Note: This was originally meant to be published on www.tasteofcinema.com, but was removed because of some type of rules violations from Facebook and Google.
What is our fascination with Nazism in the cinema? Since the
1940’s, they have been portrayed on the big screen in various formats and also in
some of our favorite films. During World War II, they were used in film as
propaganda for both Germany and the United States. The Three Stooges, Mickey
Mouse, and the Looney Tunes all took on the Nazis and Hitler during this time.
The comic book industry also got involved with the creation of Captain America.
Since the war has ended, they have shown up in drive-in horror
films during the 1950’s and 1960’s. The 1970’s saw them join the sexploitation
subgenre and have had enough films created about themselves to create a whole
new subgenre, called Nazisploitation. In the 1980’s, they also showed up as
zombies or ghosts.
Along the way they’ve been portrayed in a mix of award
winners and downright trash. Celebrated actors such as Alec Guinness and
Anthony Hopkins have played Hitler. More recently, we’ve had popular and
positively reviewed films involving Nazi’s, such as Downfall and Inglorious
Basterds.
It should probably be mentioned that a majority of these films were never meant to be presented in good taste. They represent the sleazier side of cinema that exploited various themes in order to make money, because there simply was a demand for a specific type of film.
And let’s not forget about one of the greatest series and
characters arguably ever made, Indiana Jones. The best movies of the series are
the ones involving the Nazis. It’s quite possibly because they are a symbol of
the ultimate evil, and that’s why we want to rally behind the good guys. Or they
could simply just be the easiest characters to create, because the film
industry is lazy at times and doesn’t want to try and create something original.
Triumph of the Will
AKA Triumph des Willens 1935
“The infamous propaganda film” [1] . A
mix of both propaganda and art, this is one of the greatest examples in the
history of film for the use of cinema as a propaganda tool. It documents
the 1934 Nazi Congress party rally that took place in Nuremberg, Germany, where
Hitler and other prominent Nazi party members spoke amongst a crowd of over
700,000 [2] . The event wasn’t
solely done for the film, it was a large annual party event that “would
demonstrate party unity and power under Hitler’s leadership, however, neither
those events nor the film tell the [whole] truth about Germany or the Nazis” [2] .
The film was written and directed by Leni Reifenstahl, she had received a lot of praise for starring, writing, directing, and producing the film The Blue Light (1932) [2] . Hitler noticed her
in this film and personally commissioned her to film the party rally [2] . The film was
thoroughly planned and prepared for to look not just like “a spectacular mass
meeting, but also as spectacular film propaganda.” There were thirty cameras
used to film, a film crew nearing two hundred was used, “and new techniques of
wide-angle photography and telescopic lenses were employed to scan the crowd’s
reactions” [3] . They recorded
“almost sixty-one hours of film from almost every imaginable angle,” and
Reifenstahl had to edit it down to two hours of footage [2] .
The central themes of the film were to demonstrate that Germany had a strong leader in Hitler and that Germany was a unified nation. They depict Hitler as being god like, the opening sequence of the film shows him descending from the clouds in an airplane. The towering city below and the German people waiting for their leader to land [3] . They usually filmed
Hitler in isolation and from lower angles to make it appear that he towers over
everyone [3] . There is
juxtaposition in the film where Hitler is always shown alone and the German
people are shown united in masses. In the scenes of the outdoor rally, Hitler
is placed up high on a platform and the large numbers of spectators are reduced
to “architectural patterns deprived of their individuality in favor of some
larger communal ideal” [2] . This is to shoe
that all of the German people are united as one unit.
The film was written and directed by Leni Reifenstahl, she had received a lot of praise for starring, writing, directing, and producing the film The Blue Light (1932)
The central themes of the film were to demonstrate that Germany had a strong leader in Hitler and that Germany was a unified nation. They depict Hitler as being god like, the opening sequence of the film shows him descending from the clouds in an airplane. The towering city below and the German people waiting for their leader to land
The film is a mix of documentary, politics, propaganda and art.
There are several arguments about this film and whether it actually has any
artistic merit at all. “First, there are the critics whose moral and political
convictions prevent them from appreciating the film; second, there are those
who understand the film, and even appreciate it, in light of its mission as
propaganda; and third, there are those who appreciate the formal beauty of the
film in spite of the politics” [2] .
It is because of these complexities and history surrounding this film that is
has a cult following.
