kill.
Speaker 1: See really sells it. You can you can imagine being
Speaker 1: the young John Waters hearing that or some version of
Speaker 1: that trailer for the first time. All Right, As for
Speaker 1: availability on this one, I do wish it was easier
Speaker 1: to get a copy of it or to have an
Speaker 1: official stream of the movie. It doesn't seem to be
Speaker 1: widely available on disc right now, and I couldn't find
Speaker 1: an official stream video. Drum has a copy of it
Speaker 1: here in Atlanta. But yeah, given this film's cult status,
Speaker 1: I would I would want it to be more available
Speaker 1: than it is. But if you look hard enough, I
Speaker 1: think you can probably find it somewhere. So if you
Speaker 1: if you need a break and go see this movie,
Speaker 1: you know, come back. We're going to talk about the
Speaker 1: cast and some of the filmmakers, and then from there
Speaker 1: we're going to get into a more spoilery discussion.
Speaker 4: Of the plot.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, let's start, yeah at the top, with
Speaker 1: the director, the producer of the editor. He also is
Speaker 1: a story credit. It's Russ Meyer, who lived nineteen twenty
Speaker 1: two through two thousand and four, American exploitation director known
Speaker 1: for campies exploitation films from the nineteen fifties through the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, with a couple of brief returns after that.
Speaker 1: He directed the nineteen seventy film Beyond the Valley of
Speaker 1: the Dolls, the only film that film critic Roger Ebert
Speaker 1: ever wrote.
Speaker 2: I think that movie was also not super well received
Speaker 2: when it came out, but I've heard people kind of
Speaker 2: appreciate it now. It's also allegedly just wild. The moment
Speaker 2: to moment weirdness quotient is apparently quite high.
Speaker 1: So Meyer's film immediately prior to Faster Pussycat was nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty five's Motorcycle, same year, same release, here about a
Speaker 1: violent gang of male bikers, so he essentially flipped the
Speaker 1: script on that for this movie, focusing on female characters instead.
Speaker 1: His films are often categorized as being very technically proficient,
Speaker 1: ludicrous in their dialogue, campy, and often using leering, low
Speaker 1: angle shots. But those low angle shots often do create
Speaker 1: this sense of weird kind of almost like mythic tension.
Speaker 1: Likes it makes the characters in the film feel larger
Speaker 1: than life. I mean, not just their physical bodies, but
Speaker 1: like their sort of hero or villain status.
Speaker 2: I would say that russ Meyer's style is very much
Speaker 2: in that category of schlock, but not hack. Somebody who
Speaker 2: is creating what is supposed to be you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: lowbrow exploitation cinema, but who actually is bringing quite a
Speaker 2: bit of style and in a weird way. You could
Speaker 2: almost say say taste to the experience.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like I say, never a dull moment. If nothing else,
Speaker 1: you're just wondering what are these characters going to say next,
Speaker 1: And at any moment someone might get like slapped in
Speaker 1: the face as well. Again, John Waters idolized russ Meyer,
Speaker 1: called him quote the good old boy of exploitation films,
Speaker 1: and in Water's view on things. Quote, exploitation films are
Speaker 1: the only ones that come close to that dreaded word art.
Speaker 2: That's an interesting idea. I almost feel like I've heard
Speaker 2: John Waters talk about this in some other context, that
Speaker 2: there's almost kind of a like a horseshoe theory of
Speaker 2: taste where, for some reason, a lot of people who
Speaker 2: seem to have some of the highest tolerance for I
Speaker 2: don't know, avant garde art and and you know, the
Speaker 2: like the I don't know what you call it, the
Speaker 2: kind of fine art that really asks you to open
Speaker 2: minded and go outside of your comfort zone. For some reason,
Speaker 2: are also often people who are into very low brow
Speaker 2: B movie type stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, sort of putting yourself in a place of
Speaker 1: open minded vulnerability where art can potentially hurt you, but
Speaker 1: it's what does it make me feel? It's creating feelings,
Speaker 1: and then I'm supposed to make sense of those feelings. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not unlike the place you have to put yourself
Speaker 1: in with various exploitation films. Though, to be sure, not
Speaker 1: all exploitation films are created equal and in many different ways.
Speaker 1: All right, Moving on to the screenplay itself, written by
Speaker 1: Jackie Moran, who lived nineteen twenty three through nineteen ninety.
Speaker 1: As a writer, he only worked on a handful of
Speaker 1: produced screenplays, all russ Meyer pictures, but as an actor,
Speaker 1: his credits go back to Believe the mid nineteen thirties.
Speaker 1: As a child and youth actor appeared in various old
Speaker 1: serials such as Buck Rogers, as well as a nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty eight adaptation of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Oh
Speaker 1: and he was also in a nineteen thirty nine film
Speaker 1: called Gone with the Wind.
Speaker 2: So I mentioned that a lot of what makes this
Speaker 2: movie unique is the the sort of high high grit
Speaker 2: of the script, you know, like the way that each
Speaker 2: line just kind of like grips you and rubs your brain.
Speaker 2: And I don't know exactly where to put the credit
Speaker 2: for this. It should should we be thinking about this
Speaker 2: as like a feature of Jackie Moran's screenplay, or since
Speaker 2: this seems to be, from what I've read, a characteristic
Speaker 2: of russ Meyer films, is this something that's coming more
Speaker 2: from Meyer's influence. But then again, as I said, also,
Speaker 2: I've read that the tourist Satana is usually given credit
Speaker 2: for shaping a lot of the tone and style of
Speaker 2: the movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you probably want to sign with Varlain
Speaker 1: this one, because otherwise she's gonna chop you in kidney.
Speaker 1: So I mean, it does seem like a lot of
Speaker 1: those lines are coming from the heart. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of clarity on this, but I
Speaker 1: kind of have the suspicion that the screenplay was one place,
Speaker 1: and then maybe the actors and or the director on
Speaker 1: the set kind of like punch things in a different direction. Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: let's talk about Toura Satana, not Santana, as I sometimes
Speaker 1: keep mispronouncing it. This is her show name, leaning into
Speaker 1: the sort of evil nature of her persona. So Satana
Speaker 1: lived nineteen thirty eight through twenty eleven, and yeah, this
Speaker 1: she plays the leader of our gang of three of
Speaker 1: violence loving, fem fatal criminal, mastermind and goth queen of
Speaker 1: the Desert. Satana was born Tura Yamaguchi. She was a
Speaker 1: Japanese American exotic dancer and burlesque performer turned actor. She
Speaker 1: started out in the early sixties with bit parts for
Speaker 1: TV and film, including the TV series Hawaii and I
Speaker 1: and The Man from Uncle. Then came This film, followed
Speaker 1: by an uncredited role a dancer on sixty six is
Speaker 1: Our Man Flint, and then the role of Satana, essentially
Speaker 1: playing herself to some degree in the nineteen sixty eight
Speaker 1: low budget sci fi horror film The Astro Zombies starring
Speaker 1: Wendell Corey and John Keradine.
Speaker 2: That's a movie I have seen and remember almost nothing about,
Speaker 2: which is a feature of most films I've seen starring
Speaker 2: John Carradine.
