Hôtel du plaisir pour SS

The Italian Nazisploitation sub-genre only really lasted for a couple of years between 1976-77. But despite the fact that the quality of the films is of a pretty consistently low standard, it is a genre that has retained a certain interest even forty years on, mainly on account of how biscuit-takingly offensive and taboo-busting they all were. SS Girls is another in this notorious cycle. Like the others it operates substantially as a sexploitation movie but unlike the majority it does not feature the graphic sadism usually also associated with these films. The story takes place at a large villa turned into a high-class brothel by the Nazis, the idea being that certain high ranking officers suspected of being traitors to the Third Reich will let their guard down in this erotic environment and unveil themselves to the prostitutes who are trained Nazi agents.

This one was directed by Bruno Mattei who is a director associated with the z-grade end of Italian genre cinema. He made some agreeably entertaining nonsense such as the post-apocalypse silliness Rats (1984). SS Girls isn't on the same level as that but in fairness it's a middling effort from this mediocre genre overall. Its main problem is that its multitude of soft-core fumblings gets pretty tedious quite quickly and it doesn't have any salacious violence to fall back on to enliven proceedings. There were a couple of interesting characters though. One was a facially scarred and cruel head Fraulein but best of all is a demented organ-playing male deviant who runs the show. In what is easily the best scene in the entire film, the latter pitches up at one point in full Pope Regalia to condemn several Nazi traitors from a balcony. Its scenes such as this that ensure this one has at least some cult value but overall, like the majority of Nazisploitation movies, this isn't especially good.

SS Girls is from cult favorite director, Bruno Mattei. It features Macha Magall who was ravishing in her role in the filth-ridden classic The Beast in Heat. Her role is smaller and much less interesting here though she does get naked. The plot is a rip-off of the not especially good Salon Kitty. A brothel is set up to root out SS officers trying to oust Der Fuhrer. One of the highlights of the film is the training montage of the brothel women. They do normal things like exercising and fencing and this is intercut with scenes of their sexual training. This includes whipping, being raped by Sal Boris (The Beast from The Beast in Heat in an unfortunately miniscule role), sapphism, sex with fatties and even an unfortunate man with one leg and a horribly deformed upper torso, they have to train for every kind of sex so even a dog is included in a not very graphic scene. This montage ranges from hilarious to gross but is never erotic. The leader of this camp brothel is pasty and effeminate and very obviously a closeted homo, the best kind. At one point he wears an outfit that makes him look like a member of the mediocre modern band, Ghost. If they were inspired by this movie I might actually come to like them. Even through the silly dubbing you can tell he gives an especially unhinged, maniacal performance. The women here vary in attractiveness as they always do in this sort of thing with no one really standing out too much in beauty.

Dirlewanger even shows up. He's to be eliminated by order of Der Fuhrer for being too brutal even for the Third Reich. He's been accused off all manner of atrocities with the film seeming to go easy on him. One of them being the routinely debunked "human soap" myth that went back to even World War I. The actor playing him doesn't really resemble the real man as he probably looks more like an ugly John Steiner who was probably in at least one of these NSploitation films. This part seems to be added to make the characters here seem less than "total evil". It's all undone though with the lame and overly moralizing ending which kind of torpedoed the film for me. This isn't especially violent, gruesome or bloody. We do get some war action late on, most of which had to be from a different film. The ending involves a self-righteous frontline soldier who wants to save the "whores" and an SS orgy at the brothel.

This film is saved by a crazy performance by the main character, lots of nudity/sex and some perversion. There's no Human experimentation here or interpretive dances in "gas ovens" unfortunately. This gives the film a less cruel and reprehensible vibe than many of these. I wish Italy had made many more than the couple dozen or so of these slanderous, wonderful sleaze-fests about their former ally. I also wish the Soviet Union had been on the losing side of WWII so we could have gotten filth like Cannibal Holodomor and Cheka Cocaine Slaughterhouse.

SS Girls opens with a lot of random shots in a seemingly abandoned house, accompanied by annoying organ music. Evil Nazi Hans Schellenberg is put to the task of recruiting ten women, who are willing to prostitute themselves to learn the secrets of top ranking German officers. Because the Nazi elite are scared that their loyal minions aren't as trustworthy as they should be. Does this seem familiar? If it does, then you've already seen Tinto Brass' superior Salon Kitty which SS Girls steals heavily from. Fortunately, that doesn't really matter since this is a Bruno Mattei film and when watching any of his creations the word "original" is not a word that will cross your path for the duration.

