Customer Reviews

Salon Kitty [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I do hope that it is quite obvious that the only people who didn't like the film are a bunch of immature teens, who were expecting something in vain of "Ilsa: She Wold of the S.S.," but instead got a dark, thought provoking political satire.

The sex was never meant to be erotic or arousing. Tinto Brass has stated in an interview that in order to make a film about depravity, it must be a depraved film. Period.

Please give this film a chance and do not judge a book by its cover.

The film truly is a masterpiece, from its direction, acting to its sumptious sets and complicated plot themes.

... Rocks my world. I purchased this video only because of the deliciously beautiful Ms Savoy, who played the emperor's sister in "Caligula." The movie didn't dissapoint me as she frolics unashamedly throughout, however the film is a very disturbing look at a certain section of the Nazi government. Revisionists may disagree with the portrayal but I found it very realistic. Nothing they did surprises me anymore. Great film.

I liked this movie a lot. I'd seen Caligula before this, and therefore had heard of this movie, but it took me a while to actually try this out and give Tinto Brass another shot. Frankly, I don't give a crap about Caligula anymore because this movie shows just how talented a director he is. Of course, there's more than just directorial talent on display. The actors did a great job, the cinematography and colors are really well done, and it's overall a really appealing cult movie. I could see how some people wouldn't like it because the sexual elements of the film aren't really sexy, but they're used well. I read a review of this that said the sex and nudity actually helped the film from becoming too dry. That's very true. I didn't feel like any elements lingered or weren't given enough time. Everything in the movie contributed in some way; all to make a very good film that should be seen by anyone interested in films that go farther than censors allow. Highly recommended.

Salon Kitty has good actors and plenty of erotic stage production. The elaborate costumes with nazi symbols all over them did a good job in conveying the nazi era and mind-set. The feeling of madness, anger, depression and fear was present in all the characters. The need for power and being a slave to lust was also conveyed very well. Altogether, an accurate account of decending into a living hell.

This movie is a NUDIE ROMP, and not to be confused with "Pornography."

Insertion is blocked or non-existent...and for the late 1970's was reaching the edges of 'legitimate' cinema. The XXX movement of the 1980's was a Porn-Industry crated 'joke' at the MPAA rating system...THEY had no rating beyond X, yet, ANY visible swinging meat, erect or not, in a sexual situation, pushed the film into the X rating. [Most popular X rated film of all time? A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.]

Does the lack of copulation ruin the movie, plot and all? Not really. The plot of a secret spy ring setting up a Nazi Officer Brothel would only have been better, if the ALLIES had pulled it off, in occupied France. The various KINK scenes are often derided, as offensive to 'silly,' are really showing the perversion of power. [Even though Tinto Brass has a reputation of "porny-wood" productions, like Caligula*; He DOES fancy himself a European Auteur filmmaker.]

The era costuming & design, the bringing out to mainstream of kink & fetish, the age-old use/misuse of prostitutes for individual gain reveal a classic story of how far some go when they get power to do all they want.

As for the movie? Hey, if you look at similar-era mainstream films; you will detect massive flaws, in story LAST TANGO IN PARIS/acting KATHERINE ROSS in The Graduate, and special effects "Battle Beyond the Stars.

IF YOU CAN'T OVERLOOK 'dating' of a movie's release...Go Rent something from RED BOX and shut up!

*which Malcolm McDowell, says was DOCTORED after his scenes on the set.]

The main actress of this movie is Teresa Ann Savoy. She is drop dead gorgeous, she is naked alot and she is in most of the scenes of the movie. The story is okay, the acting is just barely. But you do get to see Teresa Ann Savoy. She is drop dead gorgeous, she is naked alot and she is in most of the scenes of the movie. For this cinematic masterpiece, that really does say it all.

Nazi sexploitation, this is one of the few film genres that the mention of it will at the least raise an eyebrow or two and at worst get you kicked you of your synogogue. It is really a twisted genre of cinema, fortunately it is completely unerotic.

Salon Kitty is what some people say to the best Tinto Brass film, if it is then I don't want to know what else he has in store (Caligula for one, rubbish, but not entirely his rubbish). The movie is about the recruitment of 20 young and idealistic girls into a brothel so that they could find and expose the people not entirely obiedient to Nazi ideology. Supposedly it was based on a true story, but I would not be slow to believe that Brass added his own little touch. The plot actually starts in the last half hour. Margarita and Kitty have to stop a power mad nazi officer who wants to usurp power from Hitler and rule the world.

The final half hour is at least interesting. The rest of the movie is not. It is convoluted, muddled and directionless. Pointless cabaret style acts are spliced between scenes adding considerable time to the already overlong movie. The dubbing reflects the poor sense of direction. It appears that some of the scenes were shot in Italian and others were shot in German and others were shot in English. Some of the scenes are not dubbed at all, making it imppossible to understand what is really going on in the movie and the dubbing is done in too many different ways to be consistent, some have British accents and others have German accents etc...

Brass needed an editor. He needed someone to tell him, "this scene really looks great, but lets cut this other scene altogether." This would not only shorten the movie but would help the direction of the movie. The half hour shows that Brass had true talent, and was perfectly capable of wielding the wand of personal voice, but the rest of the movie also reveals his darker side, the side of a thirteen year old with a camera and a bunch of girls not wearing clothes.