Speaker 1: Oh well, you know, peep busted. He's in a lot
Speaker 1: of films, but he is in a lot of forgivable films,
Speaker 1: It's true. Astro Zombies is definitely one of those. It's
Speaker 1: a classic B movie in anyways. It has this super
Speaker 1: cool mask, very cool poster, but as I remember it,
Speaker 1: a very plotting pace. I believe Satana plays the Mad
Speaker 1: Doctor's evil hinch woman, but I cannot remember a thing
Speaker 1: that anyone does in this aside from you do get
Speaker 1: some creeping astro zombies from time to time.
Speaker 4: That was a Ted V. Mickels movie, wasn't it, I think?
Speaker 1: So. After this, she was in seventy three Is the
Speaker 1: Doll Squad, a kind of Charlie's Angels inspired romp. She
Speaker 1: left acting after that, but emerged again in the two thousands,
Speaker 1: appearing in two thousand and fours, Mark of the Astro Zombies,
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine, Sugar Box rob Zombies, The Haunted
Speaker 1: World of Al Superbisto, and Astro Zombies M three cloned
Speaker 1: in twenty ten. I mean, what can you say? Though
Speaker 1: she's a force of nature in this movie, alluring is intended,
Speaker 1: but also just believably mean and above all cool, Like
Speaker 1: she's she's so cool that even though she is and
Speaker 1: a lot of people have pointed this out, like she
Speaker 1: is arguably the villain or one of the two main
Speaker 1: villains in the picture, but at the same time, you're
Speaker 1: rooting for the whole time where I was. It's like,
Speaker 1: even if she's engaging and kidnapping and mass murder, I'm
Speaker 1: kind of on team Varla the whole way. And Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just an amazing performance and you can't look away,
Speaker 1: you can't stop listening. What is she going to say next?
Speaker 1: Who is she gonna hit next?
Speaker 2: I love how she's just autumnally immediately rude to everyone.
Speaker 1: Yes she is. She's rude and cutting to everyone. No
Speaker 1: one is safe, and it's just one step away from
Speaker 1: murder at all times.
Speaker 2: Also, I'm pretty sure in all her fight and action scenes,
Speaker 2: we're not looking at a stunt double, are we.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 1: No, I believe she did all her own stunts, and
Speaker 1: to understand, she also did her own fight choreography. So
Speaker 1: when we see her beating up various folks and throwing
Speaker 1: them to the ground and chopping them like she she
Speaker 1: brought the technique.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to think of another movie. I know there
Speaker 2: are movies like this. I can't call examples to mind
Speaker 2: right now of a movie where really, essentially the main
Speaker 2: character is also the main villain and you're just you're
Speaker 2: basically on their side and seeing the world through their eyes,
Speaker 2: even though they are in a technical sense the bad
Speaker 2: guy that must be defeated at the end.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like what we discussed talking about Riddick, there's always
Speaker 1: this temptation to to have this sort of redemption arc
Speaker 1: to your your anti hero, and that is not what
Speaker 1: goes on here.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, you might be fooled into thinking that's where
Speaker 1: it's going at some point, but it's not.
Speaker 2: She does not get a heart. She is not a
Speaker 2: go go dancer assassin with a heart of gold. She
Speaker 2: has a heart of a drain cleaner. I would say
Speaker 2: a heart of the most caustic, toxic substance. Maybe you
Speaker 2: could say she has a heart of raidon.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right. So she's the leader of our trio
Speaker 1: of Go Go witches here, our gang of three Up
Speaker 1: next is the character Rosie, played by the actor Hodgi.
Speaker 1: Hodgi is her screen name and based on her New
Speaker 1: York Times ah bit from twenty thirteen. This was a
Speaker 1: nickname that her uncle gave to her. So she was
Speaker 1: born Barbarella Katon in nineteen forty six so Canadian American
Speaker 1: dancer turned actor. She also appeared in Motorcycle, Also Pops Up,
Speaker 1: and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. She was in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventies Bigfoot starring John Carradine once more Christopher Mitcham
Speaker 1: as well. She was also in She Also Pops Up.
Speaker 1: It's kind of in the background in some bigger films,
Speaker 1: like she's in John Cassavetti's The Killing of a Chinese
Speaker 1: Bookie from seventy six starring Ben Gazara. It's like a
Speaker 1: bit roll as a dancer. She also pops up in
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighty one horror film Demonoid starring Samantha Agger.
Speaker 1: I've seen part of this. This is like set in
Speaker 1: Mexico and has some sort of a demonic disembodied hand.
Speaker 4: Oh, demonic hand movie. You know what.
Speaker 2: We've mentioned so many of those in passing in episodes.
Speaker 2: Since we did The Beast with Five Fingers and Mad Love.
Speaker 2: I wonder if we should just do a whole hand
Speaker 2: monster series.
Speaker 1: We easily could. Yeah, there are a number of I
Speaker 1: mean a number of them are based on the hands
Speaker 1: of Warlock and part of that direct tradition. But then, yeah,
Speaker 1: you have other films like the Michael Caine film The
Speaker 1: Hand and so forth.
Speaker 4: Was that the one directed by Oliver Stone?
Speaker 1: It is, Yeah, Oliver Stone directed that one where.
Speaker 2: You find out that the CIA was actually behind the
Speaker 2: Hand all along.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's a rare. You know, it's from
Speaker 1: that period of time when he almost directed a Cone
Speaker 1: in the Barbarian movie.
Speaker 4: All Right.
Speaker 1: So the character Rosy in this different, different style, different presentation,
Speaker 1: she is she doesn't really have time for any of
Speaker 1: the crap that's going on in this movie. She isn't
Speaker 1: necessarily down with all of Varla's violence, but she is
Speaker 1: devoted to Varla. Nonetheless, Hodgy's performance is I would say,
Speaker 1: richly entertaining at times, it seems like maybe the greenest
Speaker 1: she has this. I think she's doing an Italian accent
Speaker 1: in this. I'm not entirely sure.
Speaker 2: I interpreted it as an Italian accent.
Speaker 1: Yes, Yeah, Waters and shot in the in the book
Speaker 1: I referenced earlier says quote. She's a mean Mexican with
Speaker 1: a weakness for switchblades who emphasizes her many moments of
Speaker 1: disgust by spitting or picking her teeth with whatever is handy.
Speaker 2: Yes, she is the most disgusted of our three anti heroes.
Speaker 4: Yes, that is her.
Speaker 1: That is her one note played loudly discussed, but also
Speaker 1: occasionally a little bit like she's the only one of
Speaker 1: the three that also shows like a little bit of
Speaker 1: empathy or even remorse at times, So in a weird way,
Speaker 1: she has her role has more range.
Speaker 2: I agree, she's the only one of the three that
Speaker 2: seems to have any hint of a soul or kindness
Speaker 2: at all. And it's not much of a hint, but
Speaker 2: there's a little spark in there somewhere. She is often
Speaker 2: set against the third of the gang Billy. They're kind
Speaker 2: of butting heads a lot of the movie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Billy is played by Laurie Williams born nineteen forty six.
Speaker 1: He's our blonde, sassy, provocative, wise cracking, sensation junkie. This
Speaker 1: is just always down for a swim or some just
Speaker 1: extracurricular dancing, fighting a little race, saying well, you know whatever, whatever.
Speaker 1: She's up for anything. She's also ridiculously laugh out loud,
Speaker 1: seductive in a manner that reminds me of Gina Morony
Speaker 1: from thirty Rock. Yes, so many moments where she's being
Speaker 1: sexy and it's just hysterical.
Speaker 2: She just like sees a man with muscles fifty feet
Speaker 2: away and it's like.
