''Gestapo's Last Orgy'' ( it, 'L'ultima orgia del III Reich, lit=Last Orgy of the Third Reich) is an Italian
Nazi exploitation
Nazi exploitation (also Nazisploitation) is a subgenre of exploitation film and sexploitation film that involves Nazis committing sex crimes, often as camp or prison overseers during World War II. Most follow the women in prison formula, only r ...
film directed and co-written by
Cesare Canevari
Cesare Canevari (13 October 1927 - 25 October 2012) was an Italian actor, director and screenwriter.
Life and career
Born in Milan, Canevari began his career shortly after World War II as a stage actor, occasionally also appearing in films in ...
and starring
Daniela Poggi
Daniela Poggi (born 17 October 1954) is an Italian film and stage actress and television presenter.
Background
Born in Savona, at young age Poggi studied ballet, then graduated from Linguistic High-school. Following her family she moved in Mil ...
.
Plot
The film begins with a man named Conrad von Starke driving down a road, listening to a
war crimes trial
A war crimes trial is the trial of persons charged with criminal violation of the laws and customs of war and related principles of international law committed during armed conflict.
History
The trial of Peter von Hagenbach by an ad hoc tribunal ...
on the radio. He stops the car and exits at the ruins of an old
death camp
Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...
. There he meets Lise Cohen. It is revealed that Lise is a former prisoner of the camp and that the man, Conrad, is the former Commandant who has arranged to meet her several years after the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. He thanks her for the testimony that she provided at his war crimes trial, which saved him from certain death and helped him integrate into the new
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
. After touring the ruins of the camp, Lise and von Starke make love.
Lise has a flashback to the time she spent at the camp during the war. A shipment of female prisoners arrives. Some are immediately sent to the gas chamber and some are burned alive. In a hall, other women are stripped naked before naked members of the
SS-Totenkopfverbände
''SS-Totenkopfverbände'' (SS-TV; ) was the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organization responsible for administering the Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps for Nazi Germany, among similar duties. While the ''Totenkopf'' was the univer ...
, aroused after watching a
porn film
Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, and 18+ films are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include eroticall ...
which includes photos of
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...
, mother-daughter incest, bondage, coprophagia, urination and extreme sex. The female inmates are then raped,
torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts c ...
d,
sodomized
Sodomy () or buggery (British English) is generally Anal sex, anal or oral sex between people, or Human sexual activity, sexual activity between a person and a non-human animal (Zoophilia, bestiality), but it may also mean any non-Reproduction, ...
with bats, and sexually humiliated in an
orgy
In modern usage, an orgy is a sex party consisting of at least five members where guests freely engage in open and unrestrained sexual activity or group sex.
Swingers' parties do not always conform to this designation, because at many swing ...
while Commandant Starke and a visiting SS General watch.
Later, a woman has sex with an SS guard, who is himself shot when he speaks out against her rape by other guards. An inmate having her period is ordered to be thrown to the
dog
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
s by Alma, a female SS guard and the commandant's lover. More sex scenes between guards and inmates take place. Meanwhile, Starke and his SS staff debate Nazi theories at the dinner table, and an SS Guard tells them of his hopes that there will one day be farms so the
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
s can be eaten as a food source. The staff become aroused by this and practice both
cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, b ...
and
infanticide
Infanticide (or infant homicide) is the intentional killing of infants or offspring. Infanticide was a widespread practice throughout human history that was mainly used to dispose of unwanted children, its main purpose is the prevention of reso ...
, eating a stew made of unborn Jewish infants. When one of the female prisoners passes out in shock, they douse her body in brandy and set it alight, before eating her corpse as well.
Starke becomes interested in Lise, finding himself obsessed by her unbreakable spirit. Since whatever he does to torture her does not demoralize her, Starke grows angry and drops her only friend at the camp into a pit of quicklime as Lise, stripped nude and hanging from her wrists, is forced to watch. The Commandant threatens to drop Lise into the pit as well. Unfazed by this, Lise is
whip
A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...
ped, has her head lowered into a box filled with
rats, and raped, but still she does not cry out. She goes to the hospital and is treated by a pacifistic young Doctor, revealing to him why she does not cry. She wants to die, as she betrayed her family to the Nazis years earlier and feels intense guilt about it. When the Doctor tells her it was not her fault, she becomes determined to survive. She has sex with the Doctor, reaffirming her decision to live.
Lise is tortured further by Starke, who tells her he has fallen in love with her. She claims to
love him as well, and begins an extreme sexual relationship with him, willingly donning a gruesome belt made of the scalps of fellow inmates to prove her affections. The Commandant is later sodomized with his own whip by jealous Alma, who realizes the extent of Starke's feelings for Lise. In response, he fatally strangles Alma. Lise gives birth to a child, but the baby is killed by Starke because it is "half-Jewish", and a "half-breed" would have no place in the world. Back in the present day, Lise and Starke still stand in the ruined camp and are having sex. Lise shoots him, and his body falls into a nearby pit. In an alternate ending of the film, Lise shoots Starke and then herself.
Style
''Gestapo's Last Orgy'' was part of a sub-genre of
exploitation films
An exploitation film is a film that tries to succeed financially by exploiting current trends, niche genres, or lurid content. Exploitation films are generally low-quality "B movies", though some set trends, attract critical attention, become hi ...
created in the early 1970s called
Naziploitation
Nazi exploitation (also Nazisploitation) is a subgenre of exploitation film and sexploitation film that involves Nazis committing sex crimes, often as camp or prison overseers during World War II. Most follow the women in prison formula, only r ...
. These films were primarily produced in Italy and in the United States.
Production
Daniela Poggi
Daniela Poggi (born 17 October 1954) is an Italian film and stage actress and television presenter.
Background
Born in Savona, at young age Poggi studied ballet, then graduated from Linguistic High-school. Following her family she moved in Mil ...
said she regrets having participated in this movie:"I was twenty years old then and I was a model, my agency pushed me. Unfortunately they added unexpected scenes and a monstrous title."
Release
''Gestapo's Last Orgy'' passed Italian censors on January 28, 1977.
It has been released under several English titles on home video including ''Gestapo's Last Orgy'' and ''Caligula Reincarnated as Hitler''. It was refused a UK DVD certificate by the
BBFC
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...
in January 2021.
Reception
From retrospective reviews, Robert Firsching of
AllMovie
AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne.
History
AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...
declared that among the Nazi-themed Italian sex and horror oriented films made after the release of ''
The Night Porter
''The Night Porter'' ( it, Il portiere di notte) is a 1974 English-language Italian erotic psychological war drama film. Directed and co-written by Liliana Cavani, the film stars Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling, with Philippe Leroy, Gabriel ...
'', ''Gestapo's Last Orgy'' was "among the best made and absorbing of its ilk."
References
Footnotes
Sources
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gestapo's Last Orgy
Holocaust films
Italian sexploitation films
Italian World War II films
Nazi exploitation films
Films about cannibalism
Films directed by Cesare Canevari
Films about the aftermath of the Holocaust
Films originally rejected by the British Board of Film Classification