Taglines: She’s number one… with a bullet. Know her name.
Ms. 45 movie storyline. In Manhattan, Thana is a timid and mute woman that works as a seamstress in the fashion industry and spends most of her idle time at home. One night, she gets raped in an alley while going back home after hours and when she arrives at home, she gets raped again by another criminal.
However, she reacts and bludgeons the assaulter to his death with a flatiron. The disturbed Thana loses her sanity and uses a .45 caliber pistol to shoot men on the streets of New York. She dresses suggestively and roams the dark streets alone, wreaking vengeance upon anyone who tries to take advantage of her. Eventually, her secret life overflows into her regular life in the fashion industry.
Ms .45 (also known as Angel of Vengeance, and mistyped as Ms. 45) is a 1981 American exploitation thriller film directed by Abel Ferrara and starring Zoë Tamerlis, Steve Singer, Jack Thibeau, Peter Yellen, Albert Sinkys, Darlene Stuto, Helen McGara, Nike Zachmanoglou, Abel Ferrara, Peter Yellen, Editta Sherman and Vincent Gruppi.
Inspired by films such as Thriller – A Cruel Picture (1973), Death Wish (1974) and Taxi Driver (1976), the film is a rape and revenge story about Thana, a mute woman who becomes a spree killer after she is raped twice in one day when going home from work. It was critically detested on its theatrical release, but is now generally highly regarded among fans of underground and independent film.
It was acquired by Alamo Drafthouse Films in October 2013 and remastered in HD from the original negatives. The distributor released the film on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital copy in March 2014.
About the Story
While walking home from work, Thana, a mute seamstress in New York City’s Garment District, is raped at gunpoint in an alley by a mysterious, masked attacker. She survives and makes her way back to her apartment, where she encounters a burglar and is raped a second time. Thana—her name an allusion to Greek god of death Thanatos—hits this second assailant with a small sculpture then bludgeons him to death with an iron, and carries his body to the bathtub.
She goes to work the next day, and after encountering working with an iron, watching her boss Albert rip a shirt off a mannequin, she goes into shock state, which worries her co-workers. However, when she looks at the trash bin at her office, she decides to dismember the burglar’s corpse and throw the parts away in various locations of the city.
After being sent home, she dismembers the burglar’s body, then keeps his .45 caliber pistol, puts the pieces into plastic garbage bags, and then stores them in her fridge. After cleaning her bathtub, she decides to take a shower, but as she strips, she begins to hallucinate the first attacker in the mirror grabbing her breast. This puts her into shock, and she notices that organs and body fluids from the burglar are overflowing in the drain. Her nosy neighbor, an old, recently widowed woman named Mrs. Nasone who is the landlady and owns a small dog named Phil, also starts to notice her odd behavior.
On her walk home from work the next day, Thana is noticed by a leering young man on the street while she is disposing of one of the bagged body parts; thinking that she accidentally dropped the bag, he retrieves it, frightening her. He chases her through the alleys of the city and, fearing another sexual assault, she fatally shoots him when she is cornered by him. The event furthers her impulse for vengeance. While running home from the incident, the landlady Mrs. Nasone notices she ran up the stairs violently and started throwing up. She insists in calling a doctor for Thana, and Mrs. Nasone’s dog, Phil, starts to become attracted to her fridge. Thana escorts her out of her apartment while still in shock.
As the limbs start to bring the attention of the media, Albert brings her into his office and notices she hasn’t been sewing enough and hasn’t been feeling well lately. He decides to invite her to a Halloween party that he is throwing for work, and tells her that there will be “many boys there [her] age” while stroking her neck. She responds to him in writing, saying “I’ll try”. As Thana’s vengeance increases, she starts regularly targeting and killing several men, such as a fashion photographer, a pimp who assaults a prostitute because of debt, several members of a gang, a Saudi Arabian businessman and his limousine driver, and even drives a recently dumped salesman to suicide after her gun jams.
Her boss, Albert, notices her ditching work after going to dinner with her co-workers, resulting in her co-workers having to finish her work. However, she promises to go to the party with him in exchange for staying out of trouble for her absence. Thana notices that Mrs. Nasone’s dog, Phil, is attracted to the smell of the burglar’s dismembered limbs. Thana takes Phil for a walk then ties him to a post in the park. She leaves a note saying that Phil ran away but will probably find his way back home soon.
Ms. 45 (1981)
Directed by: Abel Ferrara
Starring: Zoë Tamerlis, Steve Singer, Jack Thibeau, Peter Yellen, Albert Sinkys, Darlene Stuto, Helen McGara, Nike Zachmanoglou, Abel Ferrara, Peter Yellen, Editta Sherman, Vincent Gruppi
Screenplay by: Nicholas St. John
Production Design by:
Cinematography by: James Lemmo
Film Editing by: Christopher Andrews
Makeup Department: Laurie Aiello, Lisa Monteleone
Art Direction by: Ruben Masters
Music by: Joe Delia
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Rochelle Films
Release Date: April 24, 1981 (United States)
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