Achtung! The Desert Tigers (1977)

Director: Luigi Batzella

Starring: Gordon Mitchell, Richard Harrison, Lea Lander, Isarco Ravaioli, Agnes Kalpagos

More info: IMDb

Plot: American Major Lexman (Richard Harrison) finds himself amongst Brits in a Nazi prison camp in Northern Africa run by Kommandant von Stolzen (Gordon Mitchell). Taking sadistic Dr. Lessing (Lea Lander) hostage, the Allies make their escape into the desert with the Germans in hot pursuit.



My rating: 4/10

Will I watch it again? Nope.


So what is there left to do with the Nazisploitation genre that hasn't been done yet? Set it during the Africa campaign! Brilliant. I can't believe it took this long for someone to think of that. It was actually quite refreshing having a much different setting than the rest. That is until I noticed the very familiar battle scenes from an Italian WWII picture I saw a couple of years back called, HEROES WITHOUT GLORY (1971). There was so much of that movie inserted into this one I was getting some seriously extended deja vu. Then Gordon Mitchell (I love this guy. He's so badass) shows up as the nasty Nazi!



And next we get Italian genre movie staple Richard Harrison.



There's not really much of a story (SURPRISE!) but it doesn't matter due to the nature and intent of this unusual genre. There's enough nudity to keep fans of the genre happy along with some 'perversions' if you can even call them that these days.

Hubba hubba!

Ja, deze is ook goed!

NO! NOT THE SOFT WASHING OF THE BUTTOCKS! YOU NAZI BASTARDS!!!




And here's a little something for the ladies...






Here's an unusual twist (and more realistic as far as this type of behavior goes) in the Nazisploitation genre. The sadistic and brutal camp doctor, Erika Lessing (played by Lea Lander), begs for her nurse to whip her. After dishing it out to the prisoners, she now wants to take it. The nurse complies as a strange version of the song Lili Marlene is heard on the soundtrack.




One of the good guys sneaks his way into a female guard's room for some Operation: Desert Shtoop...but someone's watching...


Oh, yeah! I like where this is going!


Once she's rubbed one out it's time to bust them both and bring the prisoner in front of von Stolzen who offers him a drink...

NICE!!!



Now I saw going into this that it was barely more than an hour and twenty minutes long but I was completely taken aback when it just up and ended. WTF? Some prisoners escape, there's a skirmish in the desert, the bad guys are still alive while some of the escaped prisoners are killed by the broad they took with them as a hostage and the only thing the last survivor can think of is to throw her a shovel and tell her to dig the graves of his comrades she just murdered? Fuck that. Seriously. He tosses a shovel at her feet and THE END. I had to rewind a few minutes to make sure I didn't fall asleep and miss something. Amazing. It's not like Batzella was trying to do something different with the conventions of film, he's just made a bad film and probably ran out of money or talent or both. Yikes. I'll give him this much, though...at least it wasn't longer.

Great poster art at the top, though.