The Gestapo's Last Orgy (1977)

Director: Cesare Canevari

Starring: Adriano Micantoni, Daniela Poggi, Maristella Greco, Fulvio Ricciardi, Antiniska Nemour

More info: IMDb

Plot: Lise Cohen is taken to a special prisoner-of-war camp for female Jews, a camp run as a bordello to entertain the German officers and troops going in to battle. The camp is run with an iron fist by Commandant Starker and his minion Alma. Starker becomes frustrated when Lise demonstrates no fear, and devises cruel experiments to scare her, to no avail. Lise begins to play Starker's game and begins to live a better life.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Count on it.

WOW! After the shitfest that was TORTURE ME, KISS ME (1970), and the track record the Nazisploitatin genre has shown after the 20 or so films I've watched this month, my expectations were looooooow but ORGY shocked the hell out of me and showed me there are still some surprises left to be had.


ORGY gets closer to the harshness of the camps than all of the others because it's not done for purely for the sake of exploitation. Yeah, it's a long way off from SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993) but it's not there for titillation, either. Cheers to the director and co-writer, Canevari, for doing such a marvelous job. I'm thoroughly impressed.


ILSA, SHE WOLF OF THE SPOILERS!!!

The picture starts out with a leisurely drive along a winding mountain road. The audio is of a war crimes trial against Conrad von Starker. The drive ends at what's left of a camp of sorts. It turns out that It's Starker we've been following and his destination is Camp Naugen and he's there to meet the beautiful Lise. We soon discover that Starker ran this love camp and Lise was his most interesting inmate. Starker and Lise embrace as lovers and there's a small exchange between them about how he's been cleared of the claims against him and how her testimony was integral to his new lease on life. I could already tell that this wasn't going to be a typical entry into the genre. There's some artistry at play here.



As they walk among the memories of the camp, a harmonica rusting in the weeds sends Lise back to that horrible time. Starker was a real tough son of a bitch and his camp was not a pretty place. He gets an awful lot of dialog where he's giving his thoughts on the Jews and such and it's real hard line Nazi rhetoric that many will find offensive but it's true to the Nazi ideology. It's harsh, much of what he says, but it's also the kind of dialogue some of the other films of this genre would water down or shy away from altogether. Canevari pulls no punches in showing how evil this man and his organization are...but he goes even farther.




An example of how brutal this picture dares to be, our (and the new female arrivals to the love camp) introduction to one of Starker's sadistic underlings, Alma, is insanely grotesque, difficult to take in and indicative of how in-your-face this movie is. As Alma speaks to the new girls, she stands in front of them, one by one, and puts her fingers between their legs. She finishes her welcome speech/threat and chooses one girl. Why her? Well, she's menstruating and Alma needs to feed the dogs! The poor girl is tossed, kicking and screaming, into the pen where she's torn apart. On the surface you'd say this is just a disgusting attempt at exploitation and I'd normally agree with you. But, and this is a huge BUT, the manner in which it's shot & edited is so horrifying that it made me cringe.















There's a dinner sequence with Starker, Nazi officers, the camp doctor and a German hard line party professor. The professor gleefully shares his ideas on what he thinks of Jews and how to best utilize them. He's an ugly man to the core but he's really driving home how much idiotic hate the Nazis were filled with. Anyway, one of the despicable things he espouses is using them for labor on farms and, once they reach the age of say 20 and they're all muscled up and meaty, harvest them for meat. That's right, he suggest they should be eaten. I guess that would be the ultimate in power over a people, wouldn't it? Many of the guests are uneasy about this but Starker starts laughing maniacally which gets the others doing so in turn. Starker questions the quality and taste of the meat. The professor replies that they can judge for themselves as their meal is being served. THE FUCK? They're eating people? Yep. This sends one of the Jewish girls (the camp whores that are prettied up and used as domestic help) to the floor from fainting.





But wait, it goes deeper! Starter gets an idea...the pour the Jew stew over her naked body but that's not enough. They place her on the table, douse her on cognac and set her on fire. THIS...IS...SOME...FUCKED...UP...SHIT! Everyone's now laughing and having a wonderful time. Wow. Just wow.





But wait, it gets worse. It's at this dinner party from hell that Starker sees how stubborn Lise is and he decides to rise up to the challenge of breaking her. See, she wants to die and for Starker, killing her isn't an option. It wouldn't be fun, he says. He's going to torture her and bring her to the point where she has a lust for life and wants to live; then he'll have her killed. That is some seriously fucked up shit.



And so he begins. It's not pretty and what makes all of his actions worse is that he's telling her what he's going to do and why he's doing it. He spells out everything in such detail that it's his words give a considerable weight to his actions.


Lise has a reason for wanting to die. That little subplot (which includes a tryst with the camp doctor accompanied by a sappy love theme that just won't end) was unnecessary but it didn't take us too far away from the main story. She discovers her guilt is unfounded so she gives herself to Starker and they begin an affair which elevates her status in the camp and gives her many privileges and luxuries. I should point out that there are moments that bring her back to modern day as she and Starker walk through the deserted grounds.


In one last moment of absolute horror. Lise is pregnant. Once she's ready for birth, we're in the camp hospital and it's a boy. She's delighted. Starker is there, holds the boy up like the proudest of fathers and then, without missing a beat, his demeanor takes a 180 as he hands the baby to someone and orders it destroyed. HOLY SHIT! After a stretch of seeing him as a human during his love affair with Lise, he's a monster to the core.

Alma shows Lise a glove made of...baby skin!

It's that memory that brings us back to modern day and the past is now completely behind us. Lise embraces her lover, pulls a gun out of her purse and shoots him. They both fall to the ground, he on top of her. At first you think that she killed them both but that's not to be. She brings herself to her feet and she pushes Starker down a dark stone stairway beneath a smoke stack. As she walks away toward the car she looks back over her shoulder to see the black smoke of his burning body emitting from the smoke stack.


As far as exploitation films go, this one is very mature. I'm floored that someone actually took the time to write a story that has character development, suspense, the works. Canevari has successfully made a serious picture with a lot of the ingredients of exploitation and he's married the two extremely well. Think of it as a gourmet pizza with the emphasis on the gourmet part, so much so that if you eat it with your eyes closed you experience the cuisine and forget that it's just a dolled-up pizza pie.




THE GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY is a damn fine film that most people will never see and that's too bad. Hollywood can make a serious film about these atrocities but it's going to be drenched in tears, guilt, and so forth. Canevari made one that strips away the gauze and Vaseline from camera's lens and lets you experience that madness a few steps closer than any Hollywood counterpart. Well done.