Salon Kitty (1976) - Tinto Brass, John Steiner
Related: Italian cinema - 1976 - Tinto Brass - erotic movies
Description
Salon Kitty (1976) - Tinto Brass, John Steiner [Amazon.com]
Salon Kitty was a Berlin brothel used by the SD for espionage purposes before and during World War II .
In the 1930's Berlin, Salon Kitty was a high-class brothel in 11 Giesebrechtstrasse. Its usual clientele included German dignitaries and foreign diplomats. Its owner and madame was Kitty Schmidt.
The idea to use Salon Kitty for espionage purposes came from Reinhard Heydrich but SD chief Walter Schellenberg did most of the work. Instead of infiltrating the brothel, Schellenberg decided to take it over.
[...]
Film
In 1976, these events were turned into a highly controversial film, directed by Tinto Brass and starring Helmut Berger as Walter Schelleberg (re-named Helmut Wallenberg) and Ingrid Thulin as Kitty Schimdt (re-named Kitty Kellerman.) --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salon_Kitty
Amazon review
Berlin, 1939: At the dawn of World War II, power-mad SS Officer Wallenberg (Helmut Berger of THE DAMNED) is ordered to find and train Germany's most beautiful women to work in the opulent brothel of Madam Kitty (Ingrid Thulin of CRIES AND WHISPERS). Here these Nazi nymphs will submit to the bizarre passions and carnal degradations of the Reich's highest-ranking men and women while Wallenberg secretly records their acts for blackmail. But when an innocent young prostitute (Teresa Ann Savoy of CALIGULA) uncovers the conspiracy, her revenge will ignite a holocaust of pain, pleasure and shocking sexual perversion. The story is true. The depravity is real. The film is SALON KITTY.
John Steiner (MANNAJA), Tina Aumont (TORSO) and John Ireland (RED RIVER) co-star in this infamous epic co-written and directed by Tinto Brass and featuring exquisite production design by OscarAE winner Ken Adam (BARRY LYNDON, GOLDFINGER). Released in America as the heavily censored MADAM KITTY, this controversial shocker has been fully restored from the director's own personal vault print and features extended scenes of sexual atrocities now presented for the first time ever.
Salon Kitty
Although brothels were officially outlawed by the Third Reich, the elite Nazi SS security police had been authorized by Himmler before the war to engage prostitutes in intelligence gathering. The infamous Salon Kitty in Berlin's Giebachstrasse was the brainchild of the Deputy Reichsfuhrer SS, Reinhard Heydrich. The high-class brothel was set up to increase surveillance of foreign diplomats and visitors as well as to gather dossiers on the sexual indiscretions of Nazi party big-wigs and government guests.
Hand-picked girls were specially schooled in the arts of seduction to pry confidential information - as well as high fees - from their clients. Cameras were concealed in hollow walls and the luxuriously ornate bedheads were bugged with microphones that were cunningly placed to convey the most intimate of amorous whispers to the battery of listening posts and recording machines set up in the basement. But Salon Kitty proved an expensive investment whose 'sexpionage' value never lived up to Heydrich's expectations. Its recordings provided a great deal of bawdy entertainment for the SS listeners in the cellar but few significant political or diplomatic indiscretions were picked up by the time the outbreak of war reduced its usefulness. (pp. 241-2)Love, Sex and War, John Costello
Salon Kitty was a Berlin brothel used by the SD for espionage purposes before and during World War II .
In the 1930's Berlin, Salon Kitty was a high-class brothel in 11 Giesebrechtstrasse. Its usual clientele included German dignitaries and foreign diplomats. Its owner and madame was Kitty Schmidt.
The idea to use Salon Kitty for espionage purposes came from Reinhard Heydrich but SD chief Walter Schellenberg did most of the work. Instead of infiltrating the brothel, Schellenberg decided to take it over.
[...]
In 1976, these events were turned into a highly controversial film, directed by Tinto Brass and starring Helmut Berger as Walter Schelleberg (re-named Helmut Wallenberg) and Ingrid Thulin as Kitty Schimdt (re-named Kitty Kellerman.) --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salon_Kitty [Apr 2005]
Pompous, artistic, almost megalomanic
To speak about the 70´s "Nazi" exploitation films, it is hard to ignore Tinto Brass film "Salon Kitty" (1975). The film surely enjoyed a certain commercial success and therefore, though not "exclusively",influenced other filmmakers to deliver their own efforts. Mostly without any artistic pretensions and with a focus on sleaze and violence.Brass originally comes from an arthouse background, before his name became popular and associated with erotic fare as "Miranda". Mentioned should be here his exemplary earlier films films as "Nersosubianco", the pop-art giallo "Col cuore in Gola" and the psychedelic, surreal "L´Urlo" (starrring Tina Aumont who would also return in his "Salon Kitty").
Brass delivers with "Salon Kitty" a film in a similar vein as his later film "Caligula". This means: the tone of the film is pompous, artistic, almost megalomanic. Attributes, that also share the Presentation of the Third Reich.
Besides this, the film surely contains violent, and erotic, sometimes offensive scenes which would also suit perfectly to an exploitation movie, and here is where the "offspring" comes that will be later described, "Caligula" can be also indirectly viewed as a sort of "prequel" of "Salon Kitty" as both films in different times of history have to do with pre-christian ""pagan" themes, and therefore Europe´s roots.(Cesare Canevari´s effort has not coincidently the alternative title "Caligula reincarnated as Hitler"). --adapted from "Erosvastika", mario @ cinetrange.com
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