Frauleins in Uniform (1973)

Of all the exploitation movie genres I think most people would agree that nazisploitation movies are about the nastiest. I admit it’s a genre I’m not entirely comfortable with and I can generally cope with even the roughest women-in-prison movies. So Frauleins in Uniform (AKA She Devils of the SS and originally titled Eine Armee Gretchen) mightn’t sound like quite my cup of tea. But Frauleins in Uniform is not your ordinary nazisploitation movie. It’s rather good-natured. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s a nazisploitation movie for the whole family but it’s definitely entirely lacking in the sadism and cruelty usually associated with the genre. There are no torture scenes. There are no scenes of women in chains or being beaten.

Whether it’s a nazisploitation movie you’ll actually enjoy depends partly on your tastes and partly on the mood you’re in.

At times it’s more like a sex comedy. In fact it’s a bit like a cross between a sex comedy and one of those comedies about army life. At other times it’s kind of bleak and rather sad. It’s a world gone mad with people doing their best to cope.

Also unusual is the fact that it not only features wartime action scenes, they’re actually quite good.

It is very late in the Second World War and the Germans are clearly losing. In desperation they are calling upon German womanhood to don uniform and fight for the nation’s survival. We follow a group of such girls, all eager to do their duty. Of course they’re also motivated by a desire for adventure. And then there’s the fact that all the men are at the front. Which means that the best place for a girl to be is at the front with the men, serving beside them. And, much of the time, serving under them. Literally. It is important to maintain the men’s morale and these girls are confident that they know ways to lift a man’s morale.

Some of the girls end up serving in communications units, and some in anti-aircraft detachments. They are proud to be in uniform but they’re also proud to shed their uniforms when necessary for the cause. Such occasions for what one might called non-uniformed service arise frequently. Luckily these young women can undress with a rapidity and efficiency that would make a drill sergeant weep for joy.

Of course under conditions of such stress love blooms just as quickly as sexual desire.

This is a movie that certainly does not ignore the horrors of war but it deals with them in an interesting manner. It’s not even the slightest bit sympathetic to the Nazis but these girls (and the men with whom they become involved) are just ordinary people. They may be sex-crazed but they’re basically nice girls. Insofar as the movie has a message it’s more of a general anti-war message. In war morality collapses. And not just sexual morality. Casual brutality becomes commonplace, on both sides (the scene of an Allied fighter-bomber machine-gunning terrified unarmed women is pretty harrowing).

Also interesting is that it actually makes sense that they’re all at it like bunnies. If you could get blown to bits in an air raid at any moment you grab every moment of pleasure that’s offered. It’s a very rare sex movie in which the ubiquitous coupling actually serves the plot.

It’s all strictly softcore but there’s a lot of sex and a truly stupendous amount of nudity. And it has to be said that the girls are extremely pretty. While the sex and nudity are sometimes played for comedy these elements are never really crass. There’s an odd innocence about it. There’s also an odd desperation about the sex.

Erwin C. Dietrich directed and it’s fairly typical of his efforts, both in the copious quantities  of female flesh on display and in the overall lack of mean-spiritedness. He ticks most of the classic sex movie boxes - there’s a shower scene (which is very light-hearted) and of course there’s some lesbian sex.

While it’s a fascinatingly different softcore movie that doesn’t mean it’s a great movie. It’s rather disjointed and it tries to follow the stories of too many of the women rather than focusing on the three main characters, Marga, her sister Eva and Marga's friend Ursula. It’s also a movie that can’t decide if it wants to be a light-hearted sexy romp, a sex comedy or something more serious. So the mood is wildly inconsistent.

It does however have an odd charm. It’s so very odd and it avoids the clichés of its genre so completely that it’s rather appealing. If you have a thing for lovely women in uniform (or lovely women slipping out of their uniforms) it’s pretty much a must-see. Even if that’s not your thing it does offer wall-to-wall frontal nudity, the women are beautiful and the female characters (even the most cheerfully immoral of them) are likeable. Plus there’s lots of stuff getting blown up. I probably should add that if you’re hoping for a Girls With Guns movie you’ll be disappointed. None of these girls touches a gun. They are at the front but they are not front-line soldiers.

The Full Moon Grindhouse Collection DVD offers a very good anamorphic transfer. There are a couple of other DVD releases and there’s even a Blu-Ray release.

If you’re looking for genuine nazisploitation then Frauleins in Uniform is not for you. But if you’re looking for something different this one might appeal to you in which case I’d highly recommend it.