Unlike the extremely camp exercise in bad taste that is 'Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS' , Gestapo's Last Orgy is a more unflinching look at the atrocities committed in a Nazi concentration camp, shot in a quasi-serious style. With its harrowing scenes of sexual abuse and violent death and torture, it is easy to understand why this movie might be considered more shocking than other similarly themed flicks from the same era; but is delivering a rawer and nastier (but still very exploitative) movie any more distasteful or disrespectful than making light of the subject matter?
In my opinion, all Nazisploitation movies are treading on dodgy ground and if you're going to use such a touchy subject to make a film that is designed to titillate and disgust, then you might as well go the whole hog. Director Cesare Canevari certainly thinks so; with Gestapo's Last Orgy, he delivers an often sickening piece of no holds barred cinema that should satisfy most fans of extreme movie-making.
Daniela Poggi plays Lise Cohen, a beautiful young Jewish woman being held in a Nazi 'love camp'. Believing that she is responsible for the death of her family, she has lost the will to live and offers no resistance when tortured by evil Commandant Conrad von Starker (Adriano Micantoni). Frustrated by the lack of emotion shown by the woman, Conrad makes Lise his special project and tells her that she will learn to love life once she has experienced real fear.
When a friendly doctor discovers that Lise was not actually to blame for the death of her loved ones, he tells her, thus restoring her will to live and, in turn, her fear of death. In order to survive, she must now pretend that von Starker has succeeded in breaking her, and become his lover...
With scenes of mass extermination, violent rape, and general lack of respect for human life, Canevari's sick flick is certainly disturbing; although not packed with the the wall-to-wall gore that one might expect, the sheer nastiness of some moments make this one hard to stomach at times. When the head honchos at the camp tuck into a meal made from 'unborn Jew', or douse a woman in Cognac and set her on fire, it's not necessarily the visuals that will make you gag, but the idea being portrayed.
Occasionally the pace of the movie lulls and sometimes Canevari sees fit to get rather pretentious with his direction, but, on the whole, the film is a decent enough watch for those seeking some sleaze. And although I imagine the makers never intended to provide any laughs, I defy anyone to not giggle at the moment when Lise is suspended above flesh-eating rats (actually rather disinterested gerbils) or the 'sex' scene between Lise and the doctor, which consists of several minutes of them rolling around together naked, but never actually seeming to bother with any serious boning!
6.5 out of 10 (rounded up to 7 for IMDb).
