The Fat Black Pussycat (1963)

Director: Harold Lea

Starring: Frank Jamus, Janet Damon, Patricia McNair, Hugh Romney, Hyman Aguenstein, Jeffrey Bond, Manny Dworman, Hector Elizondo, Geoffrey Lewis

More info: IMDb

Tagline: This is the Tale of Five Wanton Women Whose Desires Were Satisfied and More by... the Fat, Black Pussycat!

Plot: A detective searches for the killer of three young women. The killer is insane and has a fetish for high heels. The detective is not at home in the world of beatniks which he is forced to investigate.

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again? Doubtful.

 This sound ripe with all the trappings of a good ole sleazy 60s exploitation flick.  In some ways it's got what you want, black and white photography, Beatniks, cool cats and some groovy jazz....but then when it comes to the sleaze, it's light and by light I mean no nudity.  I'm not saying that it's a requirement but it would've helped with this picture.  Frank Jamus is pretty wooden as the detective but he's by no means the worst offender.  His boss is laughably bad.  If Jamus had played it like DRAGNET it could have been great fun.  There are some nice kills but unfortunately there's not enough 'nice' anything to sustain 94 minutes so you're going to get lots of drag padded throughout.

The Something Weird Video DVD comes with another themed film called THE BLACK CAT (1966), a better (and shorter) picture and like a lot of SWV releases, there are lots of trailers (these all have 'Cat' in their titles), some deleted scenes, a gallery of exploitation art set to the audio from radio spots and a vintage B&W 3 minute striptease routine called, MARGIE LA MONT: THE CAT GIRL.  Is the disc worth $10-15?  I think so but most probably won't.  THE BLACK CAT and the extras are enough to find a place on my shelf for it.