Deported Women of the SS Special Section (1976) User Reviews

Routine, nasty Italian exploitation

[splittter · 5/10 · 24 September 1999]

As I've seen this film, and no-one else has written anything about it I thought I'd say a few words, not that it is particularly remarkable. If you're even looking at this page you're probably a fan of Italian Exploitation (god help you) and this film is certainly that. It's about women in a Nazi prison, featuring such classic situations as the odd lesbian encounter, sadistic guards, and a lengthy bit of pubic hair shaving.

The plot is handled decently, I guess, being a rare film of this sort that actually provides some interest in the individual characters. This may come from the ridiculously over the top acting (especially from the camp commandant), but at least there is an air of some competence in the production.

In terms of deranged innovation, this film features an eye-opening razor-blade-in-a cork-up-the-vagina manoeuvre to thwart the amorous commandant. That scene, amongst others, contributing to the fact that it was apparently rejected for even Cinema exhibition in Britain. Tragically it occurs quite far into the film, and is not particularly gory or amusing or otherwise of interest. The fact that it is banned probably means more people will seek it out than otherwise would (I know I did).

There are a few scenes like the above, catapulting this film from a routine exploitation movie into something that leaves a bit of a nasty taste in the mouth. Moving from the sort of obviously fake nonsense most films of this kind have, to a seeming attempt to present degrading experiences realistically, for no reason other than whatever kicks viewers can get out of that. Not very many for most people I would expect.

Nonetheless worth seeing if you like the genre I imagine, especially the scene where, in an effort to impress the heroine, the commandant makes two women give him a blow-job (interesting seduction technique, certainly, but then the guy is a Nazi); his facial expression is great. However there's really nothing here that is particularly original, and (as above) will probably leave most feeling a little dirty. Still, no particular reason for it to be banned.

My brief review of Deported Women of the SS Special Section

[Hellraiserdisciple · 5/10 · 11 July 2007]

For some odd reason I decided to give Deported Women of the SS Special Section a go today and was reasonably pleased. Noticing only one other user comment I felt compelled to give my opinion as well.

The story is fairly easy. A group of women are being held captive in a Nazi prison. Nazi prisons are (as we have all learned in films like Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS and others) is not a happy place. Fortunately you can always take a long soapy shower with your fellow inmates; and they do! I didn't expect much from this one so I became pleasantly surprised. The violence is pretty tame, but the razor blade on a cork in the vagina made me raise an eyebrow as our kinky commandant was about to realize love really can hurt. There's a decent amount of nudity with one of the highlights being the pubic hair shaving, take your time.

Deported Women does remind me to some extent of Salò, although it tends to focus less on the cynical ideology (as most of its kind) giving the whole film a more campy tone. Fine by me. It tries to be a bad boy, but not THAT bad.

In the end I have to say that even though the running time of almost 97 minutes feels a bit too long, the nudity, the violence and the crazy commandant managed to keep me entertained. You could do a lot worse.

"You can't refuse my specteecal!"

[gridoon2024 · 4/10 · 4 January 2009]

The female body is a work of art, why would anyone want to see a movie where it is not treated well? I guess I'm wondering why entire sub-genres that are little more than a series of female torture and humiliation scenes are so popular (maybe we can be optimistic and say most viewers are just waiting for the 10-minute payback at the end?), but this is a discussion for another time, another place. There are certainly a lot of (often naked, usually beautiful, always natural) female bodies in "Deported Women of the SS Special Section", and the film itself is rather tamer than expected. In fact, for all the atrocities contained herein, the nastiest scene may be the one where the heroine licks the hairy leg of a fat middle-aged man! No no, the nastiest is probably what happens to that same man a little later (other reviews have already mentioned it)....Writer-director Rino Di Silvestro is better as the latter: the direction is almost arty at times (though the DVD transfer is rather murky), but the script is disjointed. As the prison camp's commander, John Steiner chews the scenery up and spits it out, contrasting with Lina Polito's quiet, dignified presence as his object of obsession. The film has its moments, but it is still recommended only to exploitation fanatics. (*1/2)

Tame Nazi Death Camp

[Dr. Gore · 18 May 2003]

*SPOILER ALERT* SPOILER ALERT*

"Deported Women of the S.S. Special Section" is about the daily ins and outs of life in a Nazi women's prison. The women get to the camp and are given the usual medical tests to make sure they're healthy enough for torture. There is a long shaving sequence in which pubic hair goes under the razor. That was hilarious. It was all for health reasons of course. The commander of the camp becomes infatuated with one of the prisoners. He wants her to love him. He goes through various romantic wooing ideas, (humiliation, solitary confinement), until she decides to leave a present in her vagina for him in the climax.

