Kites salonas (1976) Online

'Salon Kitty' was Tinto Brass' movie immediately prior to his infamous attempt at a big budget porn crossover 'Caligula'. While it isn't as notorious as that much talked about film, it is no slouch in the outrageousness department itself! Camp cult legend Helmet Berger (Visconti's 'The Damned', Franco's 'Faceless') plays Wallenberg, a ruthlessly ambitious Nazi who sets up Salon Kitty, a high class brothel to entertain his fellow officers. Unbeknown to Madame Kitty (Ingrid Thulin, who played Berger's mother in 'The Damned') Wallenberg has the place bugged and uses the information for blackmail purposes. The beautiful Margherita (Teresa Ann Savoy, who like many of the cast went on to appear in 'Caligula') one of the patriotic party members Wallenberg recruited to work in the brothel eventually discovers this and plots, with Kitty's help, to bring down the dangerous megalomaniac before he destroys them all. This ludicrously over the top sexploitation classic features nudity galore, 'Cabaret' style musical numbers, and many flamboyant sequences. You're either into this kind of movie or you're not, and if you are it is one of the most entertaining of its kind. Also stars b-grade buff faves John Steiner ('Tenebre') and John Ireland ('Satan's Cheerleaders').

I'm not really sure what I was hoping for when I rented this movie, but I know I certainly wasn't hoping for what I got here. To be sure, the art direction is extremely good. And sure, there is gobs of nudity and sex almost bordering on hard-core. But despite all this, the movie is BORING, especially at the almost ungodly length of over 2 hours with the recently issued director's cut! While there is an interesting idea with the plot premise, it goes all over the place. Characters come then go offscreen for long periods of time so they aren't really developed, and the little plot there is would probably (at best) barely cover an hour if all the redundant footage was cut out. All the same, pretty amazing Germany would get involved in a coproduction of this nature, and I guess it might be considered an interesting footnote in that it served as a warm-up for Brass' equally bizarre later film CALIGULA.

"Salon Kitty" is a cinematic journey into the seedy goings-on at Madame Kitty's Berlin brothel, where the prostitutes are SS-trained, patriotic beauties. While this premise may sound intriguing, the actual delivery is drawn-out and, it must be said, a tad boring. 20 minutes cut have been cut out of this movie and it would have been more effective as a result.

Scenes of debauchery are limited but interesting. The scene where the SS girls are viewed with a variety of sexual partners as a test to see how they react is deliciously dark and unsettling. I'm not easily shocked but this particular sequence really pushes barriers of taste and censorship (and should be applauded as a result).

The film is atmospheric and the sets (by Ken Adam, famous for his Bond creations) are excellent. However, there are too many musical interludes for my taste. It's like "Cabaret" on acid.

A hesitant recommendation, "Salon Kitty" won't be to everybody's tastes. It's a flawed film but it has its moments. Not a film to avoid controversy, animal lovers will be appalled that scenes of real pig-killing are contained. This put me off my hot dog, as did the many scenes of male genitalia. Tinto Brass seems to be obsessed with all things dangly. Trust me, by the end of the film, you'll be wishing that the cast put some clothes on. (An exception to this may be the delightful Teresa Ann Savoy, but I digress.) 6 out of 10 - could have been leaner and meaner.

"Salon Kitty" is an exploitation and a serious study of Nazi atrocities...

Kitty Kellermann runs a brothel that provides entertainment to the German elite… Unknown to her, it has been annoyed by a top SS officer to gain incriminating evidence against some of Germany's top general… One of the girls, Margherita, falls in love with a German officer who wants to defect to the Allies… The plot is discovered, and Margherita is used as an informer, but when she tells Madam Kitty about the goings-on in her house, she is outraged and plots revenge…

The film indulges in many of the perversions and sexual humiliations the Germans inflicted on the whores of Salon Kitty...

Tinto Brass directs the film with a heavy hand, focusing continually during the ending sequence to create a hypnotic effect… He doesn't shy away from the atrocities, and often takes intense pleasure in them... The characterizations are very firm and realistic, but the movie's harsh portrayal of much of the sexual activity has kept it out of the mainstream…

After viewing SALON KITTY, I was surprised by how good it was. Maybe it's because my expectations were very low. I expected something like an ILSA, SHE-WOLF OF THE SS type of exploitation film directed by Tinto Brass, the man behind the wretched and almost unwatchable CALIGULA. SALON KITTY is way better than CALIGULA. SALON KITTY will probably disappoint guys looking for cheap thrills. The film looks more like a glossy 1970s magazine spread (of beautiful people or architecture) than your typical titillating exploitation fare. The sets by Ken Adams are excellent and give the movie an appropriately operatic and posh feel to the whole sordid setting.

