Salon Kitty is based on a true story of a brothel madam, Kitty Schmidt( called Kellermann for some reason in this film), who is forced into working for the Nazis when she is arrested for helping Jews escape from Germany and using a fake passport. The Gestapo decide to use her brothel, Salon Kitty, as a listening post where every room is bugged and the working girls report their conversations to the Gestapo each day.Firstly the film is unsettling in places and in one scene, where the prostitutes have an orgy with a group of dwarfs, is unnecessary and not based on fact. Also be prepared not just for conventional sex, but also lesbianism, transvestism and sado masochism, as the brothel catered for the kinkier tastes of its guests. However, once you get over this, Salon Kitty is a good film and based on true events.In particular Ingrid Thulin takes a good role as Kitty Schmidt. Her singing is as good as anything from Cabaret and in one memorable number she dresses up as half woman, half man. Also as one critic pointed, Kitty is the last relic of the decadent Berlin that existed before the Nazis and has little time for the regime, telling one whore who is a convinced Nazi, " I am a madam, I am above ideas", and when confronted by Wallenberg of the SS( based on the real life Walther Schellenberg) tells him when war is declared, " just because the war has started, we don't have to wear chastity belts".Also a good sub plot exists when a prostitute, who is a Nazi, falls for a Luftwaffe officer who hates the Nazis and wants to defect to Britain and gradually comes round to his way of thinking, although tragically he is found out by the bug in the prostitute's bedroom and shot by the Gestapo.Credit is due to the director Tinto Brass, later infamous for Caligula. What could have been a cheap and nasty Naziploitation film, and it inspired countless abysmal and unwatchable Naziploitation film, is actually a very well made film and apart from the tasteless scenes with the dwarfs, many of the sex scenes are tastefully shot and everything is made on location. I would recommend this film to anyone who is interested in one of the Third Reich's more bizarre projects.

"Nazisploitation" is a genre that I would have no qualms in calling completely useless. The genre is riddled with drab and depressingly bad nonsense with films such as The Beast in the Heat and SS Hell Camp being among the worst examples. It's for that reason that I didn't go into Tinto Brass' Salon Kitty with any big expectations - but to my surprise, not only is this film a million times better than the rest of the Nazisploitation that I've seen; it's also a rather well made and actually quite noteworthy slice of classy exploitation cinema that is well worth tracking down. Naturally, the film takes place in Nazi Germany and we focus on the Nazi party. The early parts of the film show various depravities, including some of those experiments that every exploitation fan knows the Nazi's were a big fan of. From there, we move into the film's main plot which focuses on a brothel. Kitty Kellermann has her house of ill repute closed down by the Nazi's and they've given her a new one, complete with new girls...who happen to be SS spies dedicated to revealing detractors within the party.My main problem with this film is undoubtedly the runtime; as while Salon Kitty never actually gets boring, two and a quarter hours is way too long for a film like this and it would have benefited a lot from some more streamlined editing. That being said, I'd rather this film be over two hours long than any of the other Nazi flicks I've seen! Naturally, the film features some rather depraved sequences; including some sex experiments with freaks that I didn't enjoy very much. The majority of the film focuses on the brother, however, and that is a very good thing! Tinto Brass takes his time in building up a sordid and sleazy atmosphere and the central location is very memorable indeed. There are some decent sex scenes in the film too and the cast of beautiful women really does help matter. A lesbian S&M style sequence (that unfortunately only lasts about a minute) was the highlight of the entire film for me. I think it's clear that the director was keener to make an exploitation film than a serious drama; but Salon Kitty does succeed on both fronts, and while this film may be a bit too strong for the art house crowd - if you're looking for some classy top quality exploitation, you will find it here.

In WW2 Germany, Gestapo officers spy on their own soldiers at a brothel to make sure they don't turn against the Fuhrer. Thulin and Berger are reunited after playing mother and son in "The Damned," cementing their places in the Decadence Hall of Shame. Thulin vamps through three songs, which is at least three too many. As one would expect from Brass, there is ample display of flesh. Savoy is an idealistic young woman with naked ambitions (well, naked anyway). The film is trashy fun as long as it is focusing on the salacious activities of those naughty Nazis. However, Brass decides to throw in some messages about love and war, making the film drag somewhat and go on too long.

By any measure the best production in the Nazi exploitation genre available on DVD. Beautiful, lush cinematography and a provocative script make this one of Tinto Brass' finest films. Andy Warhol described Brass as Italy's best AND worst director, its easy to see why with this movie. While it contains all the prerequisite elements one would expect it manages to rise above mere sleaze, not there is anything wrong with sleaze I might add. It is the Citizen Kane of Nazi exploitation. Not necessarily what might be considered erotic, see Brass' Cheeky! or The Voyeur for titillation, it stands above the crowd creatively and artistically.