This was an OK piece of Naziploitation. Nothing was too outrageous. There is not enough of anything to really recommend seeing it. There was a decent amount of nudity and the pubic hair shaving scene was appropriately sleazy. There was also a pretty nice lesbian scene as well. But overall you would expect a Nazi death camp flick to be a little more brutal. This was fairly, (for Naziploitation), tame.

Oh, one last thing. There is a scene where the prison commander and his loyal man servant have a brief homosexual encounter. This was the last thing I was expecting to see in my Women's prison flick. Needless to say, a big turn off.

And...we hit rock bottom

[Bezenby · 1/10 · 5 September 2018]

NOW we're scraping the bottom of the barrel, as the Nazisploitation genre kicks into gear with a film that's both offensive and snooze inducing, featuring a career low from John Steiner. His terrible acting in fact is the only thing that will keep you awake.

A bunch of women are taken to a special camp to join Ian Curtis and Peter Hook in Joy Division. There's the usual bunch of aggressive lesbians who all want a piece of this and that and aren't averse to having a cat fight in order to find out who is the top carpet muncher on camp. Meanwhile (and I'm struggling here as the plot just sort of ties all the usual exploitation crap together) John Steiner is the guy and charge and he's delighted to find that his ex-girlfriend is one of the prisoners. That's not so lucky for her mind you, ending up in a Nazi camp with an irate ex in charge. Revenge porn kind of pales in comparison.

The relentless barrage of crap in this film involves Steiner trying to get his ex to fall in love with him which invariably leads to her getting beaten and tortured, being forced to witness sex acts (YOU WILL VIEW MY SPECTACLE - Steiner screams), gets it on with a camp guard to make Steiner jealous (whom he bums in the funniest scene in the film), while the other inmates are beaten, showered, glowered at, ogled, tortured and murdered, all done in a rather cheap fashion which causes the viewer to start nodding off.

What was Steiner thinking? Things come to a head when Big John ends up getting little John torn to shreds with a fanny/razor blade combo. What a pile of crap. I'm only watching it because when I set out to watch all these films I figured I'd see how low things got in the Italian film industry. The answer is: very low. Who was this film aimed at? All those escaped Nazis in South America?

And there you have it: My review of The Departed: US Special Edition

Sexploitation without merit

[Leofwine_draca · 1/10 · 6 July 2016]

DEPORTED WOMEN is one of those unholy trash flicks that seem to go out of their way to be as poor taste as possible. This one takes the hackneyed women-in-prison film and adds in an unpleasant Nazi vibe by making the setting a German prison. Inevitably, there's a sadistic prison camp commander who goes out of his way to abuse the various inmates, who seem to spend all of their time in lesbian encounters as well as having sex with the male guards. There's also some homosexuality here too, leaving no stone unturned as this movie plumbs the depths.

As with the flimsiest of these productions, there isn't much storyline, so there are endless scenes of sex and nudity to pad out the running time. These quickly become boring and are the least erotic thing in the world. None of the actresses are particularly attractive and the acting is awful too. The only kind of story arises at the climax, where there's an inevitable prison break as well as a deeply unpleasant fate for the overacting camp commander, played by genre regular John Steiner. This involves a female prisoner using a cork-and-razor blade combination in a way that will bring tears to the eyes of any male viewer in an utterly excruciating moment of pain.

So, sleaze all the way here, with all kinds of sexual shenanigans and unpleasantness going on such as hair shaving – although it's far from the nastiest that the genre has to offer. There are some mundane cat fights and the aforementioned jailbreak but these are handled in a mundane way. Director Rino Di Silvestro was also responsible for the trashy NAKED WEREWOLF WOMAN.

Needed to be campy.

[okpilak · 3/10 · 8 March 2024]

When one watches exploitation films of this genre, one really wants to see things taken more absurd, but this one takes things too seriously. The train cars having a light bulb in them was a startling puzzle. But then, things got more routine. Severe looking woman guards shouting to make sure there was no talking, and the requisite nudity. The Commandant, Herr Erner/Enner clearly was a monster, as some said, but he didn't act like that. His uniform showed attention to detail and he had an obese aide. They threw in some unnecessary liaisons, and that really interrupted the flow of the movie. Herr Enner had a past history with one of the captives, and had a scenario in mind with her that was all too predictable. I felt that everyone was taking the movie too seriously. If one thinks of some memorable movies of this genre, like in the Ilsa series, or even Love Camp 7, they knew what they wanted to be. I am not sure what this movie wanted to be.

