Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1965
Motorpsycho (film)
Buy Motorpsycho (film) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Motorpsycho' or 'Motor Psycho' is a 1965 film by Russ Meyer. Made just prior to Meyer's better-known 'Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!' (1965), the film explores similar themes of sex and violence, but focuses on a male motorcycle gang, unlike the female gang of go-go dancers featured in 'Faster, Pussycat!'. 'Motorpsycho' is also notable for containing one of the first portrayals of a disturbed Vietnam veteran character in film.
Plot
The story involves a veterinarian whose wife is raped by a motorcycle gang led by a sadistic Vietnam veteran. After the gang kills an old man, his wife teams up with the veterinarian to hunt down the gang.
Cast
*Haji as Ruby Bonner
*Alex Rocco as Cory Maddox
*Stephen Oliver as Brahmin
*Holle K. Winters as Gail Maddox
*Joseph Cellini as Dante
*Thomas Scott as Slick
*Coleman Francis as Harry Bonner
*Sharon Lee as Jessica Fannin
*Steve Masters as Frank
*Arshalouis Aivazian as Wife
*E. E. Meyer as Sheriff
*George Costello as Doctor
Production
Russ Meyer was having trouble with the censor board because of his films so decided to make a more action oriented movie. The working title of the film was 'Rio Vengeance'.
Haji was a dancer at a nightclub when she heard about auditions for one film. Meyer cast her in one role but liked her so much he promoted her to one of the leads. She later recalled:
Russ worked with a five-man crew, and he took us all into the desert with snakes, lizards, and all kinds of danger. He thought if you were a guy, you could live in a tent out in the desert, but the ladies he treated better. We lived in a trailer. When you shoot in the desert, you come back with dirt in your eyelashes and hair. Our shower was a big barrel with a cork in it, set up on four sticks. You pulled the cork out, got wet, stuck the cork back in, soaped up, pulled the cork back out, rinsed off, and that was it!
Two actors were injured while filming a scene involving motorbikes and wound up in hospital.RUSS MEYER, ONE-MAN MOVIE MACHINE, IS AT IT AGAIN
Lees, David; Berkowitz, Stan. Los Angeles Times 7 Jan 1979: o18.
Reception
According to Meyer, the film went "through the roof [commercially]. So I said, `Well, let's do one with three bad girls'." This led to 'Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!'.Trashmeister persists in stirring tempest in a D-cup
By Rob Salem Toronto Star 8 Dec 1995: E.3.
The 'Los Angeles Times' said it and 'Faster Pussycat' "pack as much sex and violence as possible on the screen without bringing in the police. In fact, they're so ludicrously erotic and sadistic they can be taken as parodies of the entire genre of exploitation pictures."Sadism Rampant in Double Bill
Thomas, Kevin. Los Angeles Times 11 Mar 1966: c11.
Legacy
Norwegian band Motorpsycho picked their name after watching this movie in a Russ Meyer triple feature. There was already a band named after 'Mudhoney' and a band named after 'Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!' – the other two films on the triple feature – so they used "Motorpsycho".
There are references to 'Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!' in the song "Thunder Kiss '65" by White Zombie. The song also uses the phrase "motorpsycho", a popular pun on the word motorcycle that predates the movie (Peter Phillips' 1961/62 painting "Motorpsycho/Tiger" being one notable example).
See also
*List of American films of 1965
*Outlaw biker film
*List of biker films
*Exploitation film
References
Buy Motorpsycho (film) now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1965