Suédoises au pensionnat

Six Swedish Girls in a Boarding School (1979)

** (out of 4)

Erwin C. Dietrich both wrote and directed this sexploitation film under different names but there's no mistaken his work. The film takes place at a Swedish boarding school where some perfect looking young ladies start to get curious about sex.

This film's original title was SECHS SCHWEDINNEN IM PENSIONAT but it also went under a variety of other titles including SIX SWEDES ON CAMPUS and UNTAMED SEX. No matter what you call the film there's no question that it's pretty much lacking in any sort of story but I guess that was to be expected as people certainly weren't coming to pictures like this for some sort of Ingmar Bergman experience.

What Dietrich was always able to deliver was low-budget movies without much plot and more times than not the title itself told you what you were in for. Whereas his films lacked any sort of plot, they more than made up for it with non-stop nudity and plenty of beautiful women. Usually in American sexploitation films there was always that one ugly friend or bland girl but that's not the case here as Dietrich gives us all perfect "10" girls.

The most known name in the group is Brigitte Lahaie who is obviously hard to miss with her beauty. You've also got Jess Franco regular Eric Falk in a small role. Obviously there's only one reason to watch a movie like this and that's for the ladies, the nudity and the sexuality. At 90-minutes the film does get rather boring very quickly but there's still plenty of eye candy that helps make it stand apart.

I watched this movie expecting to get the same old erotic movie. Boy, was I surprised when I watched this movie. You get to see female nudity from head to toe and male nudity. Girls are playing with themselves while the teacher gets hot herself. There is also lesbian scenes with good description and sex scenes tied in with some of the best comedy since, Benny Hill. If this movie does not turn your buttons you must be dead in certain parts of your anatomy. Don't miss the butterfly catching scene. I gave this movie a 10 because it steams adult erotic with good old fashioned humor. Rent this movie and than buy it because it is one of a kind.

The first and best of Swiss Czar of Carnality Erwin C. Dietrich's increasingly explicit "Swedish" skin flicks, a domestically popular porn series which was eventually to comprise four official entries, five if you count his acquisition of Ann Perry's all star US hardcore BALLGAME as "6 Swedish Girls Behind Bars" ! Funny thing about Dietrich. While trash film fans have accorded him a certain degree of street cred as producer of a number of Jess Franco's (comparatively) classier '70s skin flicks like JACK THE RIPPER and LOVE LETTERS OF A Portuguese NUN, there has always been considerably less love for the dozens of mostly generic gash grinders he churned out - usually as "Michael Thomas" - between 1968's costume pic DIE NICHTEN DER FRAU OBERST (remade more graphically in 1980) and 1982's AMOROUS SISTERS. Stopping just short of hardcore, for which he would press Continental pornographer Gérard Loubeau into duty as the German movie market grew more permissive, he adopted the gourmand's approach to his own personal brand of sex cinema which was almost entirely devoid of genuine eroticism but for its acres and acres of bared female skin.

Apart from an occasionally semi-serious foray into the fornication film field, such as the Lina Romay showcase ROLLS ROYCE BABY or his half-hearted WIP entry CAGED WOMEN, Dietrich usually went for the funny bone. Historically proved, this is not a territory that German-speaking countries excel at ! So if you're looking for a few hearty laughs along with your copious nudity, you should probably just keep on looking. That said, the guy's unpretentious undraped sagas make for surprisingly innocent entertainment in retrospect, all the more astonishing considering that far more explicit endeavors must have been breathing down Dietrich's neck while he was still reeling in (massive) audiences with what were basically "nudie cuties" with tons of healthy outdoors activities for his foxy female cast to engage in. Which brings us to these movies' strongest assets (ass-sets ?), i.e. their stunningly beautiful actresses, frequently culled from the French XXX field, for whom these mild activities amidst the Alps must have been a literal breath of fresh air.