Speaker 1: Hey, hot stuff, Yeah, exactly now. Williams was not a
Speaker 1: go go dancer, but was a beach party film actor
Speaker 1: for the most part. Her other credits include mostly dancer roles,
Speaker 1: but in some notable films, including nineteen sixty three's The
Speaker 1: Prize starring Paul Newman, the Elvis movies Viva Las Vegas
Speaker 1: and Kissing Cousins in sixty four, as well as the
Speaker 1: Elvis movies Girl Happy and Tickle Me both in sixty five,
Speaker 1: so multiple Elvis movies here. She was an Arman Flint
Speaker 1: in sixty six. She has a passenger role as an
Speaker 1: extra in nineteen seventy two, It's The Poseidon Adventure, and
Speaker 1: an uncredited victim role in nineteen seventy four, ninety nine,
Speaker 1: and forty four out of one hundred percent Dead, directed
Speaker 1: by John Frankenheimer and starring Richard Harris Waters in Shock
Speaker 1: Value says quote, Billy is the film of the group,
Speaker 1: the main things on her mind being sex and alcohol.
Speaker 1: In her white short shorts, halter top, and knee high
Speaker 1: patent leather go go boots, Billy is forever breaking into
Speaker 1: torrid go go steps whenever trouble arises.
Speaker 2: Yes, she so they're professional go go dancers, but Billy
Speaker 2: likes to go go dance when they're off the clock.
Speaker 2: And her gang, her fellow gang members will say, you know, hey,
Speaker 2: why are you doing that? You know that's we left
Speaker 2: that behind at work, And She's like, I do what
Speaker 2: I want.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, she does. In a way like she's
Speaker 1: the perfect opposite but equal of Varla because they both
Speaker 1: do whatever they want. They have their own compass, but
Speaker 1: the things they want to do are drastically different.
Speaker 2: Okay, so we've got our vicious murdering gang of Go
Speaker 2: Go dance series. We got to have some innocent people
Speaker 2: in here to be victimized by them, right.
Speaker 1: That's right, And so the main victim being Linda, played
Speaker 1: by Sue Bernard, who lived nineteen forty eight through twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: She plays likable American every girl and the Gang of
Speaker 1: Three of course not impressed with her here. But Bernard
Speaker 1: has the interesting history. She was the daughter of legendary
Speaker 1: glamour and pin up photographer Bruno Bernard. She was an author, actress, model,
Speaker 1: and businesswoman. She was a playboy model in nineteen sixty six.
Speaker 1: This was her first film role, followed by a couple
Speaker 1: of notable films. I Guess nineteen sixty nine, is the
Speaker 1: witch Maker in nineteen seventy two's Neck Romancy. A noteworthy
Speaker 1: family connection is that at one point she was married
Speaker 1: to actor and playwright Jason Miller, who, of course is
Speaker 1: famous for having play father Damien in The Exorcist. Ah Yes,
Speaker 1: Father Chris Yeah, and their son is was actor Joshua
Speaker 1: John Miller born nineteen seventy two. He has a number
Speaker 1: of interesting credits, but his first film role as a
Speaker 1: child actor was playing the hero's son Willie in Halloween
Speaker 1: three season of the Witch.
Speaker 2: Okay, wait, how many degrees of separation is that from
Speaker 2: Halloween three to Faster pussy Cat. I guess it involves
Speaker 2: a family connection.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a family connection, so it's harder, but it's
Speaker 1: close enough. It's in close orbit.
Speaker 2: I'm just imagining a film that could have been like
Speaker 2: the Go Go Murder Gang here versus Tom Atkins from
Speaker 2: Halloween three. Doesn't he seem like the perfect victim of
Speaker 2: their treachery.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I could see him taking a beating from this bunch. Now,
Speaker 1: speaking of taking a beating, the character Linda has a
Speaker 1: boyfriend named Tommy, and Tommy is one of, if not
Speaker 1: the only, likable male characters in the whole picture. Wiston caveats,
Speaker 1: we'll come back to that. He's a kind of square
Speaker 1: and nice guy who just wants to work on his car,
Speaker 1: improve his race time, and spend a little quality time
Speaker 1: with his girlfriend Linda. He doesn't know leer at any
Speaker 1: of the women, or speak to them in a sexist manner.
Speaker 1: And you might think this means, well, this might be
Speaker 1: the hero of our picture, but he's certainly not.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 2: No, he's a nice guy, which means he's marked for death.
Speaker 4: Mark for death.
Speaker 1: We'll get to that death in a bit because it's
Speaker 1: pretty spectacular. Played by Ray Barlow. I don't think any
Speaker 1: dates are known for this actor. This was one of
Speaker 1: only four credits for him, alongside nineteen sixty seven's a
Speaker 1: Countess from Hong Kong and the nineteen seventy one TV
Speaker 1: series The Goodies. Oh and also a single episode of
Speaker 1: Highway to Heaven from the late eighties. All right, now,
Speaker 1: we do have another sort of villainous trio to cancel
Speaker 1: out our main villainous trio, but these are This is
Speaker 1: a male villainous trio of a family they encounter in
Speaker 1: the desert, the leader of which is the Old Man
Speaker 1: played by Stuart Lancaster, who lived nineteen twenty through the
Speaker 1: year two thousand. American actor with credits going back to
Speaker 1: the early sixties. He appears in the original Outer Limits
Speaker 1: episode Tourist Attraction, but he's mostly known for appearing in
Speaker 1: Russ Meyer films and various other exploitation titles. However, you
Speaker 1: can also find him in such films as nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: three's God Monster of Indian Flats and Tim Burton cast
Speaker 1: him in two films. He plays a retired man in
Speaker 1: Edward Scissorhands and he plays the penguin's doctor and Batman returns.
Speaker 1: What oh, not a role I remember, but you know
Speaker 1: I can you can see the kind of thing Tim
Speaker 1: Burton was going for and that weird Weird Batman sequel
Speaker 1: Batman returns, Does we could do? Batman returns on Weird
Speaker 1: House Cinema? I agree that does penguin go.
Speaker 2: For a checkoup in?
Speaker 5: There?
Speaker 4: I really don't.
Speaker 1: I don't remember when this would be, if this would
Speaker 1: be like a flashback to when he's a baby, like
Speaker 1: maybe that's the penguin's doctor, or maybe it's some time later,
Speaker 1: because there's that whole yet intro to the character that
Speaker 1: involves who isn't that who plays his father? Pee wee
Speaker 1: Herman plays his father?
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, I'd forgotten that too. Well. So anyway, this character,
Speaker 2: the old man, it's playing on the principle that we
Speaker 2: talked about just recently with like a danger diabolic in
Speaker 2: a movie where you have an anti hero, though I
Speaker 2: don't know if you call Varla an anti hero, just
Speaker 2: where you're like, main character is bad, it always helps
Speaker 2: to up the ante by having to meet a character
Speaker 2: who is much worse.
Speaker 4: Yes, So Yeah, our.
Speaker 2: Main characters character or characters are bad and they do murder.
Speaker 2: But what if there's somebody who also wants to do
Speaker 2: murder but is even grosser.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's that's the old Man, as old discuss,
Speaker 1: he's pretty villainous. He lives in the desert with two
Speaker 1: of his sons, one of which I forget if he
Speaker 1: even has a name aside from the vegetable he's. They
Speaker 1: call him this because he's it doesn't say much, but
Speaker 1: he's a big muscle guy. And then the other son,
Speaker 1: the elder of the two sons, is Kirk, played by
Speaker 1: Paul Trinka, who lived nineteen thirty two through nineteen seventy three.
