This film is one hour of boring war action with about 20 minutes of tasteless sleaze stuck in the middle. And even the sleaze is pretty tame compared to director Batzella's later foray into shocking sadism, SS HELL CAMP. You get whippings, castration and a Nazi gets a cup of urine splashed in his face. The rest of the movie is total fast-forward material. Along with most of the offerings from France's Eurocine (HELLTRAIN, FRAULEIN DEVIL), this is one of the worst films in the disreputable genre of Nazi concentration camp exploitation films.
8 Reviews
Good but not for obvious reasons
QueenoftheGoons8 March 2021
Whipping isn't my thing, and the war part is a good bunch of BS. But I am a sucker for a good Naziexploitation. The best part of this movie is the sex scene with the Nazi that oddly resembles a touch of Powers Boothe. One of the better scenes I've seen in a while.
Achtung! Stock footage
Bezenby23 July 2010
Warning: Spoilers
No wonder the Germans lost the war. According to accurate Italian war historian Luigi Batzella (who also directed The Beast in Heat), all the Germans did during the second world war was fornicate, torture people, and booze. Achtung! The Desert Tigers is kind of like a precursor to the beast in heat, with Batzella testing the water to see how far he can push things before going on to rip people's pubes off and machine gun babies in mid-air like he does in The Beast in Heat.
This one isn't too tame either. At first it looks like we're watching a proper war film about the campaign in North Africa, what with sneak attacks on German Tank patrols and much blowing up of supplies routes etc. There's an opening battle that throws in flamethrowers and dynamitings, all filmed with that half-interested eye that only Italians have for films. I settled down expecting the film to go on as such, but just then all the allied troops were captured and I was thrown head first into SS experiment torture camp mayhem. All filmed with that half-interested eye that etc etc etc.
This is The Great Escape of sleaze films, I suppose. The character Major (that's all I remember) is trying to organise a mass escape, correctly assuming that the Germans would be to busy with their new harem of arab chicks to notice anything. Even the shooting of his men and the witnessing of a dead jew whipping (?) don't put him off, and after the director tires of showing us sleaze, he succeeds.
The way this film is structured is like this: First part: war. Second part: Sleaze. Third part: War. All the sleaze is contained in the middle of the film, and as that's what you're reading this review for - let me tell you what you get for your money.
Whippings.
Everyone gets whipped. There's a nazi lesbo sado-masichist doctor (just like in The Beast in Heat) who degrades Jewish and Arab women then likes to be whipped herself. There's Bedoiun guys who get whipped AND get castrated. There's prisoners of war who get whipped too. Everybody just about gets whipped and while I'm at it there's not a woman in this film who gets to keep her clothes on.
The sleazy part continues with a transvestite belly dancer and a prisoner who is almost forced to drink urine. The thing that makes this film marginally more enjoyable that The Beast in Heat is that there are no depressing rape scenes and no animal violence. Therefore: less guilt. Oh - and it's good to see real naked women instead of the balloon chested, anorexic pubeless wonders you get these days.
Aye - so the Brits and Americans escape with the Nazi doctor and head into the desert, where the war film begins once more. We get more battle scenes, which are very confusing because both sides seem to be wearing the same sort of clothes. And then the film stops. Very abruptly.
Nothing is really resolved. Some characters get killed, and some are still in the desert at the end of the film and it just ends. I guess the director decided he wanted to start making the Beast in Heat instead.
This one isn't too tame either. At first it looks like we're watching a proper war film about the campaign in North Africa, what with sneak attacks on German Tank patrols and much blowing up of supplies routes etc. There's an opening battle that throws in flamethrowers and dynamitings, all filmed with that half-interested eye that only Italians have for films. I settled down expecting the film to go on as such, but just then all the allied troops were captured and I was thrown head first into SS experiment torture camp mayhem. All filmed with that half-interested eye that etc etc etc.
This is The Great Escape of sleaze films, I suppose. The character Major (that's all I remember) is trying to organise a mass escape, correctly assuming that the Germans would be to busy with their new harem of arab chicks to notice anything. Even the shooting of his men and the witnessing of a dead jew whipping (?) don't put him off, and after the director tires of showing us sleaze, he succeeds.
The way this film is structured is like this: First part: war. Second part: Sleaze. Third part: War. All the sleaze is contained in the middle of the film, and as that's what you're reading this review for - let me tell you what you get for your money.
Whippings.
Everyone gets whipped. There's a nazi lesbo sado-masichist doctor (just like in The Beast in Heat) who degrades Jewish and Arab women then likes to be whipped herself. There's Bedoiun guys who get whipped AND get castrated. There's prisoners of war who get whipped too. Everybody just about gets whipped and while I'm at it there's not a woman in this film who gets to keep her clothes on.
The sleazy part continues with a transvestite belly dancer and a prisoner who is almost forced to drink urine. The thing that makes this film marginally more enjoyable that The Beast in Heat is that there are no depressing rape scenes and no animal violence. Therefore: less guilt. Oh - and it's good to see real naked women instead of the balloon chested, anorexic pubeless wonders you get these days.
Aye - so the Brits and Americans escape with the Nazi doctor and head into the desert, where the war film begins once more. We get more battle scenes, which are very confusing because both sides seem to be wearing the same sort of clothes. And then the film stops. Very abruptly.