Invisible
Agent 1942
The only film on this list that would be considered a war time propaganda film for the United States, which was created by Universal films. The grandson of the original invisible man enlists in the services, using his grandfather’s invisible man serum to spy on the Nazis. Of note, Peter Lorre plays one of the main bad guys, a Japanese Baron Ikito. Lorre is a well known actor because of his distinctive looks and feminine voice, often playing strange and unusual characters. His notable films include M, The Maltese Falcon, and Casablanca.
The only film on this list that would be considered a war time propaganda film for the United States, which was created by Universal films. The grandson of the original invisible man enlists in the services, using his grandfather’s invisible man serum to spy on the Nazis. Of note, Peter Lorre plays one of the main bad guys, a Japanese Baron Ikito. Lorre is a well known actor because of his distinctive looks and feminine voice, often playing strange and unusual characters. His notable films include M, The Maltese Falcon, and Casablanca.
Meant to be viewed by American wartime audiences, the Japanese
soldiers were depicted as “inhuman fiends and the Nazis as brutes and buffoons”
[4] The
film was a box office success, grossing “1,041,500 in 116 weeks” while only
costing $322,000 to make. It was also nominated for an Oscar for special
effects, but lost out to Reap the Wild Wind [4] .
Der
Verlorene 1951
This is a German production written, directed and starring Peter
Lorre. Lorre plays German scientist Karl Rothe, who is secretly conducting
research for the Nazis during World War II. He finds out that his wife has been
providing information to the allies and he murders her. The German government
covers this up. Years after the war, Rothe deals with guilt in regards to his
war time crimes.
The dark tones and film noir style of the movie resulted in it
being unsuccessful in Germany, running for only ten days in theaters. The
problem was that the German people had gained a “widespread distaste for crime
and horror films” [5] . Lorre’s film was
somewhat autobiographical, the story of an exiled man returning to a post-war
Europe and trying to find his place.
Part of the reason the film failed, is because it was one of the first
post war films to deal with the “dark motifs of collective guilt and a damaged
national psychology” [5] .
Misunderstood at the time, this film has gained a cult status
mainly because of the popularity of Peter Lorre. It is also one of the first
films to try and deal with the aftermath of the war and its psychological
effects on people.
Frozen
Dead 1967
“Frozen alive for 20 years! Now they return from their icy graves to seek vengeance!” [6] . This is a British
independent horror film that involves a plot by a Nazi scientist to reanimate
Nazi war criminals that have been frozen for 20 years. The doctor has been able
to reanimate the bodies, but cannot get their brains to function. They try to use
the doctor’s niece’s friend in order to establish some type of telepathic
powers. Dana Andrews plays the mad doctor; he had starred in some high quality
films during the 1940’s, such as The
Ox-Bow Incident.
This was filmed in color, but shown in black and white in the United States. The film plays pretty slow, with a lot of concern taken on talking about the Scientifics of what they are trying to do. Then the subplot of the Doctor’s niece looking for her missing friend doesn't help either. It feels like a hybrid between a British horror film and a U.S. drive in film, which may be the reason why it was made black and white for the U.S. release. The girl’s head in the box is pretty entertaining and probably got a decent scare when this was released. The pace seemed to really pick up once the girls severed head shows up, and the ending of the film is fairly memorable.
“Frozen alive for 20 years! Now they return from their icy graves to seek vengeance!”
This was filmed in color, but shown in black and white in the United States. The film plays pretty slow, with a lot of concern taken on talking about the Scientifics of what they are trying to do. Then the subplot of the Doctor’s niece looking for her missing friend doesn't help either. It feels like a hybrid between a British horror film and a U.S. drive in film, which may be the reason why it was made black and white for the U.S. release. The girl’s head in the box is pretty entertaining and probably got a decent scare when this was released. The pace seemed to really pick up once the girls severed head shows up, and the ending of the film is fairly memorable.
Five
for Hell AKA Pyatero iz Ada 1969
“Five men behind enemy lines in the most impossible mission of
World War II …” [7] . The first on this
list considered to be a ‘macaroni combat’ film, which is a term to describe a
subgenre of World War II films that were mostly produced in Italy in an attempt
to capitalize on the success of popular British and American productions, such
as the Dirty Dozen and Bridge on the River Kwai [8] . The Italian
film industry would exploit whatever was popular at the time; they also did it
with westerns and police films. They would often feature an Italian production
crew and then a mix of Italian actors, usually mixed with one American actor.
Five U.S. soldiers are sent on a secret mission to steal some
German attack plans, led by Lt. Hoffmann (Gianna Garko). Garko was an Italian
actor known mostly for westerns such as Sartana.
Along the way, they run into an evil Nazi S.S. colonel played by the ever
popular bad guy actor Klaus Kinski.
