Love Camp 7

I only watched this because I'm going down the list of British Video Nasties, and I can see why it's never been certified: endless bouts of naked women writhing under men who don't even take their pants off, and scenes of "medical" exams where they're prodded and poked you-know-where, and an extended one of bull-whipping of one who refuses to "cooperate". For impotent sadists only

Well, first of all; I'd like to say how relieved I am to have finally seen this film. I watched this, and the other three boring Nazisploitation films on the Video Nasty list, purely because I wanted to see every film on it - and now that I've got through these four films, I know I don't have to suffer Nazisploitation ever again! Love Camp 7 was made before most other genre attempts, but that doesn't make it any less dull. The cinematography is less sharp; but aside from that, it's pretty much business as usual. The plot follows two female army agents that go undercover at a Nazi concentration camp in order to extract some information from a scientist. However, their escape plan goes wrong and they end up stuck behind enemy lines! As you might expect from a film called 'Love Camp', there's plenty of sex on display, but it's never particularly filthy, however. The film was banned back in the eighties; and I have to wonder why. All I can think is that it was simply thrown in with the rest of the Nazi films by a group of censors who probably didn't even watch most of the films they banned. The plotting is very dull indeed, and as you might expect; the film is very boring. Overall, Love Camp 7 is not recommended.

The Frost/Cresse team are responsible for loads of depraved and memorable exploitation epics like "Scavengers" and "House On Bare Mountain" (w/Cresse in drag!). "Love Camp 7" was the forerunner for the more nasty 70's nazisploitationers like "Ilsa" and the more vile Italian rip offs ("Nazi Love Camp 27" etc.). It's tamer than those but Bob Cresse's gleefully, almost tongue-in-cheek, portrait of a nazi camp commandant is worth the price alone of the video. Oscar material!! The massive amount of nudity, rape and torture should satisfy even the most jaded thrillseeker + it's a historical important movie, sleazewise. John Alderman ("Erotic Adventures Of Zorro") and trash film mogul David F. Friedman ("Bloodfeast" etc.) are also in the cast. After "LC7" was a hit in Canada, Friedman backed the infamous "Ilsa" movie.

Frost went on makin' films like the bizarre and extremely un-PC "Black Gestapo". Cresse sadly died in '98 after years of illness caused by being shot by two undercover cops! Somebody should write a book on him.

Love Camp 7 (1969)

** (out of 4)

Maria Lease and Kathy Williams play women who agree to be sent to a Nazi concentration camp to get some information on a scientist doing experiments there. It doesn't take long for the women (and others) to sees the horrors that are going on at the camp.

LOVE CAMP 7 is a rather historic film because it took the women-in-prison genre and took it a step further. This here was the first film to throw in the Nazi side of things and the result would end up leading to the creation of Naziploitation, which would take over drive-in screens for the next decade. A lot of people call this film boring and they call it tame. This might be true but at the same time people need to remember that this here was the first film and everything that followed had a bar that they knew they had to surpass.

For the most part I didn't find this film as awful as some have. I actually thought for the most part it was well-made and it at least looked like a real motion picture unlike so many of the films that were to follow. The film really doesn't have much of a plot but this is exploitation we're talking about so the only "plot" needed is to just get us to the next bit of nudity. Speaking of nudity, there are plenty of women undressed here and that's the whole selling point of the picture.

The majority of the 96-minute running time has women standing around their cell naked or being sexually assaulted by the guards. The women are basically sex slaves so there are countless scenes of the woman being forced to have sex. The camera knows what to focus on and this is certainly clear during a scene where the women are forced to stand in a circle and hold up buckets. The camera is in the middle of this circle and basically just goes around capturing all of the breasts.

LOVE CAMP 7 isn't a masterpiece but it does deserve credit for being the first of its type and it did get the subgenre off the ground.

Made in 1969, this is reputedly the first of the Nazi exploitation films but whether that should be looked upon as something to boast about is a moot point. On the one hand the credits say that all the Nazi equipment and regalia was hired out from experts but on the other hand the production leaves a lot to be desired.

Two British female soldiers are sent into a Nazi POW camp where all the inmates are all chosen for their womanly charms in order to please the high-ranking German officers who go there for their off-duty amusement. Surely German generals would take their amusements in palatial chateaux, not in some filthy prison cells as shown in this film. Perhaps so much of the budget was spent on the boys toys that there was none left for decent locations. The acting leaves a lot to be desired as well - the camp commandant, played by the film's director gives a hammy performance, to say the least.

It seems that no-one in this production knew how to film sex scenes. Any excuse was used to get the women naked but there is nothing erotic or titillating in this film. The sex scenes were filmed in the aforementioned filthy cells where the sex was nothing more than the men groping the women to the sound of guttural groans and moans. They did not even bother to take their trousers off.

This may have been the start of the Nazi exploitation genre but this one is surely notorious for all the wrong reasons. Exploitation films are OK in my book but not this one.