Speaker 1: Mostly a bit player on TV, this is his most
Speaker 1: well known role. He also appeared on Hawaii and I
Speaker 1: My Three Sons, Gomer Pyle USMC, Voyage to the Bottom
Speaker 1: of the Sea, Land of the Giants, and an episode
Speaker 1: of Night Gallery. Now we also hear a little bit
Speaker 1: from the narrator. We'll touch on that in a second.
Speaker 1: The narrator for this film is John Furlong, who lived
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty three through two thousand and eight, American actor
Speaker 1: who I believe got his start in russ Meyer films
Speaker 1: and worked for him several times, you know, often being
Speaker 1: dubbing the director's voice or being this narration voice. He
Speaker 1: ultimately accumulated a lot of TV and film credits over
Speaker 1: the course of his career, having appeared in the likes
Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy four's Blazing Saddles, ninety four's Wyat, and
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety eights Vampires, the John Carpenter film, along with
Speaker 1: many others. And as for the music on this one,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to go into a lot of depth here,
Speaker 1: but Ego Kantor was a music director who lived nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty through twenty nineteen. Interesting fella in a name that
Speaker 1: weird cinema fans may have noticed in the credits before,
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes kind of stands out. It worked a
Speaker 1: lot in doing the music for various films, but also
Speaker 1: was a producer as far back as nineteen seventy one
Speaker 1: and such films as Kingdom of the Spiders, nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: nine Is the Dark and nineteen eighty four as Mutant
Speaker 1: starring Wingshauser and Bo Hopkins.
Speaker 2: We could come back and do Kingdom of the Spiders
Speaker 2: as well, because that is a killer Tarantula movie starring
Speaker 2: Captain Kirk.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's also a reference to a warren Zevon warren
Speaker 1: Zevon song. Rather so, I always like a nice musical
Speaker 1: nod to be cinema. All right, shall we get into
Speaker 1: the plot?
Speaker 2: Yes? Now, I think this is another movie where we're
Speaker 2: not going to recount every scene order. I think instead,
Speaker 2: maybe we'll talk about the intro in some detail, maybe
Speaker 2: the you know, the first chunk of the movie, and
Speaker 2: then do a basic recap on everything else and then
Speaker 2: focus on some things that stand out. But first thing,
Speaker 2: this movie begins with a narration and has one of
Speaker 2: the all time great opening lines I've heard in any film.
Speaker 1: Yes we hear that, that rich velvety narrator's voice say,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, welcome to violence.
Speaker 2: To violence. It goes on to say the word and
Speaker 2: the act. While violence cloaks itself in a plethora of disguises,
Speaker 2: its favorite mantles still remains sex. Huh. Okay, So the
Speaker 2: opening narration here, it goes on for a while, and
Speaker 2: there's while this guy's talking is just sort of a
Speaker 2: black screen with these lines that are undulating as if
Speaker 2: showing like a like an audiogram or something. They're vibrating
Speaker 2: with the sound of the narrator's voice, and the narrator
Speaker 2: goes on to explain in a rather wordy and roundabout
Speaker 2: manner that America's most trusted brand, violence is still in business,
Speaker 2: but it is under new management.
Speaker 4: Women.
Speaker 2: The narrator says, you know, you guys out there, you
Speaker 2: might think women are beautiful, you might think women are nice,
Speaker 2: but also they will cut your head off with a
Speaker 2: power saw. The women of today they murder all the time.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 1: Women are more dangerous than they've ever been in human history.
Speaker 1: This is a new breed of violence out.
Speaker 4: There, alrighty.
Speaker 2: And so the narration ends with him saying who are they?
Speaker 2: One might be your secretary, your doctor's receptionist, or a
Speaker 2: dancer in a go go club. Smash cut to a
Speaker 2: go go club.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is where we get our first look
Speaker 1: at our trio of evil go go dancers here, all
Speaker 1: black and white sequins and tassels. Yeah, we had and
Speaker 1: mentioned it already. This is a black and white film.
Speaker 1: It looks pretty gorgeous, and we have the theme song
Speaker 1: playing in the background, but also we have do we
Speaker 1: keep cutting to these brutish men who were chanting at them.
Speaker 1: They're chanting go go, And I was wondering, like, I
Speaker 1: didn't even look this up though. Is this the origin
Speaker 1: of the term go go dancer? It's just you're supposed
Speaker 1: to yell go and shout go at them.
Speaker 4: I have no idea.
Speaker 2: But also this scene is so funny because of the
Speaker 2: lack of like humor or enjoyment evident in the men
Speaker 2: who are shouting at the go go dancer. Is just
Speaker 2: I have to applaud the deadly seriousness with which the
Speaker 2: dudes are shouting go, let's go, come on go. They
Speaker 2: sound like like Hollywood cowboys yelling at their horses. And
Speaker 2: they're puffing on cigars by the way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, watching this, especially from a modern perspective,
Speaker 1: you can't help but assume that the message here is
Speaker 1: that are gross and terrible, and that you're supposed to
Speaker 1: take that with you into the film proper. And I
Speaker 1: don't think the film really presents us with any any
Speaker 1: information to counter that thesis. But I just don't know,
Speaker 1: like what what was really intended by this?
Speaker 2: Oh do you mean, like maybe there's there's an unspoken
Speaker 2: understanding that because in their day job. These women are
Speaker 2: like dancing for these horrible creeps all the time, and
Speaker 2: so they take that with them to the other scenarios
Speaker 2: in their life. So like when they murder a man
Speaker 2: in the desert, that they're sort of like seeing in
Speaker 2: that man all of the like the go go guys.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know. I think one looks for
Speaker 1: nuance in this film at their peril. You know, Varla
Speaker 1: would not stand for that. You know, if I were
Speaker 1: to broach that hypothesis, she would she would shot.
Speaker 4: Me in the neck, so she would just kill you.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is interesting, Like why do they seem so mad?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, well they are also they're criminals. They're
Speaker 1: out for that. They want the quick score. Oh you're
Speaker 1: talking about the audience.
Speaker 2: I mean the guys they're yellow. Why do they sound angry?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know, unless again, we're supposed to take
Speaker 1: something home about this that that that men in general
Speaker 1: are awful. So I don't know, worth something we're thinking about.
Speaker 1: But then again, this is a film that I don't
Speaker 1: think necessarily well, you know, it goes two ways. I
Speaker 1: think it's a film that is also about like surface
Speaker 1: level interpretation. But this is a film that a lot
Speaker 1: has been written about there. I glanced at a number
Speaker 1: of serious film critic papers out there, and that in
Speaker 1: film papers that we're looking at at this film and
Speaker 1: talking about like gender dynamics and various forms of representation
Speaker 1: that are going on in the film. So there is
Speaker 1: a lot to chew on. You can certainly have it
Speaker 1: both ways.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, there's a very interesting duality and that in
Speaker 2: one sense, this movie is straightforwardly very sexist, but on
Speaker 2: the other hand, it is presenting a more kind of
Speaker 2: empowered and larger than life vision of female characters than
Speaker 2: you would get in pretty much anywhere else in movies
Speaker 2: of this time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think a lot of the interesting commentary
Speaker 1: comes from like trying to to piece it apart and
Speaker 1: figure out, well, how much of this was intentional, how
Speaker 1: much of it is you know, sort of happy accident, etc.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's often the case with films that really
Speaker 1: stand out, you know, that really stand out to the
Speaker 1: future interpretation.
