Films That Witness Madness

review

SS GIRLS

Well, we have finally arrived at the dreaded Nazisploitation. I've put it off as long as I can. In the annals of exploitation film, no other sub-genre is as reviled. And for good reason. Patterned after the women-in-prison roughie, the typical Nazisploitation flick features numerous woman being used and abused by ferocious, twisted and perverted Nazi officers and scientists. While relatively few even mention the words "Jew" and "concentration camp" in the same breath, the weight of history lends to these films a profound sense of disgust. Reducing the struggles of the Jewish people under the crushing weight of the Nazi regime to simple exploitation films is insulting enough, but to reduce the victims of Nazi atrocities to sex objects, simply there to be leered at, really makes these films hard to stomach. If it weren't for the fact that many of the filmmaker's dabbling in this sub-genre seemed intent on providing villains that were insane, stupid, or just plain loathsome - reducing the Nazis to bumbling, perverted apes just passing time before their inevitable annihilation - these films would be all but unwatchable.

If you were a newcomer to the Nazisploitation film, SS GIRLS would be a good place to start. Set entirely within the confines of a Nazi stronghold, SS GIRLS tells the lurid story of a Gestapo commander named Hans who is tasked with revealing the identities of traitors within the army ranks. His methods are a little strange. He enlists Madame Eva and has her pick her most beautiful prostitutes. Under the tutelage of Frau Inge and Professor Jurgen, these girls are then schooled to be "highly trained love machines" - the training montages are hilarious, by the way, with the girls learning fencing (poorly) and ballet (worse than poorly) before being trained to shoot guns, seduce men, and have sex with dogs. Once they are ready to go, Hans brings in a group of men. The plan? The girls will fuck the men into confessing their traitorous thoughts.

One should never expect anything resembling "good" from a Bruno Mattei film, but this is one of his more tolerable efforts. It's rather restrained by Nazisploitation standards. The violence is largely offscreen or bloodless with only one bullet impact actually being seen. Considering the climax contains over 12 people shooting themselves in the head, this is quite impressive for the usually bloodthirsty director. The sex, while never rising above the softcore level, is plentiful as is the nudity, two elements that usually run rampant in Nazisploitation films, so those looking for something to pull the pud to will find more than enough to justify their purchase. They might find too much - if there is such a thing. SS GIRLS contains more poorly acting humping and clumsy groping than any other Nazisploitation film I've ever seen. By the time we get to the requisite lesbian love scene, I was so damned bored of all the skin that I just didn't care anymore. "Hey! Look! Yet another nipple! Whoop-dee-shit!"

Gabriele Carrara - who looks like a strange mix of Paul Rudd and Crispin Glover and spends his time horribly, horribly, horribly over-acting even the most simple gestures - is one of the film's highlights for those who appreciate bad acting. There's simply no description I can give that will do justice to this man's "acting". After viewing SS GIRLS, you just might have to adjust your bad acting standards. Macha Magnall and Marina Daunia, playing Madame Eva and Frau Inge respectively, make for a pretty pair - though I have no idea why either woman would have the hots for the twitchy, sweaty, impotent Hans - and help make the running time seem less eternal when the film shifts to high melodrama in the second half.

All in all, SS GIRLS isn't nearly as poor as most Nazisploitation films but is still far from being a good film. If anything, it feels more like a National Lampoon version of SALO than ILSA. And, yes, that's a good thing.

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