Gestapo’s Last
Orgy (1977)
Unrated Edition
Another World
Entertainment
R2 DVD
Gestapo’s Last
Orgy (L'ultima orgia del III Reich) is
considered the epitome of Nazisploitation cinema. Most editions on the market have
been censored, but the current release from Another World Entertainment
(Denmark) is fully uncut and in surprisingly good shape. It opens with a
pretense of history as a car drives into the countryside while a voice-over
recounts the extremes of Nazi atrocities. Soon we meet Lise Cohen who is
re-uniting with her S.S. Commandant lover, Conrad von Starker after many years.
It seems he has somehow escaped Allied justice, though clearly being a war
criminal.
As she sees a rusted harmonica on the
ground, her memory strays to her time in the camp and the sleaze begins. Her
tale is told in flashback with explicit set pieces and lots of bizarrely
exaggerated dialogue. Indeed it is the dialogue which makes this film so
totally (and probably unwittingly) hilarious. It is packed with conversations,
all of which are so exaggerated and so clichéd that they are truly hysterical,
the constant dabble about the Aryan master race is so extreme it actually gives
the film a sense of humour.
The plot resolves about Lise Cohen who is
trying to survive in a Nazi concentration camp which is run as a brothel to
keep the troops satisfied before they are sent back to the front. The camp is
run by Commandant Starker and his sadistic female offsider who not only use the
Jewish woman as sex slaves but torture, rape and abuse them in every possible
way. Starker, however, becomes obsessed with Lise when she shows no emotion no
matter how much she is tortured and soon a strange sado-masochistic
relationship develops between them as Starker pushes her limits trying to break
her. Starker does not realize that she is using him and the climax of the film
shows Lise getting her final revenge.
Cesare Canevari certainly takes the genre
to an extreme in this sleaze fest pushing every possible limit, especially
those of good taste. Set pieces range from throwing a menstruating woman to a
pack of wild dogs, a cannibalistic feast, torture by lime and an orgy scene where the nude soldiers
fart and carry on before proceeding to rape a group of prisoners. All sorts of
war imagery is used and misused from gloves made of baby skin to panties made
of hair collected from Jewish girls. The notorious cannibal feast is absolutely
incredible combining bizarre conversations about using the Jews as a food source
for the German population with the flambéing of a Jewish girl with liquor !
The torture scenes are a literal
smorgasbord of sado-masochism from whippings and beltings through to being hung
upside down over a glass box of wild rats. There is lots of nudity but
generally the film is not that explicit except for a sex scene between Lise and
the doctor which is relatively short.
The AWE is one of the best on the market,
nicely cleaned up with excellent picture and sound, it is fully uncut and
includes an alternate ending.
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