Has Its Moments for a Weaker Entry in the Genre

[michigindie · 4/10 · 5 April 2023]

As with all these Nazi exploitation films, this is not for everyone. However, for those who do enjoy the genre, this will probably be perceived as a less engaging sample when compared to "The Beast In Heat," "Gestapo's Last Orgy" or the deliciously erotic "SS Experiment Love Camp."

The story here is extremely thin; women arrive at a POW camp where they engage in frequent lesbianism and a tedious plot to escape. The SWV crowd may respond to the grossness of the girl/girl scenes, but other audiences will find these a massive turnoff. Male/female sex is almost completely absent and is of the very tame "huggy-kissy" variety, rather than softcore humping.

John Steiner easily steals the show as the most charismatic performer. He also gets to do something quite interesting when he forces his manservant to submit to him sexually - revenge sex for the manservant's tryst with Steiner's old girlfriend. As so often happens with these films, the producers go out of their way to make the male coupling grotesque by casting a fat, bald, old and ugly actor as the object of Steiner's lust. Notice they did not cast someone hot and youthful, like Cesare Barro, for the role!

All in all this is a rainy day time-waster, okay if you're in the mood but not as juicy and exciting as some of its contemporaries.

Delivers for exploitation lovers.

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 31 July 2013]

"Deported Women of the SS Special Section" sure provides plenty of sordid details for those who adore the grim, gritty, and nasty side of B cinema. The thing is, it's going to require a fair bit of patience on their part, as this movie is *very* slowly paced.

The story deals with a variety of Jewish women taken prisoner during WWII and taken to a Nazi prison where they're subjected to the expected tortures. There's not much more story than that, except for the longing that ultra creepy camp commandant Herr Erner (John Steiner) expresses for leading lady Tania Nobel (Lina Polito).

There's some melodrama to get through, in between the exploitative moments, accompanied by plaintive music by the talented Stelvio Cipriani. But don't worry, voyeurs, you'll be more than happy with the constant parade of bare female flesh. In loving close-up, no less. We even get to witness as women are repeatedly (and slowly) shaved down below. Of course, there are shower scenes, and lesbian love making scenes. (There's even one male homosexual encounter.) And in addition to all of the female nudity, there's a brief glimpse of the male anatomy as well.

The acting is commendably straight faced. Polito is lovely but rather aloof. Erna Schurer co-stars as Kapo Helga; Solvi Stubing has a great role as a guard. The gorgeous Stefania D'Amario (of Fulci's "Zombie") plays Angela, and Rik Battaglia plays Dr. Schubert. The standout in the cast is clearly Steiner, offering a deliciously depraved performance. This is one kinky guy.

If you just can't get enough of this genre, this movie should prove to be satisfactory. Certainly the Italians were particularly adept masters at this kind of exploitation.

Seven out of 10.

A very grim, graphic and downright nasty serving of Italian Nazi exploitation filth

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 7 September 2006]

The hapless Jewish female prisoners at an SS Special Section concentration camp are subjected to all kinds of torture, sadism and depravity by their brutal Nazi captors. Fed up with all the gross mistreatment they are forced to endure on a regular basis, the women join together to plot to escape and turn the tables on their cruel oppressors. Writer/director Rino ("Werewolf Woman") Di Silvestri really delivers the lowdown sleazy goods in a fiercely explicit and unflinching manner: there's plentiful nudity, two group shower scenes, pubic hair shaving, rape, lesbianism, voyeurism, catfights, degradation, castration (one of the women hides a razor blade in her vagina!), and perversion galore. Moreover, the production values are surprisingly polished and up to par: Sergio D'Offizi's slick cinematography (the smooth tracking shots and sturdy hand-held camera-work are both quite impressive), an unrelentingly bleak, stark and gritty tone, solid and credible acting from a good cast (John Steiner in particular makes for a perfectly strict, haughty and merciless degenerate creep of a camp commandant while Solvi Stubing likewise does well as a mean guard), a thrilling last reel jailbreak and Stelvio Cipriani's melodic, gloomy, haunting score are all on the money fine and effective. Although it's way too grim, rough and depressing to be much fun, this potent little item nonetheless still qualifies as a very gripping and harrowing movie.

