Russ Meyer's "Faster Pussycat" has echoes of other, more popular films in its set-up and design, certainly in its overall impact--yet this picture is the precursor to those, and as influential cult flicks go, it still stuns today. Three bosomy go-go dancers hit the desert in their sports cars for a little rowdy, competitive fun; they later end up kidnappers involved in murder after befriending a car-enthusiast and his teenybopper girlfriend. The plot is so reedy and bare it may pass for existential (you can attach any number of psychological theories to it and feel vindicated by the finish). Meyer, who also devised the original story and edited the film, holds back a bit on the overt sex but really lets us have it in terms of kinetic appeal. The picture, shot in crisp black-and-white, bristles with tension and energy, and the characters are so compelling and astutely drawn that even the outlandish plot-devices Meyer throws in hardly come off as cartoonish. Viewers are led (some may say unwillingly) wherever this director chooses to take them, and you can practically hear Russ Meyer cackling from behind the camera. Not for all tastes, but adventuresome movie-buffs should feast on this for some time. **1/2 from ****