The forgotten B-movie Quentin Tarantino called “the greatest movie I’ve ever seen”

When Quentin Tarantino decided to name his second film ‘Pulp Fiction’, he may have subconsciously been revealing his love for schlocky, cut-rate storytelling. The bloody auteur’s catalogue is full of nods to B-movie traditions. His two ‘Kill Bill’ films are homages to 1970s exploitation and martial arts films, whilst Death Proof is basically a B-movie with a $30million budget. 

This passion is probably what drew him to Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, a 1965 film by director Russ Meyer. It’s about a trio of morally devoid go-go dancers who hatch a plan to rob a rich old man. One of the dancers’ other victims, Linda, was played by Susan Bernard. She was only 16 when she took on the role and, in real life, was the daughter of Bruno Bernard, a famous photographer who earned the nickname ‘Bruno of Hollywood’. Years later, Bernard’s son, Joshua John Miller, would also enter the movie business and this obscure connection to Tarantino would pay off. 

Speaking to Collider ahead of the release of his 2024 movie The Exorcism, director Miller told a story of remarkable coincidence. “We were in the editing process, and I was struggling with my place in it,” he said. He then revealed that he got a phone call from a unknown number, and you’ll never guess who was on the other end of the line. “It’s Quentin!” said the voice down the phone.

The director continued: “I just watched a movie with your mother in it, and it’s this movie about the making of a movie, and I have to talk to you about it! It’s the greatest movie I’ve ever seen and no one’s ever seen it?” This bolt from the blue was what inspired Miller to keep working on his project. “I thought, ‘This is my mother coming through to tell me, ‘Don’t walk away from the movie.’’”

Miller was right to have his doubts, as The Exorcism went through a troubled development. Originally entitled The Georgetown Project, Miller was first attached to the project in 2019. Principal photography began that year, but the pandemic led to serious delays in additional shooting and it wasn’t until 2023 that filming picked up again. The finished product stars Russell Crowe as an actor starring in a fictional horror movie not too dissimilar to The Exorcist. Anthony, Crowe’s character, believes he is being haunted by some sort of malevolent spirit on the set of the film, but his troubled past and history of addiction throws this theory into doubt.

It’s not entirely clear what film Tarantino was referring to in his conversation with Miller, but he’s definitely a fan of Faster, Pussycat! “This weekend when the movie opens here,” the director said, referring to The Exorcism. “He [Tarantino] also programmed at midnight one of his favourite movies, Russ Meyer’s Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, which my mother is one of the leads of.” He noted that his film was due to open on June, 21st, five years to the day that Bernard passed away from a heart attack. “It’s sort of this strange confluence of things happening that are related to her,” mused her son. “If you don’t like the movie, watch out, she’s gonna come for you.”

Though it was a critical and commercial disaster upon its release, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! has since become an example of how gender roles were subverted in 1960s cinema. Tura Satana, who played Varla, one of the dancers, is often praised for her performance, considered decades ahead of its time. 

Susan Bernard’s other films include Necromancy, a horror movie starring Orson Welles, and two seasons of the soap opera General Hospital. She penned two books on the subject of her father’s photography and was married to Jason Miller, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and the actor who played Father Karras in The Exorcist. However, for Tarantino, her starring role will always be in the forgotten B-movie Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.

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