99 of 103 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
LUSH SEXPLOITATION....., July 14, 2003
This review is from: Salon Kitty (DVD)
First of all, there is no "sexual perversion" or "sexual atrocities" in this film. But it IS brought to you by the director of "Caligula". "Salon Kitty" is a very lush, very raunchy and very graphic sexploitation film set in 1939 Europe about an SS officer who converts a popular brothel into a spy operation staffed with specially trained and selected girls. The madam, Kitty (Ingrid Thulin), doesn't understand why she had to relocate and restaff and is unaware of the covert goings on. It supposedly is being done to blackmail certain officials but this kind've takes a back seat to the nudity and sexual cavorting. The officer (Helmut Berger) is a twisted and tortured soul---incapable of any sort of sexual relations or relationships. The heroine, prostitute Margarita (Teresa Ann Savoy), looks innocent but is capable of handling the most demanding situations imaginable. She ends up cluing Kitty into what's going on and helping bust the whole thing open. Nazi symbols are everywhere (even on garters!) and some scenes are mind-boggling in their silliness. At times I was wondering if the whole thing was a satire. But some non-sexual scenes (like the slaughterhouse) are repellent in the extreme. The costumes are extravagant and beautiful and suited to the decadence of the brothel. Miss Kitty's song numbers (oh yes, she performs, too) are a bit much in their Dietrich-esque sultriness. Thulin resembles an aging drag queen as she carries on in her over-the-top costumes and blonde wigs. Savoy is pretty (and looks disturbingly too young) but cannot act for love nor money. And she has chances at both in this film. Berger is all pomp and starch as the officer. He's believable. You wonder if he's gay at times. He refuses the services of Kitty's girls but tries with Savoy. It's unpleasant because he's too cold and too far gone. The sex in "Salon Kitty" IS rather repulsive but there's ample male and female nudity for voyeurs. The soundtrack is good---with appropriately decadent music and song numbers suited to the period and place. The DVD print is mostly good but ranges from too dark in some scenes to quite vivid in others. Overall, it's watchable with plenty of extras and a second disc all about "Salon Kitty". A collector's item for those with a taste for this sort of thing. Just be careful who you show it to. It's very strange stuff.
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62 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
1970s porno takes on the Third Reich, September 29, 2005
Classic Teto Brass. I could definetly see the similarities with Caligula. Very professional production. But lots of wierd fetish stuff like sex with amputies, and disfigured people (most real). However, even though this was an NR version there was no coitus. A few distant shots of a very hairy crotch, and plenty of shots of limp male organs. Good acting though, and a very good story. If you are watching this for the sex scenes, go rent a Penthouse video. This was all about fetish and androgity. There are some very strange perversions and they show just how sick the Third Reich really was, as I understand pretty accurate. If you are an adult and enjoy real movies, this is as real as they get. If you are a prude and don't enjoy seeing the human body in all it's forms (some not very pleasant to look at), than definetly skip this one.
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47 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
So-So Effort From the Director of "Caligula", October 12, 2003
This review is from: Salon Kitty (DVD)
Director Tinto Brass is probably better known for lensing the controversial film "Caligula" starring Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, and Peter O'Toole than he is for the sleazy little number called "Salon Kitty." Made five years before the Vidal/Guccione/Brass "Caligula" collaboration, "Salon Kitty" sports several similarities to Brass's later production. This film also takes a historical setting as its starting point, specifically National Socialist Germany of the 1930s. The film boasts similarly impressive set pieces constructed by Oscar winner Ken Adam of "Barry Lyndon" fame (this is saying something because "Barry Lyndon" is one of the best period pieces ever put to film, in large part due to the costumes and sets). "Salon Kitty" even casts the beautiful Teresa Ann Savoy in a major role as the young Aryan prostitute Margherita (she played Caligula's sister in "Caligula"). Yep, it is easy to make plenty of comparisons between this movie and the later "Caligula." It is also quite simple to make comparisons of the bad traits in both films because "Salon Kitty" tends to bore more than it titillates.
Specifically, "Salon Kitty" takes place in 1939 Berlin just as the German military readies itself for war. At some point, higher ups decide to assemble the best examples of young Aryan womanhood in order to train them as prostitutes in service to the German soldiers. A German officer of supposedly impeccable standards, Helmut Wallenberg, runs this new training program. Wallenberg, who has his own nasty little secrets, comes across as the archetype of every German officer portrayed in films since the end of World War II: he is imperious, cold, calculating, and as cruel as they come. In order to put his plan into action, Wallenberg enlists the services of Madam Kitty, a brothel owner of some note who spends her evenings performing cabaret numbers for the customers. Kitty scoffs at Wallenberg's suggestions until the German officer closes down her business in order to force her into service to the state. Kitty finally acquiesces to the Germans and proceeds to turn the young Aryan gals into carbon copies of the prostitutes she once presided over at her brothel. What follows are endless scenes of partying, nudity, and cabaret numbers as Kitty and her coterie perform for the fatherland.
Unknown to Kitty and the nubile Margherita, Wallenberg runs the brothel as a cover for a massive spying operation complete with bugged rooms, bugged telephones, and blackmail. And there is great potential for blackmail as high-ranking National Socialists show up to party with Kitty and the gang. All the while the tape recorders run away behind the walls, capturing any hint of criticism directed against the German government. Margherita eventually discovers these shenanigans when she falls in love with one of her clients only to discover later that the authorities arrested and executed him for treasonous comments he made in the brothel. Armed with deep suspicions about her role as a prostitute, Margherita approaches Kitty and together the two launch their own private war against Wallenberg and his henchmen.
"Salon Kitty" is a sick, morally reprehensible film. The party scenes are exercises in sleaze, with swastikas adorning the most unusual of objects. Every character engages in the most nauseating of acts, and Brass tosses out gruesome scenes in an autopsy room and a slaughterhouse just in case you forget you are watching a movie about National Socialist Germany. The worst scene comes early in the film, and I am not going to say anymore about it except to say you will know it when you see it. In addition to the sordid scenes, the movie further offends with a poor script, mediocre acting, and pacing that absolutely plods along. The picture seems to run for an eternity due to these elements and a few others. Madam Kitty and Margherita don't even put the pieces together about Wallenberg until well into the movie, long after most of the viewers have long wearied of the whole exercise. About the only thing I enjoyed about "Salon Kitty" was Madam Kitty's cabaret numbers and watching the beautiful Teresa Ann Savoy. I think "Salon Kitty" serves as a good example of what occurred in certain filmmaking circles in the 1970s: overly long, overly pretentious attempts to weld sleaze with art house pretensions.
The DVD version of "Salon Kitty," put together by William Lustig's Blue Undergound, gives more attention to this film than it really deserves. The transfer is widescreen and looks darn good for a movie of this age. There are tons of extras, too, including interviews with Tinto Brass and Ken Adam, gallery stills, radio spots, and a trailer for the film. When "Salon Kitty" originally came out in the 1970s, the U.S. print suffered numerous cuts and arrived on our shores under the name "Madam Kitty." Completists, like me, will appreciate Lustig's generous restoration of the film while lamenting that the movie really isn't that great. Still, I've seen much, much worse than "Salon Kitty," so spending a couple of hours with it wasn't a complete loss. If you really must see this film, try and rent it instead of buying it.
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