SALON KITTY has its share of problems though. It's way too long for its own good. At 120 minutes, it's a good 10 to 15 minutes too long. The story concentrates only a couple of characters, mainly those played by Helmet Berger, Ingrid Thulin and Teresa Ann Savoy. In fact, the whole love story between Savoy and her lover needlessly took too much of the film's time. For a moment I thought I was watching LOVE STORY, NAZI STYLE. The screenplay is full of holes (how does Savoy get away with shooting the man when the rooms are bugged?!?!) And the cinematography was at times erratic and murky. But this is probably because the SALON KITTY video cassette I rented was very old and the print was fuzzy, had tons of scratches and hairs and such. It was barely watchable. But even with all those things going against it, SALON KITTY still held my attention up to the very end. The film is very decadent looking and paced like a millionaire shopping for caviar. Tinto Brass' direction is knowing and melodramatic. Thulin's acting is very over-the-top. I thought she was possessed by a drag queen. And Berger makes for a fascinating Nazi officer. My only real complaint about SK is the scenes where they actually kill real pigs. That was excessive. But those scenes were very popular in "shocking movies" made in the 1970s (Cannibal Holocaust, Apocalypse Now, etc).

If SALON KITTY ever comes out on DVD, with a clean and sharp transfer, I will purchase it

By any measure the best production in the Nazi exploitation genre available on DVD. Beautiful, lush cinematography and a provocative script make this one of Tinto Brass' finest films. Andy Warhol described Brass as Italy's best AND worst director, its easy to see why with this movie. While it contains all the prerequisite elements one would expect it manages to rise above mere sleaze, not there is anything wrong with sleaze I might add. It is the Citizen Kane of Nazi exploitation. Not necessarily what might be considered erotic, see Brass' Cheeky! or The Voyeur for titillation, it stands above the crowd creatively and artistically.

Of all the sordid, exploitative Nazi-era cash-ins that came out of the 1970s, "Salon Kitty" is one of the most regularly-mentioned titles. Director Tinto Brass (who, like Joe D'Amato, is more renowned for his porno epics) spends a great deal of time--arguably 3/4 of the film--garnishing the screen with images of decadent excess, including bizarre sex acts, deformed dwarfs, and copious nudity. Unfortunately, that's really all this shallow, 2-hours-plus venture has to offer. The story line--consisting of a young Nazi commandant (the underused Helmut Berger)'s attempt to seize power by eavesdropping on the SS patrons of the titular character's high-class brothel--would take up all of 30 minutes' screen time (and even that is a stretch) had the exploitation elements been removed. What we're left with, then, is a slickly-made trash pic with high production values, a good cast, and an insufferably drawn-out story (I challenge anyone to still give a damn by the time the film reaches its 'revelatory' crescendo); Brass's attempts at prurient titillation, an underdeveloped (and ultimately pointless) romantic subplot, and the fearless courage of icily unlikable prostitute Margherita (Teresa Ann Savoy) fall completely flat, much to the film's detriment. While not as luridly exploitative as the "Ilsa" trilogy, nor as lethargically dull as Luchino Visconti's "The Damned," "Salon Kitty" never really manages the suspense, pathos, and passion that marked Liliana Cavani's superior 1974 post-Holocaust romance, "The Night Porter." It's a film that should have been much more than just a ponderously average pile of celluloid.

A visually impressive movie, very arty and with many subtle undertones. Packed full of pulchritudinous young females in various stages of undress and very risque in its day, the film is, however, very ponderous in places, particularly during the first hour.

Basic plot summary: In 1939 Berlin, the Nazi authorities take over the famous Salon Kitty brothel and pack it with new girls of good Aryan stock and impeccable National Socialist credentials. Their mission is to spy on their military officer clients and report back to their controllers about anyone who seems to be wavering from the Party line. All goes well until one of the girls, Marguerite, falls in love with a Luftwaffe pilot who has turned his back on Hitler and all he stands for.