This one is a pretty comical Dirty
Dozen style knock off. The opening is great. The American soldiers’ are
training for combat by doing some circus style acrobatics over barbed wire, then
stabbing dummies; mixed in with some one on one combat as Hoffmann goes around
selecting his five men. The music just adds to the comic nature of the film. And
it is very comical, with all kinds of outlandish scenes. In another scene, they
need to get into second level window and they use some sort of trampoline so that
the soldier can flip up into the window. If only war was like this.
Once the mission starts, the tone changes somewhat and there are lots of death and violence. The unfortunate thing about this film is that Kinski is barely in the film. There is a large amount of action at the end of the film to attract the fans of Italian war or westerns. If you’re a fan of either genre, or a fan of b war films then this is worth checking out.
Once the mission starts, the tone changes somewhat and there are lots of death and violence. The unfortunate thing about this film is that Kinski is barely in the film. There is a large amount of action at the end of the film to attract the fans of Italian war or westerns. If you’re a fan of either genre, or a fan of b war films then this is worth checking out.
The
Damned 1969
“He was to become the
second most powerful man in Nazi Germany.”(IMDB) This is an Italian-German film
directed by Luchino Visconti . It tells a complex story of a wealthy
industrialist family named the Essenbecks and their dealings with the Nazis in
1934. At the beginning of the film, the leader of the family is murdered
because he opposes the Nazis. The vice president is framed because he also
opposes them. This puts a family member that is an SA officer in charge of the
business. The rest of the family is pretty screwed up; one is a troubled
student, and the other is a deviant playboy that is molesting his cousin and a
Jewish girl.
This is a pretty complex melodrama similar to a Shakespeare play, with multiple players battling for power while working along with the Nazi’s. The director’s purpose of the film was to show “the rise of Nazism in Germany through a study of the moral perversity of the Essenbeck clan, modeled after the Krupp family of armaments manufacturers. Visconti connects Nazism and sexual perversion, a point explicitly conveyed through a recreation of the night of the long knives when Hitler’s SS purged the Nazi movement of its SA rivals” [9] . There is a mix of
powerful and disturbing scenes, including the night of the long knives murders
and when Martin has sex with his mother. One other notable scene is when the
deviant Martin dresses in drag and sings in front of his family. This burlesque
type performance will be seen again in many of the nazisploitation films.
This is a pretty complex melodrama similar to a Shakespeare play, with multiple players battling for power while working along with the Nazi’s. The director’s purpose of the film was to show “the rise of Nazism in Germany through a study of the moral perversity of the Essenbeck clan, modeled after the Krupp family of armaments manufacturers. Visconti connects Nazism and sexual perversion, a point explicitly conveyed through a recreation of the night of the long knives when Hitler’s SS purged the Nazi movement of its SA rivals”
Love Camp 7 1969
“A Place of
Total Despair. All the youthful beauty of Europe enslaved for the pleasure of
the 3rd Reich” [10] . Two American women
volunteer to go undercover in a Nazi camp, with the hope that they will be able
to gain vital information from the scientist that is there. They end up
receiving the same torture as the rest of the camp prisoners.
This is kind
of a monumental film in the sexploitation subgenre, because it’s considered the
first of the women in prison films. It is also the first of the Nazisploitation
subgenre of films, which involves Nazis performing various sex crimes. “Most follow
the women in prison formula; relocated to a death camp or Nazi brothel, with a
particular focus on gore, sadomasochism, and degradation” [11] .
The writer and producer Bob Cresse also plays the “central role of
the sadistic Nazi commandant” [12] . There is plenty of
nudity to satisfy sexploitation fans and some scenes of torture, including a
woman being tied up from behind and whipped. Other than that, it is fairly tame
compared to some of the later films.
Night Porter 1974
This is an Italian produced film that is more art house
than it is grind house, but because of the themes and storyline it was somewhat
controversial and has become a cult classic. Twelve years after the end of
World War II, Lucia (Charlotte Rampling), a concentration camp survivor,
discovers that former SS Nazi officer Max (Dirk Bogarde) is living in Austria
working as a night porter at a hotel. During the war they had a sadomasochistic
relationship, and end up falling back into the same routine when they finally
meet again.
This is a complex film that deals with multiple issues.
It takes a look at sexual and psychological issues. Specifically focusing on
Stockholm syndrome, where the victim has empathy for their captors and can gain
strong feelings for them. It also touches on what it was like for both sides
having to adjust to life post-war. Another issue they cover is Nazi sleeper
cells, soldiers hiding out in groups around Europe. You witness Lucia and Max’s
complex relationship through flashbacks and also what is currently taking
place. It also questions whether these types of sexual relationships are normal
and healthy to begin with.
