Film review – Frauen im Liebeslager (Love Camp) (1977)

My notes on Frauen im Liebeslager (Love Camp)

Amazing dialogue …

‘I will not prostitute myself for your phony revolution!’

‘She fucks the leaders, we’re stuck with the peons!’

‘It took three men to satisfy me! They’re not so great.’

‘It’s unbelievable – I desire him, but I hate his guts!’

‘Men should learn to treat their wives like whores. That way their wives would be content and they’d save money as well.’

‘Lick my boots!’ — ‘No!’ – ‘Don’t be foolish, do it now, hurry up!’

‘Look, men comin’ here. Wheeeee! I’m ready for ‘em!’

‘The only thing that interests me is your body, you know that!’

One of a batch of el cheapo WIP flicks tossed off by Jesus Franco for German sleaze man Erwin C. Dietrich in 1977, this has the usual straight and lesbian domination, ludicrous dubbed dialogue, shouted political slogans, topless ‘examinations’, nude cat-fights (‘you perverted slut, I’ll make suasage out of you!’), naked woman strapped to crosses and killed by a topless female firing squad, semi-camp elements (the evil lesbian wardress has a parrot which squawks ‘dirty bitch’) and forced nastiness that’s still hard to take seriously (an abducted lass complains her virginity was taken by a whip-handle). The setting is a camp for revolutionaries somewhere in South America where the Che soundalike leader Gino da Guerra (uncharismatic Waldemar Wolfhaart) has ordered his sado sidekick (blonde, snarly Nanda Van Bergen) to kidnap a bunch of women to service the heroes of the revolution so they won’t stray elsewhere looking for sex. One female revolutionary mutters that after the ruling class has been overthrown, it’ll be time to do something about the sex war – but the supposed revolutionaries here are the same cynical, chuckling, loathesome (and frankly unappealing) slobs who appeared as representatives of more obvious oppressive regimes in other films. There may be a point here, about the incipient tyranny of revolutionary fighters, but – let’s face it – ‘60s and ‘70s revolutionary-terrorist guys had enough groupies not to bother with all this abduction stuff.

Among the sillier sex business: the girl with thigh-length silver stacked-heel boots wrapped around a revolutionary’s hips, the girl pleasuring herself with a cigar, the grunting sex-in-a-hammock scene. Odd fashion statements: instead of the usual fetish uniform, Van Bergen struts about in a hippie poncho and alligator-skin boots while her wardresses go with blue jeans, suede boots, scabbarded swords and halter-tops (optional, since they are topless often); three girls escaping through the jungle in black tiny briefs, flimsy white blouses or just a long white skirt. Gino falls for one of the abducted women, hard-faced redhead Angela (Ada Tauler), and redeems himself – then her husband, who she loves but fancies a lot less than the rebel, shows up on a rescue mission, leading to triangle complications (‘I could kill you both right now, but I know how you feel about me. Go with him, your cowardly husband … he’ll never be able to satisfy you, that will be your punishment!’). Van Bargen is also obsessed with lust for Angela, and plot complications mean the prisoner has to seduce the wardress (‘you’re lucky you arouse me like this, that’s why I didn’t kill you’) – though the ungallant might observe that Tauler is nothing special among the usual crowd of naked girls and indeed looks a tad matronly to pass as the supposed lust object of practically the whole camp (maybe it’s down to how Germans like their porno starlets). Sleazy ten-year-old jazz and foley jungle sounds comprise most of the soundtrack – the few scenes with vegetation might have been shot in a greenhouse. The girl goes off with the guerilla at the end, ditching her boring husband – and the film ends with Van Bergen unpunished!