My first exposure to director Luigi Batzella's 1977 trashfest "The Beast In Heat" (released by Media Blasters under the entirely-less-awesome title "S.S. Hell Camp") was during the Bataan Death March of movie-viewing that took place leading up to my Nazisploitation article in Ultra Violent Magazine Issue 7. Taken in comparison to the soul-destroying barrel-scraper that is Bruno Mattei's "Women's Camp 119" (I am very comfortable in dubbing this the icky-worst-est of the Nazisploitation cycle), "The Beast in Heat" is a light-hearted romp. Watched on its own merits, "The Beast in Heat" is totally fucking vile and probably completely irredeemable as a movie.So naturally I forced it on the unwitting Costuminatrix who had the ill fortune to visit the Apartment of Erotic Horror when I'd promised my darling readers that I'd review a rapey half-mans-half-monkeys movie for them.
I posit that "The Beast In Heat," much like Bizarro, is an imperfect clone of an "Ilsa" movie (which, quite frankly, is already a pretty bad bit of business, even if I do have an inordinate fondness for the fantastic Ms. Dyanne Thorne). The universe of this film is populated by swarthy Mediterranean Nazis (none of whose uniforms fit at all), Turkish Italians, a mongoloid "master race" and some of the most fabulously mismatched dubbing in the world. All this is to make no mention of the astonishing technical gaffes throughout.
The plot shakes down a little something like this: Nazi mad scientist and randy lady Dr. Ellen Kratsch (I see what they did there!), played by subgenre regular Macha Magall (noteworthy for her TOTALLY NOT DYANNE THORNE-NESS) is working on creating a race of supersoldiers that is referred to as a "Master Race" numerous times during the film, but... well.. she winds up creating THIS GUY:
Now, I'm no mad scientist, but... that's looking a lot more like a rapey half-man-half-monkey than anyone's idea of a "Master Race." Apparently he got created by injecting some sort of pink monkey goo into his veins (there's a monkey in the lab that freaks out at inopportune moments, leading me to believe some sort of monkey involvement in this brand of science). Please permit me a Brief Sidebar: Salvatore Baccaro also plays a rapey half-man-half-monkey in "Salon Kitty" and the shameless "Salon Kitty" Bruno Mattei-directed ripoff "S.S. Girls." I want to see Salvatore sitting across the table from a casting director: "Well, I've mainly specialized in playing sexually insatiable subhumans, but I really feel it's time for me to branch out and that's why I'm sitting here with you discussing this revival of The Music Man." At any rate...
This is a breathtakingly ugly film. A fugly film, even, both in terms of plot and aesthetics. Please note that all of the uniforms were apparently acquired from a one-size-fits-all Third Reich closeout warehouse--the dude in the photo above is showing about four inches of cuff. Seriously. It looks as if the Beast had a gig in the wardrobe department. And--yes--Dr. Kratsch is wearing patent leather go-go boots. This makes "Hogan's Heroes" look like "The Damned."
The film is so poorly realized that the viewer is treated to unintentional moments of fourth-wall-breaking (the Costuminatrix, ever a generous soul, suggested that this was an homage to Bertolt Brecht, a fellow German). I mean... did no one see the outline of the cameraman, silhouetted against the giant swastika in this shot? Perhaps this is meant to make the viewer complicit in the goings-on of the film. Or maybe it just suggests the production ran out of money and had to make use of any scraps from the cutting room floor, which is a more likely explanation.
Comedic interludes like the one above (his pants fell off--it's FUNNY!) make the movie yet more jarring when taken in the context of the baby-shooting, genital-shocking, penis-cutting, pubic-hair-gobbling antics in the majority of the scenes. Are those supposed to be zany as well? I mean, to A Not Very Nice Person, they're kinda wacky, but... was that the intention? Is this some sort of nod to the kooky cops in "Last House on the Left?" The mind reels with potential and yet unsatisfactory potential explanations.
Stay classy, "Beast in Heat." Don't ever change--I love ya just the way you are. No--wait, that's not "love;" that's a fancy cognate word yet to be determined that's similar to schadenfreude but implies an affection for cinematic ineptitude.
Enjoy the beauty of a Flickr gallery of stills from "The Beast in Heat" right here.
Added multimedia bonus time! Watch the Cinema Snob eviscerate this movie in beautiful YouTube color right here:
8 comments:
Is this the Benny Hill of Nazisploitation?
Well, I did hum Yaketty Sax during one of the battle sequences (which was intercut with footage from a totally different movie shot while snow was on the ground in a completely different countryside).
To further this train of thought--if this is the Benny Hill of Nazisploitation, is "Ilsa She Wolf of the SS" the Monty Python? And where does that leave "Salon Kitty?" Important questions, all.
>And where does that leave "Salon Kitty?"
Or SALO?! Everyone forgets SALO... maybe that's for the best though.
TRUE FACT: I have yet to see "Salo." Although I do know (courtesy of an article I read in Paracinema Magazine) that the Criterion issue is the most valuable DVD in the world. Oooo ahhhhh....
This is the first Nazisploitation movie I ever saw. As a consequence, it's also the last Nazisploitation movie I've ever seen.
Would you recommend that I give the genre another shot? Ilsa, maybe, or Salon Kitty?
I'm not squeamish, if that's what you're wondering. I just like movies that try and then fail, more than movies that don't try.
This has got to be one of the worse movies I've ever seen. From the Italian looking Nazis and their ill fitting uniforms and on. I kept on meaning to turn it off, but I did watch the whole thing. Definitely probably the worse of the Nazisploitation movies.
Howard, I think "Salon Kitty" is pretty amazing mainly because it's such a glamorous, big-budget sleazefest. In the interests of "Your Mileage May Vary," you can read the writeup I wrote with Esteemed Blog Colleague the Vicar of VHS here. I have mixed feelings about "Ilsa She Wolf of the S.S." but I suspect if you didn't like "Beast in Heat," it's best to skip it. As for the rest of the cycle--it's best to read ABOUT them than actually WATCH them...!
King of Cool--this is definitely a doozy, but... I've seen worse. Lots worse. *shudders at bad memories*
Wait a minute, Rapey half-man-half monkey IS my idea of the master race...Have I been conducting the wrong experiments all this time?
Post a Comment