One of the most memorable scenes is a flashback where
Lucia sings a Marlene Dietrich song to a group of Nazi guards, partially
dressed in an SS uniform. While it was done previously in The Damned (1969),
this version stands out by far as the best. There are great performances by
both lead characters and the film itself has an interesting visual style,
filled with the colors of brown, black, and blue.
This is one many are going to be on the fence about. You
will either think that it is a great drama that deals with some pretty complex
issues or that it’s an exploitation film pretending to be art. Roger Ebert said
that it was “as nasty as
it is lubricious, a despicable attempt to titillate us by exploiting memories
of persecution and suffering” [13] . Watch it and make
your own determination.
Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS 1975
“A different kind of X” [14] . Ilsa runs a Nazi
prison camp and conducts sadistic experiments in order to prove that women can
endure more pain than men, and should be allowed to fight in the war. At the
beginning of the movie, she has sex with a male prisoner and then castrates him
for climaxing. The film is full of scenes of gore and nudity, as Ilsa tortures
the Jewish prisoners. One scene shows one of the female prisoners toes being
ripped off, a cover over her head that also has blood coming from where her
eyes are at.
The film has a pretty good production value and the
costumes look realistic. It was filmed on the Culver City set of Hogan’s Heroes, the producers agreed to
let them shoot there because they planned to burn down the set and that saved
them the cost of demolishing it [15] . Three Ilsa sequels
were made after, along with the many European knock offs that were soon to
come.
This
is the one nazisploitation film to rule them all, everything else after this is
just a cheap knock off or sequels. This set the bar for nastiness when it came
to the Nazisploition subgenre and women in prison films. So if you like
exploitation, Nazi films, or women in prison films, then this is a must see for
you.
Salon Kitty 1976
“Playground
for the wildest fantasies of the SS” [16] .
This one falls somewhere in between an art house film and nazisploitation. It
also depends on which version you see, because it was originally re-edited for
U.S. audiences to have less storyline and feature more of the exploitative
parts. It was a coproduction between Italy, France, and Germany. The story is
different than the typical women in prison theme; it involves a brothel that
has been wiretapped by an SS commander in order to gain intelligence against
high profile Nazis and foreign dignitaries. The story is “based on a novel by
Peter Norden and the real incident involving SS commander Walter Schellenberg’s
bugging of Kitty Schmidt’s elite Berlin bordello, which catered to Nazi VIPs
and foreign dignitaries” [17] .
The
debate over it being an artistic film versus exploitative is based upon the
large amount of nudity and sexual situations. And there is a very large amount
of perverse sexual situations that occur. Wrapped within the perversion is a
love story, which is not a theme typically seen in Nazisploitation films. The
director is known for making films that are sexploitative and controversial; he
would later go on to direct the infamous Caligula.
He has argued that all of this was necessary for the film, that the
“voyeuristic/taboo-breaking direction of his film… [is] an expose of the
perversions on Nazism, but the central narrative is a melodramatic love story
that simply allows for more nudity and sex” [17] .
Blue Underground has chosen to release the DVD version
as uncut and unrated, so it wouldn’t receive an X rating. The two main actors
of the film, that played Kitty (Ingrid Thulin) and Helmut (Helmut Berger) also
starred in The Damned (1969). This is
simply another film that you have to watch in order to make your own
determination on the actual intent of the film and the filmmaker.
SS Experiment Camp AKA SS Experiment Love Camp 1976
“Sex
experiments in pursuit of a better tomorrow!” [18] .
This is one of the low budget Italian Nazisploitation films that were made due to
the popularity of Ilsa. There isn’t
much storyline wise; the Nazis are performing sexual experiments with the
female prisoners of the concentration camp. There is a fair amount of nudity,
sex scenes, and some gore, including a castration scene. The films main
notoriety is a scene involving one of the female prisoners being hung upside
down on a cross, which was also used on most of the films posters promoting it.
There
isn’t much here unless you’re a fan of any of women in prison, sexploitation,
or nazisploitation films.
Beast in Heat AKA SS Hell Camp 1977
“A
Terrifying Story of Violence and Madness” [19] .
An evil SS officer named Dr. Ellen Kratsch creates a genetically altered mutant
that is half human/half beast. She uses the beast to sexually torture her
female prisoners. There is plenty of graphic violence, nudity, and sexual
situations in this one. Kratsch is a great character; she seems so much darker
than Ilsa was. The beast doesn’t look very mutated; it almost looks just like a
guy with a beard.
