Private House of the SS (1977)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Redundant and unnecessary.

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

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.

Fearing that there may be a plot to overthrow the Fuhrer, a Wehrmacht officer named "General Berger" (Ivano Staccioli) visits a member of the SS by the name of "Hans Schellenberg" (Gabriele Carrara) with instructions to root out all disloyal officers. To do this Hans Schellenberg comes up with a plan to staff a special brothel with beautiful prostitutes who are then trained on how to obtain this information from these officers when they come to visit. So far so good. Unfortunately, while the overall plot had potential, the director (Bruno Mattei) had no clue how to create a worthwhile final product as the movie suffered from an extremely bad script, poor character development, pathetic costumes and ridiculous sex scenes which consisted of nothing more than drunken orgies accompanied by awful background music. To top it off, the acting of the aforementioned Gabriele Carrara was totally horrendous as well. As a matter of fact, about the only positive feature of the entire film was the presence of several attractive actresses with Marina Daunia (as "Frau Inge") and Macha Magall ("Madame Eva") being the only two who were sufficiently credited. I have rated the movie accordingly.

SS Girls opens with a lot of random shots in a seemingly abandoned house, accompanied by annoying organ music. Evil Nazi Hans Schellenberg is put to the task of recruiting ten women, who are willing to prostitute themselves to learn the secrets of top ranking German officers. Because the Nazi elite are scared that their loyal minions aren't as trustworthy as they should be. Does this seem familiar? If it does, then you've already seen Tinto Brass' superior Salon Kitty which SS Girls steals heavily from. Fortunately, that doesn't really matter since this is a Bruno Mattei film and when watching any of his creations the word "original" is not a word that will cross your path for the duration.Mattei makes a decent decision in showing the girls' training as a musical montage. What they show of it is mostly completely random stuff, but it works in its limited capacity. Their training in sexual perversions here is nothing special. Salon Kitty managed to make this work to great effect, by actually being competently made. No such luck here.Schellenberg, played by Gabriele Carrara, is one of the most evil looking villains I've come across in any film. He looks like a young coked-up Steve Martin come to think of it. In all fairness, seeing Schellenberg in full make-up and dressed as the Pope at one point wasn't half bad. I'll give you a point there Bruno. He's more over-the-top than Helmut Berger was in Salon Kitty, becoming a parody of himself. Perhaps it's not surprising, but equally underwhelming and hilarious. The German officers are a horny bunch of perverts. This supplies us with a generous amount of female nudity, which I consider good, yet it manages to about as erotic as a trip to the dentist (assuming you're not a masochist or Jack Nicholson). You know you could and probably should watch porn instead. There is the usual tedious torture, which won't scare or please anyone. What I was hoping would be SS Girls saving grace was unintentional laughter from stupid actions and even dumber dialogue. I'm not saying it wasn't terrible. I'm just saying while being terrible it managed to be so without becoming very funny. The doctor slapping one of the girls for becoming pregnant, calling her "a little slut", made me chuckle though. At the end Mattei decides he wants to give the film the emotional depth it so sorely needs. He appears to make a serious attempt at giving SS Girls some weight, by making it abundantly clear how horrific the Nazi atrocities are. Could this be his Citizen Kane? No, not this time either Bruno. It was a fair try though.I doubt there is a more tasteless genre than the naziploitation sub-genre. Apart from the excellent Salon Kitty or Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS, none of those I've seen have much of what you would call redeeming qualities. Don't get me wrong. I'm truly glad there have been people pushing the limits of taste and stupidity by making utter garbage such as this. My problem arises when this garbage is able to be as tasteless and offensive as it is and yet remains almost completely without entertainment value. Salon Kitty had a pretty good story, decent actors, some excellent costume design and several poignant images of madness. SS Girls has none of these qualities. Granted I've seen way worse than SS Girls, but it remains frequently a dreadful bore. If you, like me, simply have an urge to check out all of the scummiest films ever made then go right ahead, though I highly doubt it will add anything to your life.In short: There is nothing particularly good about SS Girls or even competent. It just happens to exist, which is about the best thing I can say about the film. Despite all my apprehensions I don't hate it for some reason. Maybe I pity it? For being what it is you could do a lot worse. Bruno Mattei's films deserve to be studied for years to come. For more entertaining trash from Mattei I suggest Hell of the Living Dead or Rats: Night of Terror.

This was quite a shocker, well I should have known that when I rented it. It was so low budget that it made it worth watching. I´m quite new with this caliber of movies but I enjoyed it in a way, mostly because of the lousy acting, and the funny plot. I´m not quite sure what kind of people would like this movie, it gets boring in the end.