Mattei makes a decent decision in showing the girls' training as a musical montage. What they show of it is mostly completely random stuff, but it works in its limited capacity. Their training in sexual perversions here is nothing special. Salon Kitty managed to make this work to great effect, by actually being competently made. No such luck here.

Schellenberg, played by Gabriele Carrara, is one of the most evil looking villains I've come across in any film. He looks like a young coked-up Steve Martin come to think of it. In all fairness, seeing Schellenberg in full make-up and dressed as the Pope at one point wasn't half bad. I'll give you a point there Bruno. He's more over-the-top than Helmut Berger was in Salon Kitty, becoming a parody of himself. Perhaps it's not surprising, but equally underwhelming and hilarious. The German officers are a horny bunch of perverts. This supplies us with a generous amount of female nudity, which I consider good, yet it manages to about as erotic as a trip to the dentist (assuming you're not a masochist or Jack Nicholson). You know you could and probably should watch porn instead. There is the usual tedious torture, which won't scare or please anyone. What I was hoping would be SS Girls saving grace was unintentional laughter from stupid actions and even dumber dialogue. I'm not saying it wasn't terrible. I'm just saying while being terrible it managed to be so without becoming very funny. The doctor slapping one of the girls for becoming pregnant, calling her "a little slut", made me chuckle though. At the end Mattei decides he wants to give the film the emotional depth it so sorely needs. He appears to make a serious attempt at giving SS Girls some weight, by making it abundantly clear how horrific the Nazi atrocities are. Could this be his Citizen Kane? No, not this time either Bruno. It was a fair try though.

I doubt there is a more tasteless genre than the naziploitation sub-genre. Apart from the excellent Salon Kitty or Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS, none of those I've seen have much of what you would call redeeming qualities. Don't get me wrong. I'm truly glad there have been people pushing the limits of taste and stupidity by making utter garbage such as this. My problem arises when this garbage is able to be as tasteless and offensive as it is and yet remains almost completely without entertainment value. Salon Kitty had a pretty good story, decent actors, some excellent costume design and several poignant images of madness. SS Girls has none of these qualities. Granted I've seen way worse than SS Girls, but it remains frequently a dreadful bore. If you, like me, simply have an urge to check out all of the scummiest films ever made then go right ahead, though I highly doubt it will add anything to your life.

In short: There is nothing particularly good about SS Girls or even competent. It just happens to exist, which is about the best thing I can say about the film. Despite all my apprehensions I don't hate it for some reason. Maybe I pity it? For being what it is you could do a lot worse. Bruno Mattei's films deserve to be studied for years to come. For more entertaining trash from Mattei I suggest Hell of the Living Dead or Rats: Night of Terror.

Revered schlock-Meister General, Bruno Mattei's enjoyably sleazy reiteration of 'Salon kitty gives sin-seeking viewers a voyeuristic peek into the smuttier machinations of WW2 subterfuge. Set at the end of the war, the German high command desperately attempt to root out the traitorously plotting Generals by erotic means voluptuous! Following a lustful, monumentally boozy bacchanal, the drunkenly revelling conspirators are unmasked and promptly put to death by the plainly psychotic, pseudo Crispin Glover-alike despot, Herr Shellenberg (Gabriele Carrara). Crude, frequently lewd, and morally bankrupt, Mattei's gaudily goose-stepping shunt-fest employs a colourful cornucopia of boorish bonkage and assuredly sordid S&M shenanigans to maintain interest.

Undeniably Nazisploitation gold, cheaply made with impeccably bad taste, notorious plagiarist, Bruno Mattei dutifully delivers the reich stuff with his gorgeously grubby 'SS Girls'. The performances, text, production values, and cinematography are far better than one might expect, but the cinematic competence does very little to mute the triumphant trashiness of it all! While it, perhaps, lacks a truly gonzo climax, it's mostly fun, and the groovy sore by, Gianni Marchetti, is, for me, a genuine highlight of Mattei's mucky master race gang bang!

This was quite a shocker, well I should have known that when I rented it. It was so low budget that it made it worth watching. I´m quite new with this caliber of movies but I enjoyed it in a way, mostly because of the lousy acting, and the funny plot. I´m not quite sure what kind of people would like this movie, it gets boring in the end.