Besides
the evil doctor and the beast, this movie was cheaply slapped together using
footage from one of the director’s older films titled When the Bell Tolls (1970).
Shock Waves 1977
“Once They Were Almost Human! Beneath the living... Beyond the dead... From the depths of Hell's Ocean! The Deep End of Horror!” [20] . Its ocean zombies
meet the cast of Gilligan’s Island,
when a yacht and its captain (John Carradine) are shipwrecked and end up on an
island with an evil Nazi commander (Peter Cushing) and his zombie playthings.
This is by far the best out of the Nazi zombie films that came out during this
time, with decent performances from its veteran actors Cushing and Carradine.
Cushing is best remembered for his performances in the Hammer Studio horror films
from the 1950’s to the 1970’s, playing characters such as Van Helsing and
Sherlock Holmes. He also appears in a small independent film you may have seen called
Star Wars.
The film was shot with a budget of around $200,000. It was provided by producer Reuben Trance, who was from a wealthy family. The condition for making the film was that it had to be a horror film, because they were most likely to recoup costs [21] . The idea for the
story came from a book about the Nazi occult and how they believed they were
descendants of the supernatural, so it made sense that they may be able to
resurrect themselves [21] . They deliberately
book ended Carradine and Cushing in the film, so that there was at least one
star throughout it [21] . They were both paid
$5,000 for four days of shooting [21] .
“Once They Were Almost Human! Beneath the living... Beyond the dead... From the depths of Hell's Ocean! The Deep End of Horror!”
The film was shot with a budget of around $200,000. It was provided by producer Reuben Trance, who was from a wealthy family. The condition for making the film was that it had to be a horror film, because they were most likely to recoup costs
The film is light on gore, with most of the deaths
involving drowning. The director said that they were trying to make a Hammer
style film, which is why it was light on any blood and guts. This film “may set
the record for the number of people murdered by drowning in a feature film” [22] . The black goggles
the zombies wear act as a chilling effect, while also doubling up as a practical
use for the performers. There are some slick underwater scenes, especially the
main scene when all of the Nazi zombies slowly rise in mass out of the water.
The grittiness of the film stock and the music add to the overall creepiness
throughout the film.
Helga la louve de Stilberg AKA Bloody Camp 1978
“Helga,
She Wolf of Spilberg” [23] .
This is a cheap French Ilsa knock off, where simply the name and location has
been changed. In order to avoid having to display Nazi symbols, they’ve placed
the characters in some undesignated location. Helga has been assigned control
of the women’s prison, where all kinds of exploitative nastiness takes place. The
change in uniforms was a way to be able to have it still be considered a Nazi
film and also be able to distribute it in more countries. There were many
countries, especially Germany and England, that where banning films with Nazi
insignia in them. The actress that plays Helga is attractive and is a good
replacement for the Ilsa character; she also appeared in The Way of the Dragon with Bruce Lee. The English dubbing is awful
but may actually add some humor to watching this film. This one is light on the
violence and mainly focuses on the sex scenes, which there are plenty.
If
you’re a fan of any of these subgenres, then you should get some amusement out
of this film.
Nathalie: Escape from Hell 1978
Another cheap French production, that has replaced the
Ilsa character with a warden named Helga. This one involves a female Russian
doctor, who is taken to a Chateau that’s used as a brothel for the German
soldiers. The doctor is saved from being one of the prostitutes and in the
process tries to locate an undercover female British agent.
This one is tame compared to some of the other
Nazisploitation films, focusing more on the sex and nudity as opposed to
violence. The story is more cohesive than some of the other knock off films.
The outfits are slightly outrageous for trying to play in the 1940’s era.
Inglorious Bastards 1978
“If
you're a kraut, he'll take you out!” [24] . Probably the best
of the ‘macaroni combat’ movies and Dirty
Dozen rip-offs, five U.S. soldiers are being shipped to a prisoner’s camp
where they are sentenced to die. During a German air raid, they are able to
escape. During their travels, the group kills a group of American soldiers
disguised as Nazis. They find out that the disguised soldiers where on a
mission to destroy an armored train that contains a large prototype missile.
They decide to take on the mission and destroy the train.
The
film has its mix of comedy, lighthearted adventures, and then an action packed
finally. Part of what makes this great is the inclusion in the cast of Bo
Svenson and Fred Williamson. Svenson had done a lot of television work and some
well known movies, but he is most recognizable for appearing in all of Quentin
Tarantino’s work. Williamson was a huge blaxploitation star during the 1970’s,
but now is probably most memorable for appearing in From Dusk Til Dawn.
