Sunday, June 22, 2014

GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY (1977)


GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY (1977) 


Label: Intervision Picture Corp
Region Code: 0 NTSC
Duration: 96 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio: English Dolby Digital Mono
Director: Cesare Canevari
Cast: Marc Loud, Daniela Poggi, Maristella Greco

GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY (1977) d
irected by Cesare Canevari is alternately titled LAST
ORGY OF THE THIRD REICH  and  CALIGULA REINCARNATED AS HITLER  - it starts off a few years after WWII with Third Reich Commandant Conrad von Starke (Adriano Micantoni) visiting the death camp he ran during the war. There he meets up with Lise Cohen (Daniela Poggi) a former Jewish prisoner at the death camp turned lover of the German commandant - which is already quite strange. Through flashback we are told their story, of her imprisonment and torture and the depraved events at the death camp and how she came to be the lover of the hateful Nazi commander.
This is a film with certain amount of arthouse pretension - you can detect the makings of a film with a certain amount of style though just barely. It does manage to rise above most of the nasty Nazisploitation films coming out of Italy at the time. A lot of repellent stuff going on here fetishisizing the idea of a Nazi camp slash brothel full of Jewish women being degraded. We have the Commandant's SS lover Alma (Maristella Greco) riffing on a character straight out of the ILSA films with the pre requisite amount of sexiness and awfulness - a sadistic character with lesbian tendencies when she's not punishing the Commandant for his premature ejaculation by shoving the thick end of a whip right up his arse - which he thoroughly enjoys, of course.

Separate from the sexual depravity which include forced incest, scatology and an extended orgy/rape scene we have various scenes of torture and humiliation which are sometimes hard to stomach including a harrowing scene of women burning alive in a furnace. There's also a menstruating woman eaten alive by ravenous dobermans. It's sick stuff, some of which past the shock of it are darkly humorous . A prime example being a woman dipped in into a pool of corrosive quicklime or when Lise is is hung by her feet and lowered face first into a box of ravenous... gerbils

One of the films more grotesque threads of the movie is that of cannibalism and the consumption of Hebrew flesh by the higher ranking Nazi officials at a dinner party where the main entree is the stewed flesh of babies - this movie has a little bit of everything going on. 

When the content of the meal is revealed a Jewish woman forced to labor as a server passes out. Not missing a beat  she is placed on a large serving tray, doused in the best Nazi cognac and flambeed to the salacious delight of the Nazi's who look on with hungry eyes.  

There's not a lot of social commentary going on here - just scene after scene of shock peppered with a few scenes exploring the Lise's transition from tortured death-craving victim to mistress of the cruel Commandment  - which is never fully explored. Played for seriousness the camp level is pretty low here which might hinder the joy one could derive from this Video Nasty but if you're looking for some unredeeming nazisploitation this trashy slice of Italian cinema sure to please.

The DVD comes with the now classic white Amaray case we've come to expect from Intervision. The transfer is sourced from a decent element with some minor white speckling and scratches throughout but is never hard to watch. Not having watched this since the glory days of VHS this is by far the best I've seen it. There are other DVD versions but I've not seen them. The movie is presented in its original widescreen aspect ratio which is a plus but the image is a bit soft with very little depth and sharpness - it's a very flat presentation with instances of camera shakiness - while some of the framing looks nice the cinematography can be a it amateurish at times.

The English dubbed audio is represented by a mono Dolby Digital track that includes a generous helping of audio hiss and the occasional snap, crackle and pop - at times it feels like were listening to a thrift store LP while eating a bowl of cereal but that's just fine, just adds to the experience. Of note is a quite nice score that transcends  the merits of the actual film. There are no subtitle options.

Extras on the disc include a great Theatrical Trailer (3:39) for the film and A Brief History of
Sadiconazista- Interview with Film Historian Marcus Stiglegger (36:30) with the film historian giving a brief history of the nazisploitation sub-genre beginning with war time propaganda on through to the "roughie" SS LOVE CAMP and the artier entries such as THE NIGHT PORTER ending with the Italian cycle of sleaze such as what were watching here.

GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY (1977) is a slightly arty piece of Nazi exploitation that is crammed with shocking scenes of perversion and the humiliation of women at the hands of Nazi captors. Definitely par for the course with this cycle of exploitation but this one has a few striking moments that will stick with you for awhile.