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.

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!

Interested in Nazi Sexploitation films? You're not? Well, if you were I'd say this Italian film from Bruno Mattei is one of the "better" of this kinky cult genre. The order of the day is depraved sex, sex, sex - and more sex. The story revolves around an SS officer who seeks to discover who the traitors are in the Third Reich. So he finds 10 whores who become fiercely trained to indulge in all sorts of wild sexcapades with every kind of freak of nature imagineable, so they may be able to then seduce the suspected turn-coats, and then get them to confess vital information. There is no point here really other than to indulge in a wide array of nudity and sexual insanity - ranging from S&M to lesbianism to plain old sex done with freaks ... even implied bestiality (yuck). I'm hesitant to say this, but sometimes the cinematography was actually impressive for such a concoction. **1/2 out of ****

This film is a blatant low budget rip-off of Salon Kitty. The story is very similar, several scenes have been directly lifted and in one of them Mattei even uses the same actor (Salvatore Baccaro playing the freak, as usual). Clearly, the producers did not have the same amount of money to spend on production design and good actors. Mattei tries to work these limitations to his advantage and frequently crosses the borderline to the grotesque. His Nazi officers are even less believable in their roles than John Wayne was as Genghis Khan, and the male lead (Gabriele Carrara) is more a raving lunatic than the menacing Nazi played by Helmut Berger in Salon Kitty; the physical exercise scenes are so clumsy they border on self-spoof.

Still, this is a Nazi-sexploiter and not a comedy. Its biggest asset is undoubtedly Frau Inge, played by Marina Daunia with great enthusiasm, both beautiful and cruel, both strong and mad; enough to melt the brain of any S&M fanatic.

Yeah, it got everything; bad acting, lousy plot, nazis, only the midget mimics are missing. But anyway, it is REALLY amusing in its way, so it just got to be seen. I don't know why, but hey, it's some sort of trashy Ilsa: the she-wolf of SS rip-off. Or Tinto Brasso.