Death Ship 1980
“It's not just a ship... it's a killing machine!” [25] . An evil Nazi ghost
freighter wanders through the ocean like a shark, looking for new souls to
take. Cruise ship Captain Ashland (George Kennedy) is making his final voyage
along with his replacement Captain Marshall (Richard Crenna), when their ship
is hit and sunk by the mysterious freighter. A small group survives the crash
and is later picked up by the freighter. Marshall finds out that the ship was
once a Nazi torture ship. Ashland then becomes possessed by the previous
captain, and a cat and mouse game begins as Ashland attacks the surviving
passengers.
It is a pretty average horror movie that happens to be
on this list because of those mean and scary Nazi ghosts, which sounds like
something from Scooby doo. This is
probably most remembered for starring Crenna and Kennedy, both who had long
careers in both television and film. Crenna notably appearing in the television
show The Real McCoy’s and the Rambo movie series. Kennedy had a long
career, mostly remembered for his Oscar winning performance in Cool Hand Luke and his comedy turn in
the Naked Gun trilogy.“It's not just a ship... it's a killing machine!”
Zombie Lake 1981
“If
You Think The Nazis Have Gone Under YOU'RE DEAD WRONG” [26] . This was a
Spanish-French low budget production that was trying to piggy back on any
success that Shock Waves had. The
plot is also fairly similar, except there’s nudity in this version. The story
follows a group of Nazi soldiers that were killed during the war in France and
dumped into the lake. Years later they reemerge as zombies coming back for some
revenge.
It
is pretty uneventful, unless you are really into nudity and obsessed with
seeing every zombie film. Or if you want some laughs, you might find this
amusingly bad. The special effects are not very good, pretty much some green
make up. There really isn’t any gore to appease most zombie fans. It is low on
the recommendation list.
Oasis of the Zombies 1982
Raiders of the lost ark meets zombies! This French zombie production from Director Jesus Franco involves the hunt for some lost Nazi gold in the African desert. The group of treasure hunters is in for a big surprise when they find that the Nazis are still guarding the gold, just in zombified form.
There really isn’t too much to write about this low budget affair, “made on a budget that wouldn’t buy a used car in Tijuana” [27] . There isn’t much
gore compared to most zombie or horror films. These French and Italian
productions were often cheap knockoffs down on extremely low budgets in order
to piggyback on the success of some other film, usually an American production.
The main reason that this bad film has any cult following is mostly because it
is a zombie film.
Raiders of the lost ark meets zombies! This French zombie production from Director Jesus Franco involves the hunt for some lost Nazi gold in the African desert. The group of treasure hunters is in for a big surprise when they find that the Nazis are still guarding the gold, just in zombified form.
There really isn’t too much to write about this low budget affair, “made on a budget that wouldn’t buy a used car in Tijuana”
The Keep 1983
“THEY WERE ALL DRAWN TO THE KEEP. The soldiers who brought death. The father and daughter fighting for life. The people who have always feared it. And the one man who knows its secret... THE KEEP Tonight, they will all face the evil”[28] . Set in 1941, the Nazis
are sent to Romania to take control of a religious dwelling called the keep in
order to fortify the area known as the Dinu mountain pass. Some greedy Nazis
try to steal a large nickel cross located in the wall and inadvertently release
an evil entity. The Nazis are forced to send for a Jewish historian, in order
to help battle this ancient demon. What results is a confusing series of team
ups and double crosses, resembling more film noir than horror. It is a strange
mash up of Raiders of the Lost Ark and
The Exorcist.
This film has some great atmosphere, sound, and acting. The location is excellent, an abandoned rock quarry in Wales that went 100 feet deep[29] . It was perfect to
create this large stone structure. There are some very good special effects
with exploding Nazi heads and a scene with the monster clouded in smoke
carrying the girl, with glowing red eyes coming from the smoke. There are many
talented actors in this film, including Scott Glenn, Ian McClellan, Jurgen
Prochnow, and Gabriel Byrne. Byrne is almost unrecognizable as an SS soldier.
The music is composed by Tangerine Dream and it helps to create the “effect…of
temporal dislocation… [and that] the story is out of time” [29] .
In the end, the film was ultimately doomed by production delays and the trimming of the film by the studio. There were many issues with the production, notably the death of the lead special effects man Wally Veevers. His death halted post-production of the film for four months [29] . The original
shooting schedule was 13 weeks, but got extended mostly because of re-shoots
involving the main villain and alternate endings [30] . Michael Mann’s
original cut of the movie was 210 minutes. The studio didn’t want it longer
than two hours and the test screenings went poorly, so the studio cut it to 96
minutes [31] . So Michael has
essentially disowned the movie.