Salon Kitty is a rather disturbing film. It shows what can happen to a country when filth take over. There are many facets to this film especially the Nazi German notion of the pure aryan master race vs. the Jewish question. One of the most powerful sections of this film is where a terrified Jewish family come into contact with a group of revolting League of German Girls group. The little innocent child has accidentally dropped his toy. The League of German Girls leader rather than helping the child sees the terror in its eyes and with one foul stomp of her foot destroys the toy with her shoe, obtaining pleasure in the process, and the smugly walks on. This is a metaphor for what the Nazi German criminal regime has in store for the Jewish people of not only their own country but the rest of Europe. Ingrid Thulin is absolutely brilliant in this film as Madam Kitty, operator of the brothel, Salon Kitty. Helmut Berger is also very good in his role as the SS Officer who is charged with taking over Salon Kitty and turning it into a state run spying agency where specially trained aryan prostitutes submit reports after being with their clients on any betrayal of the Nazi regime. Downstairs in the cellars all conversations are being recorded. Madam Kitty is forced under pain of death to convert her brothel into an arm of the SS. The full horror of the lack of humanity of the SS is shown in the audition process the potential prostitutes go through where they are group tested with young SS officers. This is not a film for the light hearted. It treats human life as something not worth very much in the hands of a criminal regime.

Adore "Salon Kitty". Many people tend to consider this,and, at its very best, a classic of "Euro trash" or "Euro-exploitation", whatever those terms really mean, unfortunately we all use them rather inappropriately these days, especially, considering the standard creative level of our main productions today! And, in fact, was it trashy? I'd dare anybody to call this film such word, if anything, transgressive and for all the right reasons! Resembling,maybe, even one of those infinite clones that were made (those cheaply horrendous quickies taken after this superb plot,and, put into a green light only to capitalize, after the huge International success that this film had so deservedly achieved up to 1977, all over the World!) mainly in Italy in the late 1970's, with truly poor qualities? NO, it does not and it isn't so! This movie was even banned at its brave premiere, a few months after the long shoot had ended in late November of 1975. It was even put under arrest of distribution and some people (mostly dangerous bigots and nostalgic of a certain extreme right wing's politics) wanted it even burnt, in the late fall of 1975! And, why was it causing so much distress, when already every truly pornographic film (and not Erotic) was released without protests from anyone? Because, "Salon Kitty"was obviously a very important movie and one that'd make you think and even remember a little too much, and, a little bit of everything that is normally left unspoken! As usual courageous Art is passed by fake talent and moral depravity, only by those who are fearful or have reasons to be fearful of such story! And, obviously, there were quite a few! Why? This film wasn't obscene, or offensive whatsoever, and, it was showing only a certain, very well known, Nazi's degradation and sexual perversion, through the eyes of 2 women of different generations and backgrounds, the melancholic, but carefree Kitty (Ingrid Thulin, extraordinary presence and actress),on one hand, and, on the other, the bored, mysterious and gorgeous young German girl, Margherita(played with interior darkness and severely troubling eyes, by the incredibly talented, almost mystical beauty and Cult star, Therese Ann Savoy) from a potent family, who, when embracing National Socialism, mostly to kill time, than anything else, finding herself deeply troubled, and, in despair, from circumstances she could have never even have imagined, and, even from deep, existential motives that were in part also related with the repression, she had been raised with, and along with the imposition over a very wrong faith, and, squalid superstitions, all taught to her by her privileged and amoral family. Then, there was of course the brothel, too, with its intricate affairs linked to a very "Film Noir" espionage plot, and, also the use of several cult actresses in the supporting roles, while on the background, but, not too much on the background, a stylized, exquisitely imaginative reconstruction of Berlin in 1940 circa, with the diabolical greatness of the Nazi's(here it is another great performance from actor Helmut Berger, who draws the lines, truly!)envisioned with the same stupor and Classic fashion, one great artist would have inspired himself to re-paint the fearful brutality and moral decadence plaguing the Roman Empire in AD 500 circa, too, if such artist could have then even used a way to blend in together the absurd cruelty, the brutality and moral devastation, killing then Berlin, with the same foolish abuse of power that had been so typical of only one very Empire, before! A metaphor, that is, and, an exceptionally provocative one, created to amaze and entertain, for sure, as a film should also do, but, to deplore and condemn too, through its almost sarcastic fate, unraveling the tragic, almost Shakespearian's events, until one of the most beautiful ending scenes ever filmed, including 2 women, where the two, alone, but never fearful, and, both well aware and liberated, by old judgments and corrupted politics, cheers with Champagne, while waiting for the imminent end, in the now deserted luxury brothel, while the Allies triumphantly are bombing the city of Berlin, over the course of a very long, foggy, shady night.. Amazingly produced, and, with some of the most prominent International names, making eventful filmmaking, and, certainly not "trash", beginning from visionary, eccentric, protester and director, editor, writer (with Maria Pia Fusco and Ennio De Concini) master Tinto Brass,and, Ken Adams, one of the most inventive production designers ever(think he made also, among others, the first couple of James Bond's, and, both 2001 and Barry Lyndon,for director Stanley Kubrick), the saturated, always exceptional cinematography of another great Italian name, such as Silvano Ippoliti, and,with the help of Fiorenzo Carpi's music themes, and, Jost Jackob's defining classic period costumes and looks, this film is a traditional example of how rich and creative was instead all European cinema, back then, and, especially the Italian one, that was allowing a budget so big at the time, for such a provocative, controversial and all together almost infernal movie,then winning so a huge bet, and, realizing a classic little masterpiece of contemporary Cinema, and, look, almost 40 years later, this has not certainly been forgotten. When a movie never ages like most parts of this one, how could we argue it couldn't be good? I'd understand maybe not your cup of tea, that'd be legitimate, but, please don not call "Salon Kitty" ever less than a mesmerizing experience, that could haunt you for decades.

