Salon Kitty (1976) Reviews

• A classic slice of Nazi sexploitation!

  Infofreak2002-12-12

  'Salon Kitty' was Tinto Brass' movie immediately prior to his infamous attempt at a big budget porn crossover 'Caligula'. While it isn't as notorious as that much talked about film, it is no slouch in the outrageousness department itself! Camp cult legend Helmet Berger (Visconti's 'The Damned', Franco's 'Faceless') plays Wallenberg, a ruthlessly ambitious Nazi who sets up Salon Kitty, a high class brothel to entertain his fellow officers. Unbeknown to Madame Kitty (Ingrid Thulin, who played Berger's mother in 'The Damned') Wallenberg has the place bugged and uses the information for blackmail purposes. The beautiful Margherita (Teresa Ann Savoy, who like many of the cast went on to appear in 'Caligula') one of the patriotic party members Wallenberg recruited to work in the brothel eventually discovers this and plots, with Kitty's help, to bring down the dangerous megalomaniac before he destroys them all. This ludicrously over the top sexploitation classic features nudity galore, 'Cabaret' style musical numbers, and many flamboyant sequences. You're either into this kind of movie or you're not, and if you are it is one of the most entertaining of its kind. Also stars b-grade buff faves John Steiner ('Tenebre') and John Ireland ('Satan's Cheerleaders').

• VERY sleazy, but surprisingly dull

  Wizard-82003-12-12

  I'm not really sure what I was hoping for when I rented this movie, but I know I certainly wasn't hoping for what I got here. To be sure, the art direction is extremely good. And sure, there is gobs of nudity and sex almost bordering on hard-core. But despite all this, the movie is BORING, especially at the almost ungodly length of over 2 hours with the recently issued director's cut! While there is an interesting idea with the plot premise, it goes all over the place. Characters come then go offscreen for long periods of time so they aren't really developed, and the little plot there is would probably (at best) barely cover an hour if all the redundant footage was cut out. All the same, pretty amazing Germany would get involved in a coproduction of this nature, and I guess it might be considered an interesting footnote in that it served as a warm-up for Brass' equally bizarre later film CALIGULA.

• Overlong but atmospheric slice of Nazi-ploitation

  DVD_Connoisseur2006-11-06

  "Salon Kitty" is a cinematic journey into the seedy goings-on at Madame Kitty's Berlin brothel, where the prostitutes are SS-trained, patriotic beauties. While this premise may sound intriguing, the actual delivery is drawn-out and, it must be said, a tad boring. 20 minutes cut have been cut out of this movie and it would have been more effective as a result. Scenes of debauchery are limited but interesting. The scene where the SS girls are viewed with a variety of sexual partners as a test to see how they react is deliciously dark and unsettling. I'm not easily shocked but this particular sequence really pushes barriers of taste and censorship (and should be applauded as a result). The film is atmospheric and the sets (by Ken Adam, famous for his Bond creations) are excellent. However, there are too many musical interludes for my taste. It's like "Cabaret" on acid. A hesitant recommendation, "Salon Kitty" won't be to everybody's tastes. It's a flawed film but it has its moments. Not a film to avoid controversy, animal lovers will be appalled that scenes of real pig-killing are contained. This put me off my hot dog, as did the many scenes of male genitalia. Tinto Brass seems to be obsessed with all things dangly. Trust me, by the end of the film, you'll be wishing that the cast put some clothes on. (An exception to this may be the delightful Teresa Ann Savoy, but I digress.) 6 out of 10 - could have been leaner and meaner.

• The movie actually has a lot of merit as a film, but its story is uneven…

  Nazi_Fighter_David2008-10-08

  "Salon Kitty" is an exploitation and a serious study of Nazi atrocities... Kitty Kellermann runs a brothel that provides entertainment to the German elite… Unknown to her, it has been annoyed by a top SS officer to gain incriminating evidence against some of Germany's top general… One of the girls, Margherita, falls in love with a German officer who wants to defect to the Allies… The plot is discovered, and Margherita is used as an informer, but when she tells Madam Kitty about the goings-on in her house, she is outraged and plots revenge… The film indulges in many of the perversions and sexual humiliations the Germans inflicted on the whores of Salon Kitty... Tinto Brass directs the film with a heavy hand, focusing continually during the ending sequence to create a hypnotic effect… He doesn't shy away from the atrocities, and often takes intense pleasure in them... The characterizations are very firm and realistic, but the movie's harsh portrayal of much of the sexual activity has kept it out of the mainstream…

• Surprisingly good

  Maciste_Brother2003-03-04

  After viewing SALON KITTY, I was surprised by how good it was. Maybe it's because my expectations were very low. I expected something like an ILSA, SHE-WOLF OF THE SS type of exploitation film directed by Tinto Brass, the man behind the wretched and almost unwatchable CALIGULA. SALON KITTY is way better than CALIGULA. SALON KITTY will probably disappoint guys looking for cheap thrills. The film looks more like a glossy 1970s magazine spread (of beautiful people or architecture) than your typical titillating exploitation fare. The sets by Ken Adams are excellent and give the movie an appropriately operatic and posh feel to the whole sordid setting. SALON KITTY has its share of problems though. It's way too long for its own good. At 120 minutes, it's a good 10 to 15 minutes too long. The story concentrates only a couple of characters, mainly those played by Helmet Berger, Ingrid Thulin and Teresa Ann Savoy. In fact, the whole love story between Savoy and her lover needlessly took too much of the film's time. For a moment I thought I was watching LOVE STORY, NAZI STYLE. The screenplay is full of holes (how does Savoy get away with shooting the man when the rooms are bugged?!?!) And the cinematography was at times erratic and murky. But this is probably because the SALON KITTY video cassette I rented was very old and the print was fuzzy, had tons of scratches and hairs and such. It was barely watchable. But even with all those things going against it, SALON KITTY still held my attention up to the very end. The film is very decadent looking and paced like a millionaire shopping for caviar. Tinto Brass' direction is knowing and melodramatic. Thulin's acting is very over-the-top. I thought she was possessed by a drag queen. And Berger makes for a fascinating Nazi officer. My only real complaint about SK is the scenes where they actually kill real pigs. That was excessive. But those scenes were very popular in "shocking movies" made in the 1970s (Cannibal Holocaust, Apocalypse Now, etc). If SALON KITTY ever comes out on DVD, with a clean and sharp transfer, I will purchase it