After Hours Cinema has been doing a pretty killer job of releasing exploitation and XXX oddities from the seventies over the last year or so. This latest double feature pairs up two West Coast pornos from the past, neither of which are very good but both of which will appeal to cult movie buffs and exploitation aficionados for the very same reasons they'll never appeal to the mainstream. Here's a peek...

Sex Slaves Of The S.S.:

Also known as Nazi Sex Experiments, this obscure West Coast lensed Naxisploitation film has more in common with the playful sex comedies and so-called 'nudie cuties' of the late sixties than with better known entries in the genre like Ilsa: The Wicked Warden or Love Camp Seven. Whereas those films were intended to shock and offend, to stir up controversy (and in turn, put butts in theater seats!), the trashily titled Sex Slaves Of The S.S. is played for laughs. Despite the presence of a fair bit of hardcore material, this film is about as serious as an episode of Hogan's Heroes.

The film follows one Dr. Ivan Cock-Luv (played by Jerry Delony, credited in the film as Victor Alexander who shows up briefly in Slacker but who is probably best known for his role in Ilsa: Harum Keeper Of The Oil Sheiks), the best and brightest of the genetic engineers employed by the Third Reich. Deep inside his secret laboratory outside of Cologne, Germany, he studies the mysteries of the female sexual response, which seems to involve poking away at a few cute naked ladies and twiddling dials on blinky super computers.

Cock-Luv, and his assistant, Fritz, are stoked when three new women are brought to the laboratory for him to experiment on and the pair set up a series of brand new experiments to conduct, but they soon find out that the girls are more interested in each other. Add to that the fact that allied troops are closing in on the lab, and things aren't looking so good for Cock-Luv and Fritz...

Shot by persons unknown starring a bunch of unrecognizable actors, Sex Slaves Of The S.S. is pretty terrible. The comedy is low-brow and corny and the cinematography is pretty bad. The movie does contain some funny, campy elements courtesy of the abysmal acting, the German beer hall music and the corny sets and as such, it's watchable if you're in the mood for a bad movie, but make sure you go into this one with your expectations firmly in place. If you want good filmmaking, look elsewhere, if you want goofy, trashy porn, then step right up because this'll scratch that itch for you, no questions asked.

Woman Of Vengeance:

Another, even more obscure XXX entry (just try and find any information on this one at the imdb!), Woman Of Vengeance pairs up the king and queen of seventies California adult filmmaking, Rene Bond and Ric Lutze, who appeared in at least three dozen XXX films together before the end of the seventies.

The film follows John (Lutze), a man who owns and runs a bike shop, and his wife, who are experiencing some marital difficulties. She's sleeping with John's employee and the two are planning to have him murdered. John knows something is amiss with his nuptials and he winds up falling for a woman named Carrie (Bond) who has just moved to the city and who just so happens to wander into John's bike shop looking for a new bicycle. Their affair begins fast and builds quickly, and before you know it, they're having a three-way with Carrie's roommate back at her place.

Once he's had his fun for the night, John has to go train for an upcoming bike race. He heads out into the city to practice not noticing the hitman following him around. The assassination attempt fails but not so subtly that John isn't clued in to what's happening. Now fully aware of the attempt made on his life, he decides to pay his wife back in spades and sets out to get his revenge.

While the film's title isn't particularly accurate when you consider how the last half of it all plays out, Woman Of Vengeance is a reasonably entertaining XXX pot boiler despite the fact that the film was obviously made fast and cheap. Bond and Lutze have got some obvious and genuine enthusiasm during their on screen couplings but that's really all that there is to recommend here. On some levels, that's enough. It's interesting to see them in this obscurity and it's easy to see why Bond remains a favorite of the scene. She's cute, and her energy on screen is pretty sincere in the picture. The plot really only exists to move the picture from one sex scene to the next, but it's serviceable enough to work on that level.

Video:

Sex Slaves Of The S.S. is presented in a 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that looks a little tight in a few spots (you'll note in some scenes that the tops of the performers' heads are a wee bit cropped). Scratches and lines are present throughout playback and the colors are pretty faded. Everything is pretty watchable but the elements used for this transfer were obviously in pretty dire condition. Women Of Vengeance is also presented in an anamorphic 1.85.1 widescreen presentation and, sadly, it's in even worse shape than the first film. The liner notes point out that the Eastman color fade on the print used is pretty severe and that because of that, it's almost black and white. They ain't kidding! That said, the transfer was struck from the only known film elements left for this film, so we're lucky to see it at all, bad print damage or not. Neither film has been properly flagged for progressive scan playback.