Speaker 2: But okay, there's another great smash cut here, because so
Speaker 2: like the Goga, the ladies are dancing, the guys are screaming,
Speaker 2: go and then it just like suddenly we're somewhere else.
Speaker 1: Suddenly we're in the desert. Here's our lead character, Varla,
Speaker 1: laughing maniacally as she races her sports car through the desert,
Speaker 1: and then we quickly see that there the two other dancers,
Speaker 1: Rosy and Billy, are racing behind her in their own
Speaker 1: sports cars, laughing as well.
Speaker 2: It's like they're already fleeing the scene of a crime
Speaker 2: when we first meet them here, and who knows, maybe
Speaker 2: they are. We don't They never mentioned that.
Speaker 1: Right, right, I mean it would make sense, Yeah, they're
Speaker 1: going because there is a there's a desperation to a
Speaker 1: lot of what they do, and there's a you know,
Speaker 1: they clearly don't care about the future.
Speaker 2: Well, I see what you're saying about the desperation, though,
Speaker 2: I don't want to convey the wrong feeling in the scene,
Speaker 2: because instead they feel it's like they're having fun.
Speaker 1: They are, Yeah, they are completely free.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Another thing I will say is that
Speaker 2: the soundtrack really adds a lot of pep to this movie.
Speaker 2: It's like good hot music selections, and they change so fast.
Speaker 2: I think I noted by the time we're like four
Speaker 2: minutes into the movie, we've already heard like five different songs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, a lot of saxophone too, a lot
Speaker 1: of jazz saxophone. And yeah, so they're racing through the desert,
Speaker 1: but you know, Billy has needs. Billy needs a swim break.
Speaker 1: So everybody stops so that Billy can have a swim.
Speaker 2: This scene, so, yeah, Billy's like, I want to swim.
Speaker 2: I'm going to swim even if it's you know, this
Speaker 2: is a muddy drainage canal, I'm going to swim in that.
Speaker 2: And then I think Varla sends Rosie to go make
Speaker 2: her stop. She's like, get her out of there, and
Speaker 2: so Rosie goes to do it, and this leads to
Speaker 2: a fight scene where they're just like beating each other
Speaker 2: up on the beach.
Speaker 4: Billy and Rosie are.
Speaker 2: And I think this establishes the dynamic between the characters
Speaker 2: that will continue for the rest of the film. First
Speaker 2: of all, Varla is the boss, mean, tough, dominant, violent.
Speaker 2: She gives orders. If you cross her, you know, well
Speaker 2: you don't want to cross her, you don't want to
Speaker 2: find out. Meanwhile, Billy is the free spirit. She does
Speaker 2: whatever she wants whenever she feels like it. To hell
Speaker 2: with anybody who's trying to tell her it is not
Speaker 2: time to go swimming in the muddy canal. Meanwhile, Rosie,
Speaker 2: you know, we were sort of talking about this earlier.
Speaker 2: Like Rosie is the most complicated of the three. She's
Speaker 2: more resentful and reserved and sometimes seems kind of unsure
Speaker 2: but somehow okay. So they end up Rosie and Billy
Speaker 2: end up fighting. I guess about the fact that Billy
Speaker 2: was swimming, and then they start they all start arguing,
Speaker 2: and Setana eventually says, you want to prove something, Chicky,
Speaker 2: Let's see who the real chicken is. Another smash cut
Speaker 2: to they're playing a game of chicken in their cars
Speaker 2: on the salt flats.
Speaker 1: That's right, let's settle this honorably with with with with
Speaker 1: the dangerous vehicular action.
Speaker 2: If you're not familiar with vehicular chicken. Yeah, it's where
Speaker 2: these cars, like they drive head on toward each other.
Speaker 2: And I guess the first person to swar of loses.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but don't try this. Yeah, who wins? Varla of course?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, because yes, she is the meanest and the
Speaker 1: toughest and she will not stop.
Speaker 2: But after their game of chicken, I guess they're just
Speaker 2: hanging out in the middle of the salt flats and
Speaker 2: what do you know, Uh, oh, here here comes some people,
Speaker 2: and things are not gonna go well for them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, here come Tommy and Linda, a couple of well
Speaker 1: meaning squares who are just so pleasant, just so pleasant.
Speaker 1: They're like, oh, strangers in the desert. This is great,
Speaker 1: more people to hang out with. Little do they know
Speaker 1: that this band of go go witches is gonna They're
Speaker 1: going to be their their death and doom.
Speaker 2: It's a couple of teenagers who are just like meatloaf,
Speaker 2: mashed potatoes, and canned peas.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: They love cars, soft drinks, good clean fun. And Tommy
Speaker 2: is here to do some timed trials because he loves,
Speaker 2: you know, tuning up his car, which to me did
Speaker 2: not look like a hot rod. I was like, really, Tommy,
Speaker 2: he's the car guy and that's his car. But I
Speaker 2: just don't know my sixties cars.
Speaker 1: I guess yeah, yeah, the sixties car expert can shine
Speaker 1: in here and tell us what we're looking at.
Speaker 2: But so they're here to do timed trials, which Varla
Speaker 2: makes fun of, by the way, time trials. You know,
Speaker 2: I only race against the living. But I think Linda's
Speaker 2: idea is she's gonna sit there and like enjoy some
Speaker 2: soft drinks and do the stop watch for Tommy while
Speaker 2: he drives around.
Speaker 4: That does it?
Speaker 2: It sounds like a great time. And at some point
Speaker 2: Linda offers the the the The Go Go Murderers soft drinks.
Speaker 2: She's like, would you like a soft drink from her
Speaker 2: cooler here?
Speaker 1: Yeah, And Rosie says, honey, we don't like nothing soft.
Speaker 1: Everything we touch is hard. So let's get some more
Speaker 1: of that great russ Meyer dialogue here.
Speaker 2: But we should add like nearly every exchange in the
Speaker 2: movie is like that. It's just like nobody says anything normal.
Speaker 2: They're they're always like spitting one liners at each other.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And basically this whole interaction with Tommy and Linda
Speaker 1: is they're just picking a fight within the whole time,
Speaker 1: they're trying to tempt them into some sort of a confrontation.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: It's a I thought that it ultimately has kind of
Speaker 1: Varla especially has kind of like an Old Testament Satanic
Speaker 1: aspect to her character, because in Tommy we see a
Speaker 1: good man. You know, he's not leering, he's not saying
Speaker 1: inappropriate things like the gas station attendant from from earlier.
Speaker 2: That's later the.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, that's right, because Lindas are even kidnapped by
Speaker 1: that point. But you know, most of them, the males
Speaker 1: in the film are like that. You know, they're saying
Speaker 1: some some stuff here, or they're they're leering at our
Speaker 1: at our trio. But you know, Tommy seems good. You know,
Speaker 1: he couldn't possibly be provoked to violence. Uh, but you know,
Speaker 1: our Satanic character might say, well, you know, he's been
Speaker 1: protected from those temptations, but what if someone were to
Speaker 1: criticize his racing. What if someone were to beat him
Speaker 1: in a desert race and also take his girlfriend? Stop watch, So.