Made a few years before the even more notorious 'Caligula', this 'Salon Kitty' focuses on a more recent era of despicable history. Set in the earliest years of Hitler's reign and the start of WWII, it handles about power-mad Nazi officer Wallenberg who puts Madame Kitty's luxurious brothel in service of the 'Third Reich' and recruits a bunch of patriotic beauties to serve as prostitutes. But, instead of doing this as a favor for his fellow Nazi-superiors, he blackmails them with the information he gets by having the chambers bugged. This film is infamous and hated because of its topic (I always heard it was as close to propaganda as you can get) and the explicitly of the sexual content. Granted, Tinto Brass does have a bizarre obsession for showing as much genitalia (female AND male) as possible but aside from a few sequences featuring deformed midgets, it's never too sickening. The dullness is what bothered me here! The film is overlong and I wasn't really anticipating all those Cabaret sequences. The screenplay too often handles about pointless intrigues and the plot only gets REALLY interesting around the last half hour when ***SPOILERS*** the young Margherita unravels Wallenberg's vile actions and conspiracies against him. *** End Spoilers ***. Thank God for Theresa Ann Savoy! This stunning beauty (who also played a remarkable role in 'Caligula') makes this exploitation experience ten times more bearable because of her natural charisma and ravishing body. If it weren't for her, I'm sure the ratings for this film would be even lower.

I also consider it a perversion of CABARET since it seems to want to ape many of the same features that that earlier film had.

Supposedly based on a true story, this one concerns the goings on in a brothel in Berlin during WWII run by Kitty (Ingrid Thulin) and the use of wiretaps by the SS to monitor their customers. Only nobody told Kitty about this, including Helmet Berger who plays the SS officer in charge of the operation.

Tinto Brass scenes of depravity include:

An autopsy of a woman after she died from a self-induced abortion.

Actual pigs being slaughtered in a slaughterhouse. We get graphic close ups of their innards.

A scene where a group of SS men and women strip and perform boring, un-erotic soft-core sex in an auditorium.

Then we see a deformed midget attempt to have sex with a normal looking woman in a cell that has grids painted on the wall

There are other cells down the hall where various women are having soft-core sex with ugly men, including one who is a double-amputee.

What's the point? To exploit these people's deformities? Blah…

The Blue Underground DVD uses an excellent widescreen print along with an extra disc containing interviews with director Brass and set designer Ken Adam, himself a German jew who was forced to flee Germany in the 30s. And they are pretty good sets, too.

With Teresa Ann Savoy as the anti-Nazi whore, John Ireland as the visiting American who helps Kitty out, and Tina Aumont as Herta Wallenberg.

4 out of 10

I first saw Salon Kitty in a provincial Scottish cinema with my school pals; nudity was the attraction, and "X" was the certificate. UK Channel 4 recently screened it during their "Censored Weekend" and, as a middle-aged man no longer completely mesmerised by the (considerable) display of rosebud nipples, I was able to enjoy the extraordinary sets and costumes, the operatic staging (production designer Ken Adams - a man of many credits) and the convincing performances of Helmut Berger as the self-intoxicated, onanistic, ruthless, cynical swine who makes the mistake of abusing the indomitable Madame Kitty (Ingrid Thulin - accomplished cabaret turns and remarkable legs for her age).

Many interesting things are hinted at but not explored, such as the contest between the Nazi/Nietzschean will to power and the subtle strengths of womankind. Many things are inserted for gratuitous sensation (the schoolboy was appreciative!). The film is what it is - European soft porn, an exploitative caricature of history, but well done the makers for giving their smut such a visually memorable vehicle. It was too much to ask for a truly engaging drama as well.

