Salon Kitty * (1976, Helmut Berger, Ingrid Thulin, Teresa Ann Savoy) – Classic Movie Review 10,086

Helmut Berger stars as Helmut Wallenberg and Ingrid Thulin plays Kitty Kellermann, who runs a brothel for soldiers in Nazi Germany, in director Tinto Brass’s notorious, controversial 1976 soft core erotic-war-drama film Salon Kitty. It is supposedly a pioneer of the Nazisploitation genre, though it follows The Damned and The Night Porter.

Margherita (Teresa Ann Savoy) and Kitty uncover a plot by an army official who has installed recording devices in every room of the brothel and plans to use the information thus gathered to blackmail Hitler and gain power.

Brass pushes the buttons marked ‘excessive’ and ‘controversial’ quite hard in a concerted effort to please the target audience. Though the actors are mainly undressed, the film itself is well dressed (with sets by production designer Ken Adam).

Ken Adam had a nervous breakdown working on Barry Lyndon, and said that Salon Kitty was creatively regenerative, that the production was enjoyable, and that Salon Kitty is underrated.

Adam based his design of Wallenberg’s apartment on his family’s apartment in World War Two Berlin. The set of Wallenberg’s enormous office has a real marble floor, apparently cheaper than a fake one.

Salon Kitty was filmed at Dear Studios in Rome, with location filming in Germany.

It was released in Italy on March 2, 1976

As with Brass’s Caligula, there are many versions: 133 minutes (director’s cut), 129 minutes, 125 minutes (cut), 112 minutes, 110 minutes (heavily cut), and 106 minutes (cut).

It was edited in the US to cut political overtones to market it as a sexploitation film,  released as Madam Kitty with an X rating. Blue Underground Video released the uncut version in an unrated DVD and Blu-ray.

Annie Ross provides Ingrid Thulin’s singing voice. She also provides the speaking voice for Britt Ekland in The Wicker Man (1973).

Costumes and uniforms were designed by Ugo Pericoli and Jost Jacob, and made by Tirelli Costumi of Rome.

Berger and Thulin both starred in Luchino Viscont’s 1969 The Damned.

The screenplay by Ennio De Concini and Tinto Brass is based on the novel by Peter Norden about the real-life Salon Kitty operation, in which the Nazi intelligence agency Sicherheitsdienst took over a Berlin brothel, wire tapped it, and replaced the prostitutes with spies to gather information on Nazi party members and foreign dignitaries.

The cast are Helmut Berger as Helmut Wallenberg, Ingrid Thulin as Kitty Kellermann, Teresa Ann Savoy as Margherita, John Steiner as Biondo, Bekim Fehmiu as Captain Hans Reiter, Stefano Satta Flores as Dino, Sara Sperati as dominatrix Helga, Maria Michi as Ilde, Rosemarie Lindt as Susan, John Ireland as Cliff, Paola Senatore as Marika, Tina Aumont as Herta Wallenberg, Dan van Husen as Sergeant Rauss, Luciano Rossi as Dr Schwab, Giancarlo Badessi as German Officer with Projector, Malisa Longo as New Kitty Girl, Patrizia Webley, Aldo Valletti as Dart Throwing Client, and Salvatore Baccaro as Neanderthal Prison Inmate.

Helmut Berger died on 18 May 2023, at the age of 78.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,086

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com