We might just as well skim over any perceived complexities in the film's fragmented narrative (credited to Dietrich's nom de plume "Manfred Gregor"), as it basically consists of the Swedish sextet getting into mischief and - to quote the late great Kenny Everett - "all their clothes fall off", and focus on the fabulous femmes. Brigitte Lahaie is obviously the most recognizable of the lot and has her most memorable moment as she visits a local sex shop in search of a dozen dildo's (don't ask !) and starts to fantasize about what the exclusively male clientèle might do to her. Her close to 'core Sapphic scene with short-haired France Lomay (who would never look better than in her single American adult film, Fred Lincoln's 1983 THAT'S OUTRAGEOUS!) is also nothing to sneeze at. The latter figures most prominently in the plot (such as it is) by inventing a most unusual bicycle equipped with pistoning penis that will be put to extensive employment by the tireless schoolgirls !

Nearing the end of a distinguished career in simulated sexing, Anne Libert looks almost anorexic as the not so stern headmistress, still able to "bring it" as she gives a fully clothed demonstration of sexual positions with muscle man gym teacher Mike Montana (from Franco's SEXY SISTERS) in sex ed class that ranks as one of the few encounters to actually raise temperatures. Busty Nadine Pascal was usually "Nadja Santos" or "Nadine Scant" on penetration pics but is better known for Franco's SADOMANIA and TWO FEMALE SPIES WITH FLOWERED PANTIES. Long-haired blonde Danielle Troger probably looks the most convincingly Scandinavian of the lot and was also an extremely active adult starlet throughout the '70s but little Elsa Maroussia (as reluctant virgin Selma) only went all the way once, in Claude Bernard-Aubert's blah BIG ORGY.

Photographic duties are divided between stalwart Andreas Demmer and his apprentice Rudi Küttel, who had done such a splendid job on Franco's Kitsch masterpiece BLUE RITA, with the first focusing more on the splendiferous surroundings while the latter would fearlessly probe the female private parts. As ever, Walter Baumgartner came on board for another perfectly pleasant and quite eclectic soundtrack to score the saucy shenanigans. What one must not forget is that Dietrich wasn't trying to beat the Bard with this undemanding bit o'froth. It used to play my local (long-gone) sex cinema semi-annually, almost always to packed houses, and no one ever asked for a refund ! Simply put, it does what it says on the tin, prime meat 'n potatoes porn that doesn't aspire to anything higher.

I actually watched the follow-up to this first, Swedish Gas Pump Girls, and found it to be better in nearly every regard (and these two movies share several common themes). Swedish Boarding School Girls is completely plotless, and runs a full 90 minutes. At least Gas Pump Girls humors you with a flimsy plot.

With this Full Moon release, you are stuck with one audio track: A horrible English dub. And when I say English, I mean English: The Swedish girls speak with a proper British accent. And some of the guys have Cockney accents! I can't think of a bigger buzzkill. (Well, the men's pose-down late in this flick was right up there). When I think of foxy naked blonde "Swedish" ladies, British accents don't even figure into the equation. Also, I'm fairly sure they don't refer to their underwear as "knickers" in Sweden.

Much of the nudity in this is obstructed, as they spend a lot of time in the woods and overgrown fields. Was Edwin C. Dietrich being artsy? No mistaking his intentions in the follow-up; it was there, in your face, AND it lingered! Also, a few clever ideas in that one. This one seems generally favored over Swedish Gas Pump Girls, and I have to strongly disagree. Then again, this dub may have tainted my entire experience.

The various titles that this film has been given crack me up! Six Swedes On Campus? Well, no Swedes here, but they're on campus. Erwin Dietrich scores again with this sexy and fantasy-filled take on Girls School antics. Brigitte Lahaie shines, as usual, and the other cast members play their parts with gusto: any excuse to get naked, and they get naked! The libidinous female teacher gives some memorable "health" classes (on exploring their own bodies, etc.), pillow-fights in the dorm, voyeurism, even nude butterfly-catching! The copy I saw was a rental; there were a few harsh edits in the transfer, but I doubt that this film went beyond softcore. Definitely worth seeing, especially for those fans of wall-to-wall nudity and cheesy voice-overs.