She Devils of the SS (1973)

I love this movie so much

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

"Eine Armee Gretchen" (and there are a handful of English-language titles for this one) is a Swiss German-language film from 1973, so this one will soon have its 45th anniversary already. It is one of the more known films by Swiss writer and director Erwin C. Dietrich, who adapted a novel by Karl-Heinz Helms-Liesenhoff for this film here. I cannot imagine he appreciated what Dietrich did with his base material unless it was as trashy and as much garbage as this film here. It runs for approximately 100 minutes and takes place during the days of World War II. The plot is that the German women want to do their best in order to help Hitler win the war and as Diietrich's films almost always have an erotic component, "the best" means in this case that they want to have sex with as many German soldiers as possible and help them in winning the war because if you are dead, you cannot have sex again and you would not want to miss out on these Gretchens after the War, do you? Oh yeah, this story sounds like the perfect component for a trashy guilty pleasure film, but it turns out no such thing.Actually, it is garbage and you could also say it is offensive somehow. It was made less than 30 years and at that point, really many (female) survivors from this terrible time in German history were still alive. They had to live through terrible times and this film mocking them and their (possibly dead) husbands must have been so painful to watch. The argument that the women from back then are not alive any more today is not valid, because they were alive when this film came out. Apart from that, the film also gives leukemia patients a bad name in Dietrich's extremely clumsy attempt to give this film more dramatic relevance. Another major problem with this film is that you are supposed to like the protagonists, especially the female ones, but this gets really difficult to do when you see them approve of and appreciate Hitler from start to finish.All in all, this film is a gigantic failure and really never should have been made. The fact that Dietrich fails in more areas than usual, for example the historic component that is missing entirely in his other many many stinkers that he made in his career, takes this film to a completely new level in terms of screwing-up. This is why I believe when you look for the worst film from his career, this one is definitely in contention. It is never interesting, pretty offensive to all kinds of women, irrelevant from the (historic) story-telling perspective, never funny despite being categorized as a comedy and just a prime example of how many German-language really sucked in the 1970s. Many people do not know Hitler was actually Austrian. Many people also do now know that Dietrich is Swiss. And both of them did huge damage in their respective fields with their works. I highly recommend to stay away from this movie.

Frauleins in Uniforms (AKA She Devils of the SS) features none of the mean-spirited nastiness and sexual degradation that is generally associated with the Nazisploitation genre; instead, it uses its German wartime setting as an excuse to get its more-than-willing frauleins out of their uniforms and onto their backs as often as possible, the lovely ladies doing whatever is necessary to assist with the Nazi war effort.Boasting a very attractive female cast (leads Elisabeth Felchner and Renate Kasché are particularly appealing), most of whom get buck naked, plus better than average production values (that allow for the occasional ambitious battle scene, complete with authentic looking weapons and tanks), this had the potential to be a fun slice of sleazy trash, but with flat direction from Erwin C. Dietrich and nary a plot to tie the unimaginative soft-core sex and fighting together, the whole sorry affair proves tedious in the extreme.2.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 3 for the hilarious rifle rubbing scene.

With World War II rapidly coming to an end several young women volunteer to join the German army to show their support for their beloved Fuhrer. However, one of the doctors charged with helping them enlist comes into conflict with the Gestapo and as a result he and his two daughters are subsequently drafted and sent to the Russian Front. That said this film essentially tells the story of the ordeals that these three people encounter as the Russian army begins to close in from the east. Now as far as the overall movie is concerned, although it is billed as a comedy I have to say that I didn't find much humor anywhere. What it did have however were a lot of naked women and scenes of simulated sex, which not only lacked both passion and eroticism, but also lacked any tangible story to make any of these scenes interesting or worthwhile. Additionally, the characters lacked depth and the acting was quite second-rate as well. In short, this was a pretty bad film all around and I have rated it accordingly.

In most ways this fits in with the Nazi-sexploiters made in Italy or by Eurocine, except in one: this was made for the German market and consequently we do not get all the usual stereotypes: (i) all Germans are Nazis, (ii) all Nazis are evil, (iii) all Nazis are sexual predators. We just get (ii) and (iii). The film is also less violent and downright nasty than its foreign genre rivals, partly to accommodate the German censors (who always shunned the connection sex/violence) and partly because their target audience would not have been expecting that - for the aforementioned reason.The supposed identification figures of the film are Dr Kuhn and his daughters, who suffer from not playing Nazi-ball with the required conviction. I qualify this as "supposed", because this is no more than a McGuffin. After a while the film focusses on its real purpose: ogling at beautiful young women in the nude, with some added spice caused by the dangerous surroundings. If this were an accurate description of the going-ons at the Eastern front then the Wehrmacht should not have had much trouble getting volunteers.Obviously, this isn't complying with historical accuracy, or political correctness. But then, neither are 'Salon Kitty', 'Love Camp 7', 'Train spécial pour SS', 'Ilsa, she-wolf of the SS', or any of the other films of this ilk. One should not expect more of these pictures than a 1970s version of a roughie.