Seeing "Salon Kitty" in its uncut version turned out to be a mixed blessing; at 133 minutes (!!) this movie is way overlong. Any chances it might have had of being taken seriously as a historical drama are quickly destroyed by Tinto Brass' excessive focus on male and female genitalia. Within the first 10 minutes, you've already seen enough flapping d***s to last you a lifetime. And later on, in what must be a screen first (thank you Mr. Brass), we even get a full-frontal nude shot of a deformed midget! "Salon Kitty" is just as outrageously exploitative as the infamous "Caligula". It may not match that film in the "quantity" of its perversions, but it more than matches it in the "quality". Also like "Caligula", the film has a vague, barely-existent storyline which doesn't begin to make its points (about using Nazism as a vehicle for power and sexual domination) until the last 10 minutes, and lacks any characters the audience can relate to. The woman played by Teresa Ann Savoy could have been such a character, but the actress, while luscious, is not very expressive; all the others are way over-the-top. The production is handsome, but for some reason everything seems to be bathed in white. And the language is an ungodly mess. Most of the dialogue is in English (clearly not dubbed), some of it is in Italian and there a couple of German lines as well! (*1/2)

Sometimes when a film relaxes and you relax into it, you can really feel that you are touching the filmmaker. That he is slightly drunk and comfortable and you are experiencing him (or her).

That's one place you want to be in your life in films, and it is the basis for many of the film experiences I rate as "must have."

But it has all sorts of dangers. The filmmaker must be more than skilled enough to connect, he must be actually interesting, worthwhile, engaged in life in ways that impregnate. There are few films that are well enough sculpted to be entered. And of those, there are few that reward your investing wet parts of your soul to it. You know who the good ones are.

Even then, often you'll get what you have here, equal parts of fine wine and flat cola. I suppose it is impossible to be otherwise with Nazi-centered soft porn, but Jess Franco (when not drunk) can do pretty well.

The good here is that once in a while, you'll encounter some staging with some stark, clear composition and elements that are every bit in the class with Lang or Greenaway. These have ordinary camera positions: non-human in character but human in position. Its the creation of a staged imagination, of dramatic nuance not placed in the actor but in the cinematic frame. (The actors aren't bad, by the way; its just that the weight of the thing isn't on their shoulders — or other body parts.)

Some day, commentors like me will be able to provide bookmarks to these scenes so you can experience them without wading through the rotted soup in between. Oh, and that is a ghastly experience, a walk in the dark through greasy fog from one brilliant view through a window to the next.

Hey, there's a story, but never mind. Its as irrelevant, stupid and disposable as its sisters, like "Schindler's List," which this resembles in a few ways. And there's some nudity, though in most cases one wonders why. The chief actress is pretty and very German, different from Brasses usual big-bottomed Italian tigresses.

I'd really like you to see some of the good stuff here. But like much of Bertolucci, you would curse me for sending you there.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

Kitty Kellermann (Ingrid Thulin) runs a bordello for the Nazis in WW2 where numerous atrocities are committed. An army official has bugged the place hoping to usurp power from Hitler. It has amputee sex, midget sex, and hunchback coupling. Bothed home made abortions and it's not a straight out exploitation film, nope not when Tinto "over-rated hack" Brass is concerned. Nope this is an art-house flick through and through. It's also excruciatingly long, impossably tedious and mundane, hopelessly dreary, and given to subject matter, deathly dull. Of course a few years later, Tinto would prove that he could fail on a much bigger global scale with "Caligola"

My Grade: D-

DVD Extras: Disc 1) Tinto Brass Bio; International and US theatrical Trailers Disc 2) Interviews with Tinto Brass,and Production Designer Ken Adam; 3 radio spots; Poster & stills gallery; Production & Costume designs

DVD-Rom: Complete book "the Story of Madame Kitty"

With the opening credits, I knew that this was going to be something different. A "two faced" man/woman dances and sings in a cabaret entertaining the crowd in fine fashion. We then have naked, exercising Nazis showing off their Arian "superiorities" in unfortunately, flaccid form. So begins our film.

This film finds a Grande Dame in charge of a Cabaret at the beginning of WWII. Miss Kitty is forced to turn her club into a Nazi controlled brothel where women are trained to handle most any type of customer. Unbeknownst to her, The Nazis have planted hidden microphones in the rooms to listen in to every secret/conspiracy that their German Officers might be hiding. The kicker comes in when she learns of this and decides to turn the tables on our Nazi "baddies" recording everything.