Speaker 2: You're you're talking about like the Satan from the Book
Speaker 2: of Job Satan as the prosecutor of the Court of Heaven.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I think Varla has that kind of energy here.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so just constantly picking a fight. There's a
Speaker 1: great bit where he's he's starting to a little annoyed
Speaker 1: bow this. He's like, are you are you trying to
Speaker 1: say something? And she's like, I never try anything, I
Speaker 1: just do it, which awesome Varla line just sums it.
Speaker 2: Up prefigures Yoda as well. Mm hmm, Yoda Varla see that? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: she Also, at some point she's trying to get him
Speaker 2: to do a dangerous drag race with her, and and
Speaker 2: he's at first refusing, and she at one point says,
Speaker 2: you're the all American boy, a safety first, Clyde.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So eventually the Go Go Murder gang tricks, they like
Speaker 2: goed Tommy into racing, and so they're you know, driving
Speaker 2: around the track, and then it looks maybe like Tommy's
Speaker 2: gonna win the race, but then Varla pulls some kind
Speaker 2: of I didn't understand exactly what happened, but she pulls
Speaker 2: some kind of dangerous stunt to like run him off
Speaker 2: the course.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And so from here things escalate pretty quickly, and
Speaker 1: Varla finally provokes nice guy Tommy into a fight, into
Speaker 1: an actual physical altercation, and it is amazing because she
Speaker 1: proceeds to just karate chop the crap out of him.
Speaker 1: And I've said before, I love karate chops in these
Speaker 1: old timey fights. I don't think we see enough karate
Speaker 1: chops anymore. Today. It's all like Mma moves, and I'm
Speaker 1: so bored with characters throwing out either a wrestling suplex
Speaker 1: or certainly some sort of an arm bar scenario. I
Speaker 1: want Karate Chops to come back in a big way
Speaker 1: and all man, Varla throws out some wonderful ones. Finally
Speaker 1: Tommy starts punching back, and she takes him down with
Speaker 1: this cool arm based takedown thing and then proceeds to
Speaker 1: apply a standing surfboard lock. So's he's laying on his belly.
Speaker 1: She grabs both arms, puts her boot to the back
Speaker 1: of his neck, and snaps his neck with her boot.
Speaker 1: Just a complete, solid kill. This whole scene John Waters
Speaker 1: described as just mine boggling.
Speaker 2: It is shocking, and you know, if you didn't understand
Speaker 2: up until this point, you're like, oh, okay, this is
Speaker 2: why this movie is so infamous.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because you just killed him in cold blood. Like
Speaker 1: it escalates from just and she just met him. They
Speaker 1: just met these people and they've already provoked him to
Speaker 1: violence and then killed him.
Speaker 2: She does multiple times claim to be giving him a
Speaker 2: chance to walk away, but it's like he didn't start it.
Speaker 2: It's just like you can walk away if you just
Speaker 2: allow me to like humiliate and insult your girlfriend some more.
Speaker 2: Because they steal Linda's stop watch and they won't give
Speaker 2: it back to her, and Linda's like help me, Tommy,
Speaker 2: and Tommy's like, oh, come on, be nice, and no
Speaker 2: they're they're not going to be nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so they kill They kill Tommy in cold blood,
Speaker 1: and there's nothing left to do at that point but
Speaker 1: to kidnap Linda.
Speaker 4: More crimes.
Speaker 2: Right, Tommy's dead, And in a way, I think this
Speaker 2: is no big deal for them because killing men in
Speaker 2: the desert, this is just a regular part of a
Speaker 2: day off.
Speaker 4: For Varla in company.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but yeah, Linda is a witness. So what are
Speaker 2: they going to do with this goody two shoes teenager
Speaker 2: who knows their fondness for Go Go assassination. They've got
Speaker 2: to kidnap her, take her with them to somewhere. I
Speaker 2: think they're planning to kill her also later. I don't
Speaker 2: know why they don't just do it there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's they kind of skip over that, but at
Speaker 1: any rate, Yeah, they throw her in the car, they
Speaker 1: get some pills in her. They have a lot of
Speaker 1: pills on hand for this sort of thing, and then
Speaker 1: it's off to wherever. I guess they got to get gas.
Speaker 2: First, right, So next they go to the gas station,
Speaker 2: and you mentioned the interaction with the gas station attendant.
Speaker 2: This is where like, you know, the guy's like cleaning
Speaker 2: the window and he is. He is ogling Varla and
Speaker 2: at some point he says like, Wow, I'd really like
Speaker 2: to see America one day, and she goes, you won't
Speaker 2: see it down there, Columbus.
Speaker 1: Another great line. Yeah, all of our those lines are
Speaker 1: just gold and all three of them, I think, say
Speaker 1: you get to get to jab at this this sort
Speaker 1: of happy go lucky gas station attendant. They say such
Speaker 1: mean things to him, and they're all wonderful.
Speaker 2: He stays relatively pleasant despite the fact that they're just
Speaker 2: all viciously insulting him over and over it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, in a way, he's the most pleasant male character,
Speaker 1: if not the most pleasant character in the whole film.
Speaker 2: Also, while they're at the gas station, it sets up
Speaker 2: the dynamic that will take over for the rest of
Speaker 2: the movie, which is Billy She's wandering around and she
Speaker 2: sees a hunk with muscles. She's like, wow, look at
Speaker 2: that hunk a man, and the gas station attendant, I
Speaker 2: guess he just happens to know everything. He explains that
Speaker 2: that guy is the son of a local rancher who
Speaker 2: lives way out in the desert, and the rancher, is
Speaker 2: he some time ago was in injured and now has
Speaker 2: to use a wheelchair because Rob correct me if I'm
Speaker 2: getting any of this wrong. I think he says that
Speaker 2: the old man was injured while rescuing a girl from
Speaker 2: an oncoming train, and as a result of his injuries,
Speaker 2: he was paid a huge sum of money. I don't
Speaker 2: know if that was insurance or from the train company
Speaker 2: or something. And then somehow the gas pump guy knows
Speaker 2: about this and knows that he is hiding the money
Speaker 2: in cash form somewhere on his land.
Speaker 1: That's right, So now he has like a lot of
Speaker 1: paranoid delusions about the evils of trains. He hates women,
Speaker 1: and he doesn't want to put his money in the bank,
Speaker 1: so he has it hidden somewhere in the desert.
Speaker 2: It's the local lore, right, So first of all, he
Speaker 2: is a nasty, lecherous old creep who is the most
Speaker 2: leering of all the leering men in the film. But
Speaker 2: he also you mentioned he hates women. So the way
Speaker 2: I think this was explained is that he wants to
Speaker 2: kill women for revenge because he was injured and disabled
Speaker 2: while trying to rescue a woman.
Speaker 1: Is that the case I believe that's what they're laying out.
Speaker 4: Yes, Okay, I don't know.
Speaker 1: All right, now, he can't do much on his own,
Speaker 1: but luckily he has this muscular sign who they lovingly
Speaker 1: call the vegetable.
Speaker 2: Yes, so the muscle son is portrayed as having some
Speaker 2: kind of unspecified mental disability. Obviously this is not portrayed
Speaker 2: in the movie with great sensitivity.
Speaker 1: No, and of course neither is the disability of the
Speaker 1: old man. Yeah, but you know, you are in the
Speaker 1: mid sixties exploitation film at this point, so right, that's
Speaker 1: what you're watching.
