RED NIGHTS OF THE GESTAPO (1977)
Reviewed by BRYAN SHU-IZMZ SCHUESSLER
The story of Red Nights of the Gestapo is centered around a plot by Werner von Uhland (Ezio Miani) whose orders are to infiltrate a select group of bourgeoisie and affluent German personalities who are known for their dislike of Adolph Hitler. The group of men are invited to a very secret meeting in a castle and Werner von Uhland pairs up each guest with a very beautiful woman chosen for her ability to cater to that particular individual’s perversion.
As the ladies begin flirting, taunting, and inviting the men to partake in their every desire, each couple is recorded with hidden microphones with the idea that their plans will be uncovered and the guests plot to overthrow Hitler will be thwarted by having recordings of them engaged in perversions that can be used for blackmail. I think that filming the perversions would have been highly more effective, but I guess around the early 1940’s, that would be next to impossible, especially hiding a camera that no one would notice.
Half of this movie it boring dialogue between von Uhland and other Nazi Party officers, as our main character is almost killed by a firing squad for the actions of his superior, Rudolph Hess, whom in the film (and in history) defected from the Nazi Party and had engaged in a plot to overthrow Hitler and stop him from launching into the war with Russia. The points in the film that try too much to give viewers a history lesson about the exploits of the Nazis in World War 2 are dull, tedious, and full of zero energy.
The film really only picks up when the beautiful women chosen for the mission, some of which are from a mental facility of sorts for being unable to curb their fetishes, which range from being sexually aroused when whipped, beaten, strangled, or cut all the way to a woman who is a chronic flasher and exhibitionist, continually exposing herself and getting highly aroused in the process. Well, I don’t really think that is a bad thing and merits being locked up, but…Nudity is sprinkled throughout the film in smaller does until the “meeting” at the castle finally occurs, but before that occurs we again have to put up with chatter about the progress of the Wehrmacht, anti-Nazi sentiments amongst the German intelligentsia, and the defection of Hess. This all adds up drawn out scenes of less than average performances given with little to know conviction.
There needed to be more lesbianism, violence, scenes of S&M, and more decadence that usually goes hand in hand with this genre of films. On the other hand, this flick does not take place in a concentration camp or prison of sorts, which most of the films in this genre do occur in, so it does not have any perverted and sick medical experiments in it or guards raping and molesting the prisoners. The film has more of an orgy of perversions going on at the castle, but I felt that the scenes were cut too short and things really don’t “take off” before the scenes end. If one is going to have perversions, go all the way.
We have a guy that gets off by sucking the milk out of his mother’s tits and is given a lactating beauty to whip her ample breasts out so he can suck them dry. There is a sick individual that is a creepy pedophile whom the ringmasters of this operation find a very young child to engage with him. There is a stage show conducted for the pleasure of the Nazi officers in which one of the women is a female Hitler impersonator and we also have a member of the Nazi party that is defiant to all the others’ perversions and is paired up with the masochist and whips her and chokes her to death because she is an evil witch and, after all, witches have no rights so its ok if they are killed.
As much as this film was utterly confusing within the plot, I did enjoy it for much of the ridiculous scenes of perversions, girl-on-girl action, abundant amount of nice and hairy bush, wide assortment of attractive “actresses” throughout the film, and classic lines of dialogue suitable for quoting and using for some soundbites-lines such as “Nipples are the petals of the woman in bloom.” My favorite scene in the whole film that actually had me laughing out loud for a few minutes because it was so ridiculously out of place and character for the whole film was when Walter Wagner, played by actor Giorgia Cerioni (SS Camp 5: Women’s Hell), find one of the hidden microphones and in fury pulls his pants down and sits on the mic while ripping a huge, loud fart on top of it. It completely threw me for a curve. I was not expecting it at all. It seemed more along the lines of something I would have (and have) seen in a Troma picture, but not a Nazisploitation flick.
With Red Nights of the Gestapo, director Fabio De Agostini, along with writer Oscar Righini and Bertha Uhland, whom her novel “The Red Nights of the Gestapo” was the film’s basis upon, have created a plot within the film that tries to maintain its historical accuracy while whetting the appetite of traditional fans of exploitative Nazi flicks as the same time.
Red Nights of the Gestapo is another entry in the Nazisploitation genre that really reminded me just how tedious and boring this genre of films can truly be. Not to say that the film did not have some good points to it, primarily the amount of perverted acts of nudity and salacious debauchery, but more often than not there were points in the film that had me dozing off from lackluster scenes of dialogue.
If one is a fan of the Naziploitation flicks, then this film probably has enough traits of that genre’s films to warrant owning, or at least seeing. The only thing that really was keeping me interested throughout the film was the promise of perverted scenes of sexuality, and for the most part, they did deliver. I just felt that they could have quit trying to be historically accurate, dismiss the history lesson, and focus on more violence, more blood, more boobs, and a whole lot more bush. If one is going to be exploitative, go all the way.
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