This a very well made film. The sets are first class, the actors are incredibly well dressed and the makeup is applied both on and off camera with splendid effect. Yes, the acting's a bit over the top, but that's always the "norm" with Italian productions. That's just something that you'll never get away from in the "boot country" (and take it from someone who lived there for 7 years). One could easily compare Fosse's "Cabaret"(1972) and "Salon Kitty", due to their period and musical numbers alone, but Brass employed some much needed nudity for his particular feature (and we certainly thank him for it).

All in all, some excellent Nazisploitation fun with good production values. We have a generous quantity of naked women simultaneously "Sieg Heiling", pigs being slaughtered, a naked midget hunchback about to perform coitus (on one of our trainees) and a legless chap about to get lucky with yet another trainee. Damn fun stuff, indeed. Single "X" mind you, but fun all the same.

I highly recommend this one, but be sure to have some time as the uncut version goes on for some 2 hours and 15 minutes, credits included.

Charlie.

Up until things got ugly, war-torn Europe must have been an interesting place to be, if we're to believe the environment presented in Salon Kitty: sex, debauchery and feasting in full force, with little care for tomorrow. Looks OK to me. The curtains open to nasty Nazi Helmut Berger overseeing medical experiments in the name of racial purity; then, in the name of the Fuhrer, he gathers an excellent sample of pretty young things to put into action an orgy of epic proportions. All this would appear to be in the name of having a good time, but their claim is that they've got the future of their nation on their minds. Berger then subjects the ladies to degrading acts to weed out the weak; this treats the audience to scenes of intimacy with a brutish monster, a humpback, a corpulent, a gypsy and of course a Jew. Well-paid, free spirited Ingrid Thulin celebrates the war on Poland at her house of sin until Berger has it shut down. The Nazis give her new girls to work with, in the name of Adolf, but she finds them too dull and pure. Nevertheless, she goes to work, unaware that the Nazis are using the bordello to eavesdrop on their officers. Innocent upper-class recruit Teresa Ann Savoy begins to develop a relationship with officer John Steiner, unfortunately shot as a traitor after her Nazis learn of their conversations. This brings her to Berger's attention, who forces her to indulge in moral misbehavior with his wife Tina Aumont. The girls begin to revolt against the oppressive Nazis as the film concludes in a flurry of sex, death and steambaths. I can't think of any non-pornographic film that contains quite so much nudity as Salon Kitty. As accomplished in Salo with notably greater ease, Brass tries to inundate his film with enough conceptual content and political intrigue to avoid being sequestered in the nudie film ghetto . Unlike standard erotically charged cinema, it starts off slow, relying primarily on suggestion and gore. However, once Berger parades the line of young ladies into their headquarters, the sex doesn't stop. Surprisingly little of the nudity is appealing. Salon Kitty appears far more interested in the connotations of the bare flesh than in the prurient appeal of women's bodies. Some symbolism reeks of the obvious; few self-respecting filmmakers would put a shot of pigs being slaughtered early in a film about Nazi debauchery. Brass seems more at home relishing in the visual appeal than criticizing the activities. Much of the sex will not appeal to fans of straightforward erotica, or even pornography. The image of a woman humiliating a man for wearing a pubic wig may have its audience, but it's a relatively minor, fetish-inclined one.

Outrageous, unsettling, exploitative and courageous, it is also slightly overlong. The current running time at well over two hours is due to the more contentious material being put back in but maybe some other scenes might have been cut to compensate. I love the film, the scenes of debauchery and nudity, male and female, the decadent singing and dancing and the glorious sets by Ken Adam but it is a slight story and as the end draws near it begins to stumble and repeat itself. Always preferable to the much lauded Cabaret there is a real sense of foreboding, of a major calamity and despite the roars and champagne popping at news of the invasion of Poland and later the fall of Paris, we can't help waiting for the biggest crash when the nasty, ugly men in the wonderful costumes get their comeuppance.

My first thought on viewing this was that this is an incredibly, absurdly, intensely silly film. Yes, it's exploitation, and sure, it arguably trivialises a really awful period in European history. Absolutely, you can see this entire sub-genre as something loathsome and reprehensible, and it's possible to argue taht some films within this category are just that. But this? Come on. This is wall-to-wall silliness, and totally harmless. The worst crime this movie commits, possibly, is being naieve. I know that's a weird thing to say about a Nazi exploitation picture, but I think the people who made this intended it largely as a comic farce, and I think on that level, it succeeds rather well. My girlfriend and I had a great time with this movie and there were moments when neither of us could stop laughing.