Nothing is really resolved. Some characters get killed, and some are still in the desert at the end of the film and it just ends. I guess the director decided he wanted to start making the Beast in Heat instead.
It is The (not so) Great Escape
udar5515 May 2009
This is how John Sturges really wanted his classic film - with nudity, whippings, and castrations! American Major Lexman (Richard Harrison) finds himself amongst Brits in a Nazi prison camp in Northern Africa run by Kommandant von Stolzen (Gordon Mitchell). Taking sadistic Dr. Lessing (Lea Lander) hostage, the Allies make their escape into the desert with the Germans in hot pursuit. As always, Harrison and Gordon do their jobs well and are fortunate in that they are the only cast members who don't get whipped. Yup, there is a lot of whipping going on in this one. Italian director Luigi Batzella (operating under the pseudonym Ivan Kathansky) packs the film with enough fighting and sleaze to at least keep viewers awake for its scant 80 minute running time. Batzella would return to this sub-genre the same year with SS HELL CAMP and, since Harrison isn't involved, I'm not going there.
The worst film ever made...
jdbmjf14 December 2008
The film lasts for 78 minuets on the Dutch DVD, due to its status in cult fandom, this film is regarded as one of the worst ever, here's why: -Has been 1960s stars wide up here, Gordon Mitchell and Mike Monti. -Luigi Batzella is the director, writer, and editor, and no doubt a one man crew, most of his films were garbage, three to four westerns shot on one wooden town built by Gordon Mitchel, three cheap war films and two erotic horror films, shot in crappy locations. -Despite its 78 minuet running time, there are around 15 minuets of stock footage, of things blowing up, and large amounts of soldiers fighting, inter-cut with around a dozen stupid extra's running around. -Poor lighting, most likely done with broken equipment, shot in Spain using locals as Arabs! (no offence intended) -The camp scenes are shot on the same sets as SS Experiment camp. -No ending, just a soldier throwing down a shovel. -Around twenty actors were used for the entire film.
...But despite all that, today's film students, can learn from it, and hopefully make their own.
God bless you Batzella!
I'm actually a big fan of these cult films, I know their shortcomings, but I'd still pick this over any Hollywood blockbuster coming out today, with overflated money grabbing stars and more CGI than actual film!
...But despite all that, today's film students, can learn from it, and hopefully make their own.
God bless you Batzella!
I'm actually a big fan of these cult films, I know their shortcomings, but I'd still pick this over any Hollywood blockbuster coming out today, with overflated money grabbing stars and more CGI than actual film!
Richard Harrisson, the cheapest
prohibited-name-11423 September 1999
Luigi Batzella, best known under his Eurociné pseudonym Yvan Kathansky, has directed a fine piece of nazi camp sexploitation that mixes not so well with a military drama. The fights are badly choregraphed, the actors are a shame and the storyline seems a bit improvised.
Technically this ain't a reference; at times, the image is so dark you can barely see what's happening. Richard Harrisson, the cheapest mustached hero ever, teams up once again with Gordon Mitchell (they worked together for another of Batzella's fine moments, BLACK GOLD) and with newcomer Lea Landers (the terrified girl we appreciated in Mario Bava's RABID DOGS) as an attempt to create thorn characters that will grip our hearts. They fail miserably and we are stuck with a sometimes funny but overall strange movie. Just give an ear to the music playing in the background during the orgy scenes and you'll get my feeling.
This movie is great for Batzella fans like me, but if you're not familiar with this psycho-trashic director, stay away.
Technically this ain't a reference; at times, the image is so dark you can barely see what's happening. Richard Harrisson, the cheapest mustached hero ever, teams up once again with Gordon Mitchell (they worked together for another of Batzella's fine moments, BLACK GOLD) and with newcomer Lea Landers (the terrified girl we appreciated in Mario Bava's RABID DOGS) as an attempt to create thorn characters that will grip our hearts. They fail miserably and we are stuck with a sometimes funny but overall strange movie. Just give an ear to the music playing in the background during the orgy scenes and you'll get my feeling.
This movie is great for Batzella fans like me, but if you're not familiar with this psycho-trashic director, stay away.
Achtung- awful!
John_Mclaren1 November 2003
How does one sum up this film? Perhaps as "Tobruk" meeting "Caged Women"- and failing. It is neither a proper war flick nor a real WIP effort. The war scenes are pointless and excruciating. The WIP element is interesting sexploitation, with whipping, castration and some interesting and gratuitous nudity. However it is really a cinematic dog's dinner- your life will not suffer if you miss this one.
A damn fun movie
trivial_matt20 July 2008
To everyone that like a good action movie, some pretty women and are interested in knowing this amazing world of exploitation, this is the movie: it's not as brutal as "Ilsa" or "Caligula reincarnated as Hitler", but is fast and painless, and you can watch without fear.
I'm sick of people in bad move saying that this movie is crap, that it's awful and stuff. OK, it's not a masterpiece, but is fun, well done and have lots of action. This people that want every movie to be a masterpiece should shut up and let movies like this movie be watched for people that only want 80 minutes of fun.
I recommend it!
I'm sick of people in bad move saying that this movie is crap, that it's awful and stuff. OK, it's not a masterpiece, but is fun, well done and have lots of action. This people that want every movie to be a masterpiece should shut up and let movies like this movie be watched for people that only want 80 minutes of fun.
I recommend it!
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