SEX SLAVES OF THE S.S.

This 2-disc set is another pairing of obscure pornos from the mid-1970's, unearthed by After Hours Cinema and remastered for DVD.

Disc 1 presents the main attraction, the salaciously titled SEX SLAVES OF THE S.S. It opens crummily enough with a montage of black-and-white footage from the 1930's, charting the uprising in Germany of a certain Adolf Hitler. A narrator employs a patently bogus English accent to offer a brief overview of the Nazi reign, and their Fuhrer's obsession with furthering scientific achievements.

Which leads us to Cologne, 1945, and the secret headquarters of Hitler's top scientist, Dr Ivan Cock-Luv (Jerry Delony, SLACKER). Ivan and his sexually ambiguous assistant, the genuinely odd Fitz, are keen to find live subjects to perform their experiments upon. It's fortuitous for them then, that three women have been captured while sunbathing earlier that day.

Fitz tells Ivan excitedly that they now have three live subjects waiting in a nearby cell. The mad scientist is delighted, finally being given the opportunity to carry out his tests for "biological reactions" - and orders Fitz to get the "vibrating machine" ready …

Pretty blonde Texan Jenny is the first subject to be carted into Ivan's threadbare laboratory. She seems positively enthused as Ivan lies her down on a bench and strips her for inspection. Far from being subjected to horrendous torture, Jenny is happy to get fucked first by a vibrating dildo contraption, then by an eager German soldier.

But when Jenny tires the officer out, Ivan calls for the second subject to be brought to him. Quite what reaction he's looking for in these women is never made clear, but they all seem to relish in their individual (and one girl-on-girl) sex scenes.

SLAVES is a bizarre mix of bad comedy, cheap sets and poorly filmed porn. It takes a contentious subject matter and laughs at it, drawing Benny Hill-type gurning from the zealous overacting of Delony (who, disturbingly, looks like Graham Norton with a beard). Fitz is a genuinely strange character, and between them he/she and his/her master are there as a flimsy narrative link between the scenes of rutting (aside from a brief blowjob at the start, neither of them get in on the action). Ivan's bickering at Fitz - and berating of him/her for almost using a cattle-prod on one of the girls - reminded me of the relationship between the Baron and Otto in FLESH FOR FRANKENSTIEN.

The sex scenes are shot with moderate lighting and often the camera angles are awkward, leaving us at times without a clear view of whatever's occurring. Money shots are sometimes missed, or some scenes simply end before they happen. Each flesh scene is set to rousing German "oomp-ah" music, the type of which is usually played over vintage stock war footage, with lots of enthusiastic stomping/marching and singing in German.

There are a couple of more interesting sex scenes which have been "restored" into the film. That is, After Hours have incorporated a couple of random Nazi-themed "loops" into the film to bolster it's running time. These are darker in tone (and grainier in appearance) to the rest of the film, but arguably are the film's most noteworthy moments. The first involves a Nazi soldier offering a sliced-up female prisoner a cigarette in return for oral sex. This scene ends with her gagging on his juice. A later insert involves a bit of forced anal.

The source of these scenes is unknown. But they have nothing to do with the rest of the film (different locations, different characters, not related to the plot etc), and only serve to change the overall tone. It's an odd choice by After Hours to hack these clips into SLAVES, rather than to showcase them as separate extras on the disc.

The film is bookended with black-and-white stock film of Nazi propaganda and newsreel footage, which also appears to have been added by After Hours. I may be wrong, as I've never seen SLAVES before.

All in all, SLAVES is a peculiar beast. At only 59 minutes in length (and that's including the random footage After Hours have crow barred in), I have no idea whether this is the complete version or not. But it does appear to be an extremely cheap effort fleshed out with inoffensive romping, so I doubt there's anything of interest - if anything at all - that's missing.

The film is presented in a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer. The back cover states that the film has been remastered from the only existing materials, and it does contain a large amount of vertical lines. Speckling is also evident, although it's not too distracting. Although images are a tad soft, colour and contrast have held up well. A respectable presentation.

The English mono audio track dips a few times, but overall offers a credible playback.

Although there's no scene-selection menu, the film can be navigated through by way of 10 chapters.

The only extras on disc 1 are several trailers (including one for SLAVES) and a freaky 9-minute black-and-white loop entitled SWASTIKA IN THE HOLE. This sees a man in large underpants and a Hitler mask donning a white condom with a black swastika logo on it, then shagging a brunette. He shoots himself in the head when he loses his erection. Weird.

Disc 2 gives us a bonus feature film, in the form of WOMAN OF VENGEANCE.

This 60-minute offering tells the tale of a woman and her lover, plotting to murder her bickering husband. But when the husband finds about their plans, he decides to turn the tables. That's the plot in writing, but you'd hardly fathom it while watching the film. Within minutes the plot has gone totally off the boil and been replaced by haphazard editing from one random scene to another, and lots of sweaty, hairy shafting.

The music score too is distinctly ordinary - saxophone-heavy lounge music that seems to pepper most anonymous 70's pornos.

A dimly-lit affair, it doesn't help that the print used has been damaged by over exposure. The result is that flesh looks far too white on the screen (and red objects blurrily stand out as the only true colour offered - lips, clothing, bell-ends etc).

The main enemy of WOMAN though is it's editing. The mid-section of the film is taken up by a lengthy sequence of two couples shagging in different locations. The clumsy editing and murky picture make it truly puzzling as to who you're watching at any given time.

Still, on it's plus side, there's a grim finale to look forward to. And it's always nice to see the ever-appealing Rene Bond (DIARY OF A NYMPH) and her regular beau Rick Lutze.

WOMAN is presented in a rough-looking 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer with uneven English mono audio and 9 chapters stops.

Elsewhere on disc 2, we have no less than 20 (!) trailers and a 4-minute "Restoration documentary". Which is actually a promotional clip for ei Cinema, splicing clips from various films with self-congratulatory spiel from Michael Raso.

There's also a decent 8-page booklet with colour stills from SLAVES and credible liner notes by the "After Hours Collector".

You've got to admire After Hours Cinema's continued efforts in this field. Even if, as is the case here, the actual films on offer aren't too impressive …

Review by Stuart Willis