The short-lived but prolific naziploitation genre of the 1970’s is usually associated with unsavoury concentration camp shockers like Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS and SS Experiment Camp, or the ‘women-forced-to-work-as-Nazi-prostitutes’ films such as Salon Kitty, Elsa Fraulein SS and others. But there were a handful of films that went in other directions, and Erwin C. Dietrich’s early (1973) entry into the genre Frauleins in Uniform (aka She Devils of the SS) is one such film.

This is one of the few nazisplotation films to play UK cinemas, so you know it’ll be less extreme than much of the genre. But what’s odd about this Swiss production is the strange normalising of the Nazis. While it briefly deals with the horrors of war, it does so from the point of view of the German army recruits – female German army recruits - and while there are hints at a totalitarian state, much of the film is surprisingly uncritical of the Nazi war machine.

The story follows assorted young women who join up to fight for the Fatherland and who demand to be sent to the Russian front. This is presumably because they have worn out all the local men, as this seems to the horniest all-girl army ever assembled – even Nazi officers seem shocked. In the middle of this is a doctor who is a bit too willing to relieve girls of their military duty, and is sent to fight – as are his daughters – as a punishment.

This is a well-mounted slice of softcore, with plentiful nudity (but very little sex), some cute girls and decent if unexceptional production values. Old hand Dietrich keeps the film moving along despite a lack of any real plot, until things come to a rather abrupt and, and it’s all rather jolly, with dialogue like “cleanliness is next to Naziness” being rather chucklesome. There’s little in the way of dramatic threat (though one deserter is caught and told “we have ways of making you talk”!), but the constant stream of bare flesh ensures that it passes by quite painlessly.

Given that the whole Nazi uniform fetish has become increasingly taboo, this film does feel like a rather guilty pleasure – but a pleasure it is. Presented in a well-preserved print, it well worth snapping up.

DAVID FLINT

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