It’s the weekend and that can only mean that it’s time for another installment of my favorite grindhouse and exploitation trailers. This installment is devoted to films about women kicking ass.
1) Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
From infamous director Russ Meyer comes this classic drive-in feature. I just love that title, don’t you? This was the original cinematic celebration of women kicking ass. As the lead killer, Tura Satana has to be seen to be believed. Whenever I find myself struggling with insecurity or fear, I just call on my inner Tura Satana. (All women have an inner Tura Satana. Remember that before you do anything you might regret later…)
2) Vixen
This is another one of Russ Meyer’s films. Released in 1968, Vixen is best remembered for Erica Gavin’s ferocious lead performance. For me, the crazed narration makes the entire trailer.
3) Coffy
I love this movie! Pam Grier battles the drug trade and kills a lot of people. When we talk about how a film can be both exploitive and empowering at the same time, Coffy is the type of movie that we’re talking about.
Before there was Ellen Page, there was Racquel Welch. Playing her boyfriend/manager in this film is Kevin McCarthy who was the lead in the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers. My mom used to love this movie.
5) Shock
This was the last film that Mario Bava ever directed and it’s one of my personal favorites. In the lead role, Daria Nicolodi gives one of the best performances in the history of Italian horror.
6) Let’s Scare Jessica To Death
This is one of the greatest horror movies ever made and it reamins sadly neglected. You must see this film before you die (which, hopefully, will not be for a very long while).
Through the Shattered Lens 
These must have been somewhat more successful than most of the others you have featured in this series. I have heard of five of them, and seen one of them.
I have yet to see “Faster Pussycat”, but I have heard of it since I was a kid. It must be a classic, of sorts. I like that descriptive list of things the movie will deliver, toward the end of the trailer – “…corrective table etiquette…”, etc. I have to admit, this does look entertaining, on a number of levels.
As for “Vixen”, well, this is clearly a cerebral sociological analysis and catalyst for racial equality and social justice. I can see why the theater management was urging people to see it. Not having done so, I can’t say for sure, but from the looks of it, it may be the most important film of its, or any other time.
I remember seeing ads in the 70’s for a movie called (I think) “Super Vixens”, the ads for which prominently credited Russ Meyer. I also remember the bust of one of the actresses being the most prominent feature of the poster, so this, too, must have been an intellectual ethics treatise and call to action. Even more so than the first, I assume, since the vixens in this one were “Super”.
In “Coffy”, isn’t that white guy with the ‘fro and ‘stash (I assume the drug kingpin) the guy who played Sidney the psychiatrist on “MASH”? The soundtrack seems to be the essence of 70’s action/exploitation film music – horn sections and wah-wah pedals. It really fits perfectly.
I have seen “Let’s Scare Jessica To Death”. I thought it was a pretty good atmospheric psychological horror film. What made you include it in this series?
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I like Coffy the best of all the 6 if just for the music alone. There’s a reason why Tarantino picked her specifically to be Jackie Brown. Before there was psychedelic jazz porn music there was the soundtrack to Coffy and the many imitations which soon followed.
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Hey Punkin!
Thanks for putting up that clip of Vixen! I really love it when people of your generation take a look at what came before. And to think that it got the FIRST X-Rating in MPAA history. That’s saying something!
xoxo
~e
p.s. take a look at my site for more info about my movies!
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Interesting that two bands from the 80s are named Faster Pussycat and Vixen.
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