Women in Bondage (1943)

Director: Steve Sekely

Writers: Houston Branch, Frank Wisbar

Starring: Gail Patrick, Nancy Kelly, William Henry, Tala Birell, Gertrude Michael, Alan Baxter, Maris Wrixon, Rita Quigley, Felix Basch, H.B. Warner, Anne Nagel, Mary Forbes, Frederic Brunn, Roland Varno, Ralph Linn, Nanette Bordeaux, Aune Franks, Gisela Werbisek, John Merton, Wally Patch, Hermine Sterler

More info: IMDb

Tagline: BLUEPRINT FOR SHAME... womanhood's most sacred ideals and rights... stripped away in a reign of uncurbed fearfulness!

Plot: Margot Bracken returns home to Germany after several years of absence, and is horrified at the degraded status which has been forced on the women of her homeland. Toni Hall is prevented from marrying her sweetheart. Both women speak out against the terrorist reign and are imprisoned. Pagan baptisms, "mercy" killings, sterilizations, government-encouraged vice and the cruelties of the Gestapo are only a few of the practices they see or endure.

My rating:  6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Twice is enough.

Boy howdy, they really tried to sell the salaciousness of the title, didn't they?

You wouldn't think it by the title but this is all about getting us Yanks fired up to go whoop some Nazi butts.  The movie covers the different types of Germans you'd expect.  You've got the died in the wool evil Nazis, then you've got the blind followers that see the light when shit doesn't go their way and they see the Nazis for what they are and then you've got the ones that don't like this Nazi business one bit.  The baddies do bad things and they're at least trying for a German accent (except for one SS guy who sounds as German and Dobie Gillis, which is good for campy fun) and good ones mostly have accents that are no different than Judy Garland's.  This isn't some ill-conceived rush job B picture.  This is a thought out piece of propaganda with an exploitative goosing from the marketing department.  It's better than average flag waver that showed the Nazis were bad and us Yanks are good.  For mid-level entertainment/propaganda/commentary, this works very well.  It's impossible now but I wonder how this played back then, when we didn't have decades of horror stories of what it was like living in the Third Reich.  Now gather your pitchforks and lets go give that Hitler what fer!