Speaker 2: And then then you've got Kirk, the other son, who
Speaker 2: he's the other son, that's his deal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he has an interesting place as well,
Speaker 1: because he's I saw some papers pointing out, you know,
Speaker 1: he's kind of the domestic and the domestic role of
Speaker 1: the group. He looks after the old man, he looks
Speaker 1: after his brother. He also seems to aspire and is
Speaker 1: ultimately positioned in a place of moral superiority, but also
Speaker 1: seems like he has turned a blind eye to a
Speaker 1: lot of bad stuff in the desert. So I was
Speaker 1: never really sure what to make of Kirk. And it
Speaker 1: also this has helped tip the scales for me and
Speaker 1: just rooting for Varla the whole time.
Speaker 2: You wanted Varla to succeed in murdering him and Linda.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, I'm sorry, but Varla's just compelling. I'm just
Speaker 1: not going to argue with her.
Speaker 2: So the Go Go Killers set their sights on this ranch.
Speaker 2: Varla wants the money that the old man apparently has
Speaker 2: stashed somewhere there. I don't know why they believe the
Speaker 2: gas station attended though, like why would he know this?
Speaker 2: But so they just take his word for it. Varla
Speaker 2: wants the money and Billy wants the muscle sun. So
Speaker 2: they're going to go to the ranch and rob You
Speaker 2: and I off Mike earlier were discussing this comparison. They
Speaker 2: head for the ranch where the rest of the movie
Speaker 2: is going to take place, and I could not help
Speaker 2: but notice the similarity between the family on this ranch
Speaker 2: and the family in the Texas Chainsaw Masker, which of
Speaker 2: course came later.
Speaker 1: That's right, yeah there. I also thought that there was
Speaker 1: kind of a solar esque vibe going on here. You know,
Speaker 1: they're perverse, they're up to bad stuff out in the
Speaker 1: middle of nowhere, but they're all but they don't go
Speaker 1: all in on the horror in the same way that
Speaker 1: the Texas Chainsaw Masker does obviously.
Speaker 2: Right, But I mean the comparisons are almost kind of eerie. Like,
Speaker 2: so the old man there's like a nasty, mean spirited,
Speaker 2: lecherous old man. There is the muscle son you know
Speaker 2: who in I think you could compare to leather Face.
Speaker 2: And I guess the difference is that in the Sawyer
Speaker 2: family there is no Kirk. There's not like the nice,
Speaker 2: normal sun.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, instead of Kirk, you either get the hitchhiker
Speaker 1: or you or you get chopped up. Yes, yeah, totally
Speaker 1: different vibe in that regard. But yeah, I feel like
Speaker 1: there a lot of similarities. I wonder I wonder if
Speaker 1: this influenced the shape of Texas Chainsaw Masker to any degree.
Speaker 2: Well, it also makes you wonder, like how Texas Chainsaw
Speaker 2: Masaker would be different if the people who show up
Speaker 2: at the Sawyer residence are not just like hapless teenagers
Speaker 2: who are trying to go to a concert or trying
Speaker 2: to you know, find visit their old family home or something,
Speaker 2: but are instead just tough as nails dancer murderers.
Speaker 1: Oh, the Sawyers wouldn't have stood a chance, Varlow would
Speaker 1: have made short work of all of them, leather Fays,
Speaker 1: the hitch hike or any of them. No chainsaw would
Speaker 1: be even revved up.
Speaker 2: She would snatch She would snatch the chainsaw out of
Speaker 2: leather Face's hands, grab it by the blade and pull
Speaker 2: it out of his hands, and then bend him over
Speaker 2: and break his neck.
Speaker 1: Yeah, karate chop that neck, you know. Also like TCM,
Speaker 1: a different vibe here, But we also get a big
Speaker 1: sit down meal.
Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah, So it takes a while. They've got
Speaker 2: a sort of elaborate plan that I'm not gonna get
Speaker 2: into in great detail. But so like Varla and the
Speaker 2: gang arrive on the property and they make a plan
Speaker 2: to sort of trick the family while they search for
Speaker 2: the money, and so they claim to have been stranded
Speaker 2: there and need some water for maybe the radiators in
Speaker 2: their car or something. But they end up getting invited
Speaker 2: to lunch, I think, especially because the old man is
Speaker 2: again nasty and lecherous and wants to ogle them and
Speaker 2: do much worse. So they're all having like fried chicken
Speaker 2: and whiskey at lunch. We're not all having whiskey. They're
Speaker 2: all having chicken that Kirk cooked for everyone, and at
Speaker 2: some point Billy is like, oh, and Linda's there at
Speaker 2: the table with them, just the hostage is there, and
Speaker 2: I think at some point she's begging for help, and
Speaker 2: they're all like, I don't know what to make of this.
Speaker 2: But Billy at some point is like, hey, give me
Speaker 2: some of that whiskey, old man, and he's like okay,
Speaker 2: and then she just proceeds to immediately get blackout, dry
Speaker 2: and pass out and let Linda escape.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, it is interesting that the whole vibe of
Speaker 1: this dinner is like the dinner table is this place
Speaker 1: of decorum, but everyone there is either a villain or
Speaker 1: a hostage, and yet there is this like weird like
Speaker 1: truth in place here as they engage in this strange meal.
Speaker 1: Of course, eventually Varla goads the old man by mentioning train.
Speaker 1: I think she's the one who mentions trains and gets
Speaker 1: him all upset and he ends up storming off. Oh
Speaker 1: and there are also a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: comments about how much chicken the beefy son can eat.
Speaker 2: Oh yes, I think at one point he is advised
Speaker 2: to help himself to both abreast and a thigh.
Speaker 1: Yes, a lot of winkie dialogue.
Speaker 2: Oh oh, but we forgot a part earlier on which
Speaker 2: I think is that the old man is like, I
Speaker 2: think it happens off screen, but he tries to assault
Speaker 2: Linda the hostage, and she flees away into the desert
Speaker 2: and is like, okay, I'm going to escape now, and
Speaker 2: is picked up in a truck by a nice young
Speaker 2: man who seems very helpful. But it turns out this
Speaker 2: is Kirk, the other son, and he just like drives
Speaker 2: her back to the house and she's like, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: not back here, and he's like, oh no, it's fine.
Speaker 2: This is my family's house.
Speaker 1: We'd probably been more impactful if we the audience didn't
Speaker 1: already know that Kirk was a member of that family. Yes,
Speaker 1: but it's still pretty great. She escapes a couple of
Speaker 1: different times. They're not very good at keeping her in place,
Speaker 1: but then she's not particularly good at getting away.
Speaker 2: Oh. At some point I think also Varla seduces Kirk.
Speaker 2: I do not recall why. I think somehow, I guess
Speaker 2: she thinks this is going to help her get the money.
Speaker 1: It's just is a multi stage plan to get that money.
Speaker 1: That involves violence and seduction and dinner. I mean, don't
Speaker 1: try and create a flow chart of all of this.
Speaker 1: Just trust the plan.
Speaker 2: But at some point Kirk finally it takes a lot,
Speaker 2: but finally Kirk wises up to the fact that not
Speaker 2: only is his own family evil, but Varla and the
Speaker 2: gang are evil as well, and so then he's like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: I need to help Linda. So at some point Kirk
Speaker 2: and Linda try to escape into the desert. Meanwhile, back
Speaker 2: at the house, Varla they've started murdering everybody and that
Speaker 2: let's see, they murder Varla and Rosie murder Billy I
Speaker 2: don't quite remember why. She's leaving at some point and
Speaker 2: they like throw a knife in her back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, great, great kill scene. Yeah, She's like I'm done,
Speaker 1: I'll see you gals at church. And she's gone off
Speaker 1: and was like, pass me the switchblade and throws it
Speaker 1: into her back.
