Helga, fille esclave

First off, the other reviewer who described the sex scenes as "tame" obviously saw a censored version. These 70's exploit films are for a very specific audience, namely fans who can appreciate the bizarre style and lurid subject matter that mainstream cinema rarely deals with. "Confessions of the Sex Slaves" is pure eye (and ear) candy; gorgeous women in peril, at the hands of sexy, sadistic villains, exotic locations, incredible music, and dialog so offbeat and crazy that you find yourself quoting the actors for weeks after.

The subject of international sex trafficking is at the center of this film, and it is quite interesting. However being an exploitation film, the subject is mostly used to show women in various states of undress and sexual situations. The sleaze merchants deal with guns and drugs as well as flesh. We also get a fascinating look at various sex clubs, in places like Zurich and Amsterdam, and even Tangiers. A lot of scenes inside the famed "Moulin Rouge" club, and shots of vintage, neon soaked Amsterdamm's Red Light District, along with gorgeous daytime scenes of Zurich and Ammsterdamm in winter. We follow several girls down the path of sexual bondage, along with a couple reporters who are writing an article on the subject. The tale culminates in exotic Tangiers, where oil sheiks are looking for beautiful girls to add to their harems.

Filled with sex scenes that are often violent and mean spirited, but thankfully never going into hardcore territory. We get truly over-the-top villains like 'Karate Jack,' who laughs out loud as he brutally rapes women. This is truly some beautiful, vintage sleaze. The low rating for this film is probably due to the fact that the wrong audience has seen it. This is a very obscure title, but worth tracking down for fans of oddball grind-house cinema.

If you really want to see a movie that gives you the inside dope on the European "white slave" trade you should definitely, uh, see a different movie. The main point of this movie is obviously TITilation and crASSness, not hard-hitting realism. The ridiculous plot has pretty, middle-class Caucasian girls (college students, runaways etc.) being kidnapped right of the streets of Zurich and Montreal(!), and after being beaten, raped, and hooked on heroin, they are sent to Amsterdam to work as zombified strippers and prostitutes in a nightclub called the Moulin Rouge. Now, of course, in real life there are plenty of girls already IN Amsterdam, who are more than willing to work as strippers and prostitutes (and that have gotten addicted to drugs all by themselves), so this plot is completely ridiculous. And it sure doesn't help that one of the kidnappers in the English-version I saw was dubbed by a Cary Grant impersonator. (Imagine Cary Grant delivering this line in his patrician English accent: "We're going to deliver this sweet little package to Amsterdam, but first we're going to unwrap it and have a little fun. Ha! Ha! Ha!")

A female reporter is investigating the disappearance of one girl and ends up on the trail of "Cary" and his fellow slavers. The whole "plot" though grinds to a halt periodically for a strip scene or a surprisingly tame sex scene. Despite it's lurid title this nowhere near as graphic as similar American "roughie" pornos like Alex DeRenzy's "Femmes de Sade" or Lee Frost's "Slaves in Cages" . Nor does it hold a candle to Joe D'Amato's equally ridiculous but much more exploitative ventures into this same subject such as "Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade" and "Emanuelle Around the World". And for better or worse it's not nearly as realistic and depressing as Carlo Lizzani's "The Prostitution Racket" or the much more recent Russian film "Lilya 4ever". But if you just want to watch a bunch of German actresses strip off and simulate very tame sex, you might prefer this to any of the films previously mentioned.

There are no recognizable stars in this thing (if you don't count "Cary" at least), but Gina Janssen, who plays the lead victim, was in a couple Jess Franco WIP movies and some Danish hardcore films. No doubt she was once just some innocent girl walking down the streets of Montreal when they grabbed her, and the next thing she knew she was butt-naked and simulating very tame sex in a piece of German-made crap called "Confessions of the Sex Slaves". . .Oh, the humanity!