In a single scene in a single film, Tura Satana forever changed the world of American cinema. Faced with an all-American boy and his all-American girlfriend, her wild go go dancer races him, cheats him and fights him, leaving him dead in the dirt. Suddenly it was possible for a woman to be tough and female at the same time and nobody has yet mastered that like Tura Satana did as Varla in Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
In this book, the first full filmography of Tura Satana, film critic Hal C F Astell of Apocalypse Later explores her brief but important screen career through a comprehensive look at each of her feature films and TV show episodes.
The book features a foreword by Peaches Christ, legendary midnight movie maven in San Francisco who appeared in Tura's film, Astro Zombies: M3 - Cloned; and an afterword by Cody Jarrett, who directed Tura in Sugar Boxx and who is working on a documentary sourced from her unpublished memoir, The Kick-Ass Life of Tura Satana.
A full list of chapters includes: Irma la Douce (1963)
Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963)
Burke's Law: Who Killed the Paper Dragon? (1964)
The Man from UNCLE: The Finny Foot Affair (1964)
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)
Our Man Flint (1966)
The Girl from UNCLE: The Moulin Ruse Affair (1967)
The Astro-Zombies (1968)
The Doll Squad (1973)
Mark of the Astro-Zombies (2002)
Sugar Boxx (2009)
The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009)
Astro-Zombies: M3 - Cloned (2010)
About the Author:
While he still has a day job in IT, Hal C F Astell is a teacher by blood and a writer by inclination, which gradually morphed him into a movie reviewer. He writes primarily for Apocalypse Later, his movie review site, but also for others who ask nicely.
Born and raised in the rain of England, he's still learning about the word 'heat' after nine years in Phoenix, AZ, where he lives with his better half, Dee, in a house full of assorted critters.
Just in case you care, his favourite movie is Peter Jackson's Bad Taste, his favourite actor is Warren William and he thinks Carl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc is the best movie ever made. He's always happy to talk your ears off about the joys of precodes, fifties B pictures or Asian horror movies.
He's usually easy to find at film festivals, conventions and events because he's likely to be the only one in a kilt. He's friendly and doesn't bite unless asked.
Velvet Glove Cast in Iron is his second book, published alongside the first, Huh? An A-Z of Why Classic American Bad Movies Were Made.
