March 16, 2021

Video Nasty Rewatch part 23 - Gestapo's Last Orgy

"There's nothing better than a pot roast of......unborn jews!"

That's the line that takes your breath away. One so tasteless you can scarcely believe you've heard it. The 23rd watch on the video nasty list is far from the best known of the 39 prosecuted films but it's easily the queasiest of the bunch. And that's only a line of dialogue. I haven't even got to the bad stuff yet.

Lise (Daniela Poggi), a Jewish camp survivor, and Conrad von Starker (Adriano Micantoni), a former commandant in the German army are visiting the site where they first met; an abandoned concentration camp. The visit brings up memories for Lise not surprisingly and the film flashes back to her time there, where Conrad made her life hell, where he broke her physically and psychologically. Afterwards they became lovers and have now met up for the first time in years. But Lise isn't just there for him. Nope, she's been waiting for this moment for years to get her revenge.

Gestapo's Last Orgy is the 2nd nazisploitation film on the infamous list and it makes The Beast In Heat look like a tame and campy cheesefest. As rotten as that 1st film was at least there was an air of ridiculousness to take the edge off. There's nothing like that here, just a leering commitment to shoving our face in the worst things humanity can think of. Two scenes will stay with you. The first is one of new soldiers coming to the camp. They're being brainwashed by the camp leader to dehumanise the Jewish prisoners, and are forced to watch a film featuring horrible scenes of incest and coprophagia which of course works them up and then they are released on a group of female prisoners. Mass rape occurs and the camera zooms in on all of it. The second manages to be even worse. A banquet laden with anti semitic talk that starts with the cannibalistic meal mentioned in the first line above and ends with a naked Jewish woman being cooked alive. While the nazi's watch and get turned on of course.

It's just an appallingly offensive film. There's no merit to it. It exists to leer and disgust. It's no surprise that it was banned when it came to VHS in the spring of 1984. And it's really no surprise that it was banned again in January of this year. Racism and sexual violence are taken a lot more seriously now than they were when this film was made in 1977. If something like A Serbian Film can get a release (albeit with big cuts) and this gets rejected it says a lot about how horrible it still is. 


You really can't argue with anything there. And there's no embellishment on the BBFC's part. The film really is that vile. 

Next up - the first Lucio Fulci film of the list, but not the last, the superb House By The Cemetary. 


No comments: