The Red Nights of the Gestapo (1977)

Really, I don't know what the point is to making these films. This, you'll find in the Adult section of your local video store. S.S. Erotica, we'll call it, but there's nothing erotic to it. Quite a bit of nudity and painfully robotic acting, I was having a few "What the f.ck moments"? It takes it self too seriously, considering it's genre, while it's also un erotic. I actually wandered off a few times, from this boring stiff sex/drama, where a few anti Hitler party are taken out. Hitler's utilized a lot here, where shown a few photos of the beast, we somehow, feel, it's trying to impress, if to make a ligit film. There are some inner amusing moments, though inside I really wasn't laughing, but it was Hitler's admirers, speaking a few wonderful words about the man. I can't believe they let some kids act in this too. Forgettable, all the way. A sleeper. I'm just warning ya. Heil nothing.

An illustrious group of German industrialists plot to overthrow Hitler by negotiating a peace treaty with England. Disgraced, but dedicated Nazi Colonel Werner von Uhland (a solid performance by Enzio Miani) is assigned by his superiors to ferret out these deceitful dissidents and stop them before it's too late. von Uhland recruits a bunch of beautiful women to seduce the traitors and undermine their nefarious conspiracy. Director Fabio Di Agostini, who also co-wrote the intriguing script with Oscar Righini, eschews the Naziploitation genre's trademark harsh and graphic depictions of torture and brutality to focus instead on a pleasing plethora of tasty female nudity, steamy soft-core sex, and oodles of carnal perversion that runs the gamut from nymphomania to sadism to breast fetishism to lesbianism to even a scorching drag strip act involving a lovely distaff Hitler impersonator (!). Better still, the gals playing the colorful assortment of sexy whores are all smoking hot, with Isabelle Marchall as the alluring Isabelle, Alessandra Palladino as the buxom Greta, Almina De Sanzio as the masochistic Martha, and especially ravishing blonde knockout Carla Schiavanocic as the insatiable Linda rating as the sexiest of these lascivious ladies. Moreover, there are sturdy supporting turns by Francesca Righini as von Uhland's loyal and worried wife Frau, Fred Williams as vain and suave nobleman Helmut van Danzig, Rosita Torosh as von Uhland's icy and duplicitous henchwoman Ursula Turner, and Mike Morris as the stern General von Gurderwal. Antonio Maccopi's glossy widescreen cinematography gives the picture an impressive slick look while both the sets and costumes are pretty lavish for the genre. Francesco Valgrande's classy orchestral score likewise does the trick. One of the classier and hence quite praiseworthy entries in the much-derided Nazispoitation cycle.

Although "Red Nights of the Gestapo" is extremely boring, poorly made and totally unmemorable, I somewhat feel obliged to reward it with a *slightly* higher rating than the majority of Nazisploitation flicks I've seen before. Why? Because these stupid films usually always revolve on sleaze and repulsive experiments in concentration camps, filled with perverted guards and deranged doctors, but "Red Nights…" is at least a little more ambitious. The plot revolves on a Nazi (a typical one with blond hair and blue eyes) who has to come up with a plan to prevent an already plotted murder conspiracy against Hitler himself. To accomplish his mission, Werner does a whole lot of things that don't make any sense – unless I wasn't paying enough attention – like kidnapping the daughter of a Swedish industrialist, recruiting nymphomaniac women for the army or forcing a fellow officer to drink the breast milk of a female prisoner. What the hell? The absolute funniest sequence shows a doctor giving a scalpel to a female prisoner and commanding her to hurt herself. The scalpel is clearly just a red pen and the blood she licks is simply ink! Practically ALL Nazi-exploitation movies are total duds and not worth tracking down (two exceptions being "Salon Kitty" and "Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS"). They're the most boring films imaginable and the sexual footage depicted here is of the most UN-erotic kind. For example: in "Red Nights…", there's a scene were a poor girl gets raped with a gun and some sick bastard even bites off one of her nipples! If that idea arouses anyone, they're in urgent need of professional psychological help.

Unlike the typical example from the short-lived but oddly prolific Nazisploitation subgenre, THE RED NIGHTS OF THE GESTAPO does not deal with the dehumanizing activities in Nazi concentration camps but rather with all the salacious perversions that a group of renegade anti-Nazi Germans get down to when they are holed up in a castle one night under the supposed pretext of plotting Hitler's downfall. What is even more surprising is that the plot is not only based on a book by one of the supporting characters but is ostensibly driven by actual historical events like Rudolph Hess' defection to Britain in early 1941 seeking to sign a Peace Treaty, the proliferation of anti-Hitler sentiments among key figures in the German bourgeoisie which came to a head in the unsuccessful "Night of the Long Knives" assassination attempt on Hitler's life, Hitler's march on Russia in mid-1941, etc.The Gestapo blackmail Hess' right-hand man (after bugging his apartment and threatening him with the kidnapping of his son) into organizing a party which would gather together the leading figures of the uprising. But, for most of the film's running time, the Gestapo's intentions seem not to find out how the latter plan to overthrow the Nazi regime but rather to prove that even these would-be saviours of the Fatherland have their sordid weaknesses: aided by a handful of truly loose women, the meeting degenerates into one sleaze marathon which ends with the unceremonious gunning down of all concerned by SS troops. As can be expected, there is a sheer barrage of nudity on display exacerbated with the pre-requisite traits of lesbianism, paedophilia, sado-masochism, etc. Unfortunately, there are none of the familiar Euro-Cult faces or even a rousing score which would make all this palatable; what we have instead are an abysmal SS anthem, "Lullaby for Monsters"(!!), whose lyrics have to be understood to be disbelieved, stiff acting (pardon the pun) including a female Hitler impersonation and a hilariously defiant farting gesture from one silver-haired stud of an aristocrat!