Now that I've had a chance to calm down, though, I realise that the film-makers did something kind of genius here. Actually, there's a huge frisson of sadness around everything here, but it only really comes to the surface later, when you find you have a lot of sympathy for some of the characters here and not only what they are forced to do, but how it makes them question their very ideology. I'm referring, specifically, mostly to the girls, including Kitty, erstwhile owner of the salon, trainer of prostitutes and so on. You might just be surprised that this film tries to inject some class into proceedings. Granted it's not subtle, but would you want this kind of film to be? The scene in the aquarium, where the fish bear witness to a little national socialist girl stepping on some poor jewish kid's toy, is a strange mix of poignant and heavy-handed, and the fact that the film stops its crazy antics for a moment to dwell lingeringly on this carefully constructed scene should tell you a few things about the makers' intentions. I say again, this is a really interesting mixture of the crass, the downright hilarious and the tragic.

Another facet of the production that i thought was worth commenting on was that although it's wall-to-wall nudity almost right from the start (and just as much male as female, I might add), you'd be hard-pressed to find much eroticism here because the situations are just so absurd. The idea is that these people treat sexuality as a military exercise. All the tests, rigors, mingling; its' all a kind of official gymnasium activity. It's only later, once you sort of spend time with some of the girls and their situations, does something approaching pathos start to sneak in. Maybe there's actually a bit of subtlety going on here, after all, because I can't think of any other movie of this type that tries to engender its characters with sympathy.

As i said, i watched this with my girlfriend, and therefore I can vouch for the fact that there's always something interesting to look at. Lots of crazy costumes, bizarre scenarios, wild antics. And the songs! How could I forget? During the first half of this movie they com at you pretty fast, making you feel like you're experiencing some insane Nazi cabaret musical film. The music ranges from pretty-damn-catchy to bloody awful, basically at the film-maker's whim. Some of it is certainly rather good, which underscores my idea that everything garishly absurd in this film is intentionally done to make you groan or laugh. The songs mostly seem like the sort of thing that would be popular in Nazi Germany at the time, and are often both traditional and boisterous.

Things settle down later on. In fact, the whole tone of the movie starts to shift beyond the second half into something much more dramatic. I must admit that, as this is quite a bit longer than your average exploitation film, probably because the creators tried to imbue it with a real sense of artistry (!), I did find my attention beginning to wander a bit. But make no mistake, as far as these Nazi flicks go, you're not going to get any classier or more interesting than this. I guess you could say this is the "Caligula" of nazixploitation, considering how much is visually on display here. This film probably has more extras in it than the rest of the genre combined.

I recommend this film if you are in the mood for this kind of thing. it has a bit of ambition that might surprise you, and if you can relax about this sort of thing, it's actually really funny in parts. And while I can't say that "good" really triumphs in the end, there's nothing here glorifying national socialism -- you'll find quite the reverse to be true, and on a basic level, I'd say this film works as a particularly bawdy form of satire.

I always found Tinto Brass' WWII exploitation film, "Salon Kitty," to be a tragic 'near-miss' of a film; The sets are superb, the story line is compelling and dramatic, and Helmut Berger is brilliant as the sinister Wallenberg. And those SS uniforms have NEVER looked more stunning than in this film. However ol' Tinto went too far with certain elements. First off, the silly, almost-slapstick comedy has absolutely NO place in a production like this. Also, those multiple musical numbers are really horrid, and only serve to bring everything to a complete stand-still. It bothered me so much that I actually created a kind of "fan edit" of this very uneven film. By hooking up a DVD player to a DVD recorder, I created a leaner version by omitting the musical numbers, as well as some comical scenes in the middle of the film, concerning the "training" of Kitty's girls. The final result is a much more serious, and much darker film. Without all the silly fluff, it is easier to focus on the political intrigue and corruption, and it just flows smoother. The point is, there is actually a very good film, buried in this jumble of misplaced ideas. Years later, Tinto Brass returned to this subject, when he created the film "Black Angel," also known as "Senso 45," which was a re-telling of the Luchino Visconti film "Senso," but the time frame was moved from WWI to WW2. Everything that was wrong with "Salon Kitty," is absolutely right with "Black Angel," which, in my opinion, is Tinto's masterpiece..

Nazi Germany, late-1930s. Germany is gearing up for war and one of their projects is to set up a brothel, where military officers and politicians can relax. SS Untergruppenfuhrer Helmut Wallenberg is tasked with the role of recruiting the girls - they must all be ardent National Socialists - and setting everything up. He views the brothel as a means to spy on senior officers and politicians, especially in order to weed out any traitors, and bugs the rooms. This has tragic consequences for one of the girls.