With a title as good as that, how could I not watch it?

[BA_Harrison · 7/10 · 28 January 2008]

Falling somewhere between the camp excesses of the Ilsa movies and the grim nastiness of Last Orgy of the Third Reich, Deported Women of the SS Special Section is one of the more enjoyable (not sure if that's the right word to describe a film about war atrocities, but hey ho!) examples of the sleazy sub-genre commonly known as Nazisploitation.

With pretty good production values (for a film of this type), and an uncomplicated story that manages to tick most of the 'concentration-camp cinema' boxes (humiliation and degradation of the prisoners, multiple shower scenes, torture, lesbianism, rape, and murder), director Rino Di Silvestro ensures that fans of this kind of fare don't go disappointed.

Deported Women begins with a group of female prisoners being transported by train to a castle-turned-prison. Once at their destination, the women are processed, examined, shaved (each lady is given a 'Hollywood' free of charge!), and sorted into various groups: some are kept for experimentation; others become 'field whores'; the best looking are saved for the Joy Division—the prostitution wing of the camp.

Amongst these new arrivals is Tania Nobel (Lina Polito), a disgraced aristocrat who, before the war, was an object of lust for the nasty camp commandant Herr Erner (John Steiner, who excels as a maniacal tyrant who makes Caligula look sane by comparison). However, rather than reciprocate Erner's advances, Tania chose to run off with her partisan lover instead—a move which has left the Nazi with mixed feelings about the girl he once tried to woo: poor confused Herr Erner doesn't know whether to punish Tania, or attempt to win her affections.

So he does both.

After locking her in solitary confinement (for trying to escape) and threatening to make her suffer, he does an about-turn, and invites her to dinner, where he tries to impress her by forcing two of his subordinates (a couple of sadistic bitches who regularly abuse the prisoners) to give him a spot of fellatio. Needless to say, Erner's shocking display of power doesn't have the desired effect (perhaps a bunch of flowers and some fancy chocolates would've been a better way to go).

Eventually, Tania tires of Herr Erner's advances and attempts to end her life by starving herself. Admitted to the infirmary, Tania is nursed back to health by a kindly doctor, who, taking pity on his pretty patient, informs her of a secret tunnel that runs beneath the castle. Tania makes plans to escape, along with her fellow prisoners. But first, she has a score to settle with Herr Erner.

Deported Women starts off rather slow, and, to be honest, at first I thought it would be a real chore to sit through in one sitting. But as things progressed, the film got way sleazier and much more trashy, and by the end, I was pleased that I had stayed the distance. Amongst the dubious delights on display are the prolonged scene of hair removal (from all areas of the prisoner), a lesbian 'rape' that turns into a hilarious cat-fight between two of the guards, and a jaw-dropping moment where a frustrated Herr Erner finds temporary sexual release by buggering his henchman Doberman (Giorgio Cerioni).

And best of all is Tania's final act of revenge: she places razors in a cork, pops it up her cooch, and offers herself to the randy commandant... ouch!

The best of it's genre

[Falconeer · 8/10 · 5 August 2015]

After seeing countless 'Nazisploitation' movies, I lost hope that anything from this genre could actually qualify as "good cinema." But "Deported Women of the SS" has all the trappings of a good film; competent, sometimes beautiful cinematography, haunting and romantic orchestral score, and characters that are developed enough that you can actually care about their fate. Not to mention very authentic looking military/SS uniforms, and hairstyles correct to the 1940's. Best of all, we have John Steiner, as SS Captain Herr Erner. what a great, sinister villain he makes here. He played a similar role in Tinto Brass' "Salon Kitty," and I cannot imagine anyone looking more believable in those gorgeous black SS uniforms. In "Deported Women" we learn that Herr Erner had a passionate affair with an attractive young woman,and is reunited with her years later, when she arrives at the concentration camp..as a prisoner. His obsession for her grows to the point that it could be his downfall.

For WWII enthusiasts, this is a must-see film. As far as the exploitation elements go, this movie doesn't go overboard. You get a lesbian rape scene, that winds up not being very enjoyable, as we are made to care about the victim. This is so rare with this genre of film. The actors are attractive and the high production values prevent this from looking seedy. This is certainly the best film of it's genre. I also recommend another nazisploitation film called "Nazi Love Camp," as it has good production values, and a good story. Try to find a good copy.