The movie was a box office failure and the studio has never released a DVD of it, the last version released was on laserdisc. It is currently available on Amazon prime for free to its members. Despite the many issues with the movie, there still is a cult following of mostly horror fans that love this movie.
“THEY WERE ALL DRAWN TO THE KEEP. The soldiers who brought death. The father and daughter fighting for life. The people who have always feared it. And the one man who knows its secret... THE KEEP Tonight, they will all face the evil”
This film has some great atmosphere, sound, and acting. The location is excellent, an abandoned rock quarry in Wales that went 100 feet deep
In the end, the film was ultimately doomed by production delays and the trimming of the film by the studio. There were many issues with the production, notably the death of the lead special effects man Wally Veevers. His death halted post-production of the film for four months
The movie was a box office failure and the studio has never released a DVD of it, the last version released was on laserdisc. It is currently available on Amazon prime for free to its members. Despite the many issues with the movie, there still is a cult following of mostly horror fans that love this movie.
Top Secret! 1984
This a great parody of the Elvis movies and World War
II spy movies from Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker. They are
pretty much known as the kings of parody films, doing the Airplane series, the Naked
Gun Series, the Hot Shots series,
and The Kentucky Fried Movie. The
story is about a rock n roll star named Nick Rivers (Val Kilmer), who ends up
getting involved in a plot to help a scientist get rescued from the Nazis.
This film is either loved or hated. It has a couple of
musical numbers and tons of great gags, such as the Nazi answering very large
phone. And then there’s the Nazi getting
knocked over the building and cracking into a bunch of pieces. There’s also a
shootout at a window where it turns into a game of tic-tac-toe. The film did
not do very well in the box office and suffered from mixing genres and time
periods [32] . There is a strong cult
following because people find it humorous despite its lack of success, plus
there are fans of the creators that enjoy all of their work.
Surf Nazis Must Die! 1987
“The beaches have become battlefields…The waves are a war zone!” [33] Set in the post
apocalyptic future after a California earthquake, there are no police and the
beaches are ruled by various gangs. The main gang is a neo-Nazi gang, whose
leader is named Adolf. The gang murders Leo Washington, and his mother goes
after the gang for her own brand of justice.
You are either going to view this as a bad movie or great bad movie. It is a strange hybrid of Clockwork Orange meets a beach movie meets Warriors meets Mad Max meets Dolemite. Pulled under the Troma production label that is known for excessive nudity and violence, this one is pretty tame compared to most of their movies. But it still has a fairly good amount of insanity, nudity, and violence.
There are actually a lot of memorable shots, outfits, music, and dialogue to where a slight change in the tone and a larger production value could have made this one very memorable. The scenes shot of the surfing are excellent and are comparable to any other high quality shots that have been filmed before. There is a memorable avant-garde art scene involving the death of Leo being cut between Martha walking and at first being completely out of focus, slowly changing from just a shape to her full visual form. Others include a scene where two of the neo-Nazis are arguing in a building with a fire burning. Then there is one with Martha sitting outside in a rocking chair with a bible and a gun sitting on top of the open bible. There are also a couple of great shots of Martha riding a motorcycle.
The last dialogue of the movie has Martha telling the fuehrer, with the gun in his mouth, “taste some of mommas good cooking.” Memorable for just the title of the movie alone, if you like Troma films or 80’s craziness then you have to check it out.
“The beaches have become battlefields…The waves are a war zone!”
You are either going to view this as a bad movie or great bad movie. It is a strange hybrid of Clockwork Orange meets a beach movie meets Warriors meets Mad Max meets Dolemite. Pulled under the Troma production label that is known for excessive nudity and violence, this one is pretty tame compared to most of their movies. But it still has a fairly good amount of insanity, nudity, and violence.
There are actually a lot of memorable shots, outfits, music, and dialogue to where a slight change in the tone and a larger production value could have made this one very memorable. The scenes shot of the surfing are excellent and are comparable to any other high quality shots that have been filmed before. There is a memorable avant-garde art scene involving the death of Leo being cut between Martha walking and at first being completely out of focus, slowly changing from just a shape to her full visual form. Others include a scene where two of the neo-Nazis are arguing in a building with a fire burning. Then there is one with Martha sitting outside in a rocking chair with a bible and a gun sitting on top of the open bible. There are also a couple of great shots of Martha riding a motorcycle.
The last dialogue of the movie has Martha telling the fuehrer, with the gun in his mouth, “taste some of mommas good cooking.” Memorable for just the title of the movie alone, if you like Troma films or 80’s craziness then you have to check it out.