Better than I expected. I was expecting a no-discernible-plot, heaps-of-gratuitous-nudity exploitation-type movie and this was better than that. There is a fair degree of nudity but it is fairly tame. Not very exploitative at all, especially compared to some movies in that genre.

Plot is decent - it is coherent and not too holey. Just that it has a plot was a good start! Some engagement with the characters too.

However, there are still many reminders that this is a B-movie. Continuity leaves a lot to be desired: eg a man's scar shifts from one side of his back to the other in one scene! Props are pretty basic: eg this movie contains the worst, most asymmetrical, swastika flag yet seen.

Performances are largely a bit hammy, but not too bad. The SS 2nd in command is ridiculously badly played though - the actor shouts every line at the top of his lungs! Very over-the-top.

Hoping to record private conversations for blackmail, a high ranking Nazi officer bugs a brothel that he has populated with women loyal to National Socialism in this fictional drama from Tinto Brass. As one might expect from the director of 'Caligula', rampant nudity abounds, but it scarcely feels excessive as it mostly exists to showcase the Nazi's plan in detail. As the officer in question Helmut Berger is solid with ample moments in which his weaknesses slip through his face of strength and certainty. The best performances here though are from Ingrid Thulin as the brothel Madame and Teresa Ann Savoy as a teenager handpicked by Berger to work there. Thulin delivers impressive cabaret routines throughout and her opening two-faced number is startlingly good, plus she is convincing in her dramatic moments. Savoy is the real revelation here though and the film is sort of a character study of her; shirked off by her affluent parents, she joins the Nazis out of spite and it is only through her experiences as Berger's puppet and seeing the damage that she finds her humanity. Not to oversell the film too much, it runs at least half an hour too long with a lot of time spent on cabaret routines and training scenes of the brothel workers to-be, all of which add little to the project. The finer details of Berger's plot to gain power are sketchy too. In general though, 'Salon Kitty' is encapsulating and well made. The costumes are wonderfully creative and the production design is appropriately detailed. The cross-eyed Aldo Valletti of 'Salò' fame has an amusing brief role too.

SALON KITTY is a strange slice of Nazisploit cinema. It's a film that starts off high on the sleaze-meter, but gradually evolves into a serious "period-drama" - and in my opinion - this is what kills the film. The first half-hour or so get you psyched up for a raunchy and perverse exploit film, but as it goes on, SALON KITTY turns into a romantic drama and serious war film. That's not to say that I can't enjoy a serious film, but that's not what I was expecting going into this one...

SALON KITTY is actually the name of a whorehouse, run by a madame named (you guessed it...), Kitty. The Nazi's shut down her house-of-ill-repute and set her up with some new digs, complete with surveillance devices in the girl's rooms for spying on their fellow Nazi comrades in order for power-hungry Helmut to get the dirt on his pals. Meanwhile, Margherita and a bunch of other SS sluts are handpicked to be ho's for the new salon (keep an eye out for the cross-eyed freak from SALO as one of the salon patrons...) - and it's their duty to service the high-class clientele. Margherita ends up falling for a Nazi pilot who decides he wants out of the Reich - and this causes problems all-around. Eventually, Margherita is pitted against Helmut in a life-or-death power struggle of lies and betrayal...

First off - SALON KITTY is actually a very good film. The cinematography is excellent, the sets are lavish, the acting is all very good, and the storyline is pretty top-notch. The problem is - that if I wanted to watch a serious war drama, I'd watch the DIRTY DOZEN or something. Being that SALON KITTY was from the same man that gave us the epic sleaze "masterpiece" CALIGULA, KITTY is just way too weak for an exploit film. The beginning starts off promising with a Nazi orgy, and a particularly "fun" set of scenes where the "ho's-in-training" are evaluated on their "abilities". This awesome scene includes a chick boning a hunch-backed midget, another chick bangin' a double-amputee, another getting raped by the same nasty scumbag that plays "the Beast" in SS HELL CAMP, another chick screwing a tattooed Gypsy, and one girl trying to blow a concentration camp victim - now that's primo sleaze - but unfortunately, it doesn't last, and although there is still a ton of soft-core sex and nudity throughout, the "serious" plot gets in the way of the fun. Definitely worth a look to exploit/Nazisploit fans - but don't expect too much sleaze - the first half-hour or so is nothing' but a tease...7/10