Speaker 2: So they end up murdering the muscle Son and the
Speaker 2: old Man, and they discover where the muscle Sun kills Rosie.
Speaker 2: The muscle Son kills Rosie, and then they they Varla
Speaker 2: kills well, let's see, yeah, they kill him and the
Speaker 2: old man. The old man it turns out had all
Speaker 2: of the money that he was hiding stash somehow inside
Speaker 2: his wheelchair, and when they hit him with their car,
Speaker 2: it is all it like busts out all over the place.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Varla goes into revenge mode at this point though, and
Speaker 1: she gets She's this great scene where she's trying to
Speaker 1: run over the muscle and he's pushing back like he's hercules,
Speaker 1: you know, against the horsepower of the car, and there's
Speaker 1: just kind of a stalemate that of course eventually wears
Speaker 1: him out completely and he topples. Oh, he's like Samson,
Speaker 1: you've cut his hair. At this point, he's powerless. But
Speaker 1: I don't think he dies. What I don't think he dies?
Speaker 1: Does he?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 2: Well, I don't recall actually that he has defeated. Yes,
Speaker 2: But finally there is a showdown where okay, so Linda
Speaker 2: are our good character and Kirk are I guess kind
Speaker 2: of good character. They're escaping into the desert. They're trying
Speaker 2: to run away from the farm and get out of
Speaker 2: all this madness, and Varla must get revenge. So she's
Speaker 2: like hunting them down in this truck. And I think
Speaker 2: you compared her to the terminator at this point, and
Speaker 2: I think that that is a good comparison. She is
Speaker 2: just a machine out for destruction.
Speaker 1: Yeah, completely relentless. There's no way you can possibly get
Speaker 1: You can't stop her, you can't get away from her
Speaker 1: because she has no quit in her. At one point,
Speaker 1: she's driving after them and they like cross over the
Speaker 1: railroad tracks and I was I was afraid they were
Speaker 1: gonna I was like, oh man, it is this how
Speaker 1: they're going to defeat Varla, because they're going to bring
Speaker 1: the train back into it somehow. But that's not what happens. Instead,
Speaker 1: they end up reaching this point where the like the truck.
Speaker 1: She gets out of the truck, Varla does, and and
Speaker 1: now they're going to have this this final fight Varla
Speaker 1: versus Kirk and Linda in the desert, just fisticuffs and
Speaker 1: chops and boots.
Speaker 2: Well, at this point Varla is again beating Kirk up
Speaker 2: totally because Kirk doesn't stand a chance against Varla. Of
Speaker 2: course he would, she would kill him. But I think
Speaker 2: Linda comes to the to the rescue with the truck.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she jumps back into the truck, starts it up,
Speaker 1: and hits Varla with the truck. And so we end
Speaker 1: up with again. Varla's already totally kicked Kirk's by it
Speaker 1: at this point, like she hits first, She like kicks
Speaker 1: him in the kidney or something. She's chopped in multiple times,
Speaker 1: and she's now she's been hit by the vehicle. She's
Speaker 1: laying there next to him, and she raises one last
Speaker 1: karate chop into the air to bring down on him.
Speaker 1: You just know it's going to be a death blow.
Speaker 1: But then, uh, she succumbs to her injuries and dies.
Speaker 2: The ending is great, though I did have one note.
Speaker 2: I was like, one way you could make this movie
Speaker 2: better is if at the end of Varla, instead of
Speaker 2: just succumbing to her injuries, is it somehow explodes like
Speaker 2: the Shark and Jaws, you know, like they put like
Speaker 2: a pressure air tank in her mouth and shoot that
Speaker 2: and then she explodes into ten billion pieces.
Speaker 1: That would have been good, you know, I could see.
Speaker 1: I could see the train ending having worked. I wonder
Speaker 1: if that was ever on the menu as a potential
Speaker 1: ending for this film. But I also like the idea
Speaker 1: of I think Varla should have just won. I think
Speaker 1: Varla should have murdered Kirk. But then again we back
Speaker 1: come back to the question of well, what is the
Speaker 1: where is she going to go with Linda? Like, what's
Speaker 1: the plan here? Does she just kill Linda as well
Speaker 1: and then go off into the desert or is there
Speaker 1: some next step there? I'm not sure, So I guess
Speaker 1: it ultimately is just as well that she that this
Speaker 1: character dies.
Speaker 2: I think, let's see what would Varla have done if
Speaker 2: she'd won. Yeah, she'd get the money. She would stand
Speaker 2: there and declare that she is not sad that her
Speaker 2: friends are dead. She's like, I don't miss them one bit,
Speaker 2: and then she would get in her car and drive
Speaker 2: away to her to the next adventure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think maybe just leave Linda alive in
Speaker 1: the desert to you know, to surely die. That would
Speaker 1: have probably worked. I feel like that's the ending this
Speaker 1: film would have had in the seventies. But already, you know,
Speaker 1: even mid sixties, ahead of its time, and there's only
Speaker 1: so much meanness that it could muster.
Speaker 2: I just remembered something about the final dialogue exchange after
Speaker 2: Varla is defeated, and I had to look it up.
Speaker 2: So what exactly they say? It's so, you know, Varla
Speaker 2: dies and then Linda gets out of the truck, and
Speaker 2: she says I killed her like she was an animal,
Speaker 2: like she was nothing. And then Kirk says she was nothing, nothing, human,
Speaker 2: And so I wonder if the ending maybe means that
Speaker 2: Linda now has has acquired a taste for violence and
Speaker 2: she has been set on a path to become like them.
Speaker 1: Hmmm, well that would be interesting. Again, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: how how deep we can dig into the into the
Speaker 1: paint on this film, but I like that interpretation.
Speaker 2: Like immediately after the camera stops rolling, I imagine Linda
Speaker 2: next is like, hey, Kirk, would you like to go
Speaker 2: racing on the salt flats? We'll see who wins.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, there you have it. Astro pussycat, kill Kill. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this one was a lot of fun. And I think
Speaker 1: now just in general, in all movies that we watch,
Speaker 1: I'm at least going to have that voice in the
Speaker 1: back of my head. What would Varla do in this scenario. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's an unforgettable character. At the very least, she would
Speaker 1: welcome us to violence.
Speaker 4: That's right. All right.
Speaker 1: Well, just a reminder that we're primarily a science podcast
Speaker 1: here and the stuff to blow your mind feed but
Speaker 1: on Fridays we set aside most serious concerns to just
Speaker 1: talk about a weird film here on Weird House Cinema.
Speaker 1: And if you want to see a list of all
Speaker 1: the films we've done over the years, where you can
Speaker 1: go to a couple of places. I blog about these
Speaker 1: films at some meuti music dot com, but also over
Speaker 1: at letterbox dot com. It's L E T T E
Speaker 1: R B O x D dot com. You'll find we'll
Speaker 1: find us. We have a user name there, weird House,
Speaker 1: and we have a nice list of all the movies
Speaker 1: we've covered. You can, you know, slice them up and
Speaker 1: rearrange them by decade, by genre and so forth. So
Speaker 1: it's a it's a pretty good way to see what
Speaker 1: else we've talked about, and maybe if you haven't listened
Speaker 1: to many of them, find some older episodes that interest you.
Speaker 4: In particular.
Speaker 2: Huge thanks to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway. If
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