Elves 1989
“They don’t work for Santa anymore!” [34] . A teenager named
Kristin is part of an evil Nazi experiment that involves her being breed with
an elf, in order to create the new master race. The only person that can help
her is a renegade Santa Claus, which just happens to be played by Grizzly Adams
actor Dan Haggerty.
This falls under the laughably bad 80’s movie, with mediocre filming, acting, and bad special effects. Minus the cursing and nudity this could have easily been made twenty years earlier as a drive-in movie. There is some amusing dialog and moments; the little brother telling his sister “fuck you I like big tits,” and “it was a fucking little midget troll.”
This falls under the laughably bad 80’s movie, with mediocre filming, acting, and bad special effects. Minus the cursing and nudity this could have easily been made twenty years earlier as a drive-in movie. There is some amusing dialog and moments; the little brother telling his sister “fuck you I like big tits,” and “it was a fucking little midget troll.”
Some great scenes include a mall Santa trying to
get oral from a teenage girl, and then later being knifed in the crotch by the
elf. The elf shoots one of the Nazis and then tries to have sex with the girl.
The Nazis don’t really fell like Nazis, just bad actors with bad accents. It
isn’t the worst movie ever, but it is one that you should go into expecting it
to be bad and laughing at the hilarity of its cheesiness. Part of the cult
status for this movie is most likely the fact that it is cheesy and can be
laughed at.
Gitler Kaput! AKA Hitler Goes Kaput 2008
Right from the start you know that this Russian produced movie is going to be unusual, with an opening credits scene using the Britney Spears song ‘Oops I did it Again’. A Russian secret agent Shurenberg has supplanted himself into Hitler’s inner circle as a Gestapo agent and gets into all kinds of crazy misadventures, in a world set somewhere between the future and the past.
This is more of a parody or spoof than Top Secret is. A strange hybrid of various things; slapstick, parody, hip hop, karaoke, mud wrestling, dance sequences, and Russian films. It really is wild. There are so many unusual scenes and gags. Hitler doing blow and does a bunch of crazy dances. He has his own personal D.J., named 50 schillings. The Russian spy has this huge safe house where he does ballet, shoots swastikas that ladies in bikinis put on a table for him, and other unusual stuff. The smoking area of one of the buildings is a bunch of Nazis hanging from a ledge. There’s a wild shootout that involves dancing and has a D.J. playing. And the list goes on.
This is just one of those movies that your either going to absolutely love or absolutely hate. It is totally insane. This is easily one of those movies that define some cult films; it’s so unusual that only a small group of fans are going to love it.
Right from the start you know that this Russian produced movie is going to be unusual, with an opening credits scene using the Britney Spears song ‘Oops I did it Again’. A Russian secret agent Shurenberg has supplanted himself into Hitler’s inner circle as a Gestapo agent and gets into all kinds of crazy misadventures, in a world set somewhere between the future and the past.
This is more of a parody or spoof than Top Secret is. A strange hybrid of various things; slapstick, parody, hip hop, karaoke, mud wrestling, dance sequences, and Russian films. It really is wild. There are so many unusual scenes and gags. Hitler doing blow and does a bunch of crazy dances. He has his own personal D.J., named 50 schillings. The Russian spy has this huge safe house where he does ballet, shoots swastikas that ladies in bikinis put on a table for him, and other unusual stuff. The smoking area of one of the buildings is a bunch of Nazis hanging from a ledge. There’s a wild shootout that involves dancing and has a D.J. playing. And the list goes on.
This is just one of those movies that your either going to absolutely love or absolutely hate. It is totally insane. This is easily one of those movies that define some cult films; it’s so unusual that only a small group of fans are going to love it.
Dead Snow 2009
“Ein! Zwei! Die!” [35] .
Its Cabin in the Woods meets Night of the Living Dead in this
Norwegian Zombie comedy. A group of friends go to a winter cabin to party and
are attacked by a bunch of evil Nazi zombies, who had been killed by local
villagers during World War II.
This
is a good mix of horror and comedy, similar to Evil Dead and Shaun of the
Dead. The special effects and make up are very well done, the Nazi zombies
look great. There are many memorable scenes of zombies getting torn apart. This
is a well done production that looks slick; there is a nice contrast of color
with the white snow and red blood.
This
could be considered a cult film because it’s a zombie movie, or since its
foreign and not as many people may have seen it. It was popular enough that a
sequel was released in 2014. If you like zombies or any of the other movies
mentioned, then you should check this out.
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