''Motorpsycho'' or ''Motor Psycho'' is a 1965 film by

Russ Meyer Russell Albion Meyer (March 21, 1922 – September 18, 2004) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, and editor. He is known primarily for writing and directing a series of successful sexploitation films that fea ...

. Made just before Meyer's better-known ''

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! ''Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!'' is a 1965 American exploitation film directed by Russ Meyer and co-written by Meyer and Jack Moran. It follows three go-go dancers who embark on a spree of kidnapping and murder in the California desert. The fi ...

'' (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 A Vietnam veteran is a person who served in the armed forces of participating countries during the Vietnam War. The term has been used to describe veterans who served in the armed forces of South Vietnam, the United States Armed Forces, and ot ...

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 Hajji ( ar, الحجّي; sometimes spelled Hadji, Haji, Alhaji, Al-Hadj, Al-Haj or El-Hajj) is an honorific title which is given to a Muslim who has successfully completed the Hajj to Mecca. It is also often used to refer to an elder, since it ...

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 Coleman Chambers Francis (January 24, 1919 – January 15, 1973) was an American actor, writer, producer and director. He was best known for his film trilogy consisting of ''The Beast of Yucca Flats'' (1961), ''The Skydivers'' (1963) and '' ...

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 A working title, which may be abbreviated and styled in trade publications after a putative title as (wt), also called a production title or a tentative title, is the temporary title of a product or project used during its development, usually ...

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.

Reception

According to Meyer, the film went "through the roof ommercially So I said, `Well, let's do one with three bad girls'." This led to '' Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!''. The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' 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 A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...

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 Peter Mark Andrew Phillips (born 15 November 1977) is a British businessman and the son of Anne, Princess Royal, and Captain Mark Phillips. He is the eldest nephew of King Charles III, and 17th in the line of succession to the British throne. ...

' 1961/62 painting "Motorpsycho/Tiger" being one notable example).

References

External links

* *
''Motorpsycho''
at

TCMDB Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of A ...

''Motorpsycho''
at Letterboxd {{Russ Meyer 1965 films Outlaw biker films Films directed by Russ Meyer American rape and revenge films Films with screenplays by Russ Meyer 1960s action films Films scored by Paul Sawtell 1960s English-language films 1960s American films