Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films,
2016
Images from the Internet
Helga, She Wolf of Stilberg
AKA Helga, la louve de Stilberg
AKA Helga, la louve de Stilberg
Directed by Alain Garnier (AKA Patrice
Rhomm)
Eurocine / MVD Visual
93
minutes, 1978 / 2016
Of
all the strange exploitation subgenres that have arisen (e.g., girl gangs,
women forced into a life of crime), one of the weirdest and most violent
towards them is the girl-in-prison one. While there are such films that predate
modern exploitation/sexploitation, it came to popularity in the late ‘50s after
the birth of rock’n’roll brought the fear of a world of juvenile delinquents,
and showed the degradation of the sex. That being said, the bar was upped a
notch in the ‘70s with the popularizing of the next level up, women in prison camps. They had lovely titles like The Big Bird Cage (1972), Love Camp 7 (1969), and the most
infamous being Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS
(1975), which led to a series with essentially the same character played by the
powerful Amazonian screen presence of Dyanne Thorne.
The
formula for the genre is exceedingly similar: women get physically and mentally
abused (men get tortured and/or emasculated), and at the end, usually with the
outside help of men, the prisoners rise up and kill their tormentors. If you’re
familiar with this kind of film, I am really not giving anything away. Even if you are not, it’s pretty obvious early on.
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| Malisa Longa is Helga |
Taking
place in a South American dictatorship, this is actually a French production,
with Patrice Rhomm at the helm, using the pseudonym Alain Garnier; he directed
genre films under a few different names during the 1970s. The hand is played
heavily from the start, as the country’s dictator condescendingly proclaims to redheaded
Helga (Italian actress Malisa Longo) that she is a woman, so naturally she
doesn’t understand politics (ironically I am watching this as the
Hillary/Bernie race narrows down). He is also massaged by the only other woman
in the room, who is also the only Black person present, as he smokes his stogie
(no, his cigar...Jeez!).
But
then again, Helga is administered to in a full frontal shower (she is nude
often). But her male lover is a Che-looking wannabe. The love scenes are solid
soft-core porn, and are shot like the Euro style of the harder version, replete
with cheesy music consisting mostly of horns. No surprise as Rhomm also did
some hardcore directing under the name Homer Bingo (kid you not).
The
locus moves to the castle/camp for political prisoners at about 15 minutes in,
and all the captives are not only women, but quite lovely, of course. It is
there that the brutality begins with a kind of nondescript rape scene where the
woman tries to fight off the attacker by mostly keeping her arms stretched out
to her sides and throws her head back and forth.. She later complains to her
compadres, who blame her for it (can you tell this was directed by a man?),
that they are being forced to “let those stinking swine make love to us.” Whaaaaaa?
One
of the women has a dubbed thick (fake sounding) New York accent: “Shut yer
trap! You beddah not tawk,” she says in a high-pitched, nasal voice. Later one,
the one black woman of the group will show to have a very deep, Southern
accent, y’all. Their “uniforms” are
overcoats with nothing underneath, and knee-high leather boots, some with high
heels, obviously all the better for doing hard labor. Helga also has a set
series of clothing, such as a thin blue bathrobe, and a combo silk red top and
tight leather pants. Sure there is sometimes a random lingerie item, but it’s
pretty steady.
 |
| Patrizia Gori as Elisabeth |
Joining
the crew is the redheaded daughter of the rebel leader, Elisabeth (the lovely
Patrizia Gori), who naturally is surly and you know is going to lead an
uprising, if her character lives that long (I’m not saying).
There
definitely are some questionable moments of illogic, such as when we see a
guard pacing in front of the six feet of caged door to the room where the (naked)
prisoners sleep, yet one walks over to another bed to ask about Elisabeth, who
has been selected by Helga as her new lover. Where is the guard in all this? It’s
not like he has much to do other than watch for movement. Also, while this is
supposed to be the subtropical South American back-territory, it’s obviously European
woods, and castle (supposedly built by a French landowner). This is typical of
these films, where you have to suspend a few gold coin of disbelief, but then again,
noticing these kinds of things are part of the fun.
After
a gang rape and thrashing, Elisabeth quickly falls for one of the guards (Richard
Allen, aka French adult actor Richard Lemieuvre), who is a friend of her
father. A relationship develops quickly and sends Helga into jealous rage.
Compared
to Ilsa, Helga is hardly as fearsome, as she is often talked back to by her
soldiers, lovers, and even prisoners. Longo is attractive, yes, but she is not
as intimidating a presence as the wild-eyed Thorne. Sure there are whippings
(clothed), manacles, and some rapes (all but one off-sceen), but the sheer
torture porn and castrations of Ilsa are
not present (nor is Uschi Digard, but I digress…).
I
won’t press the point about the ending, which is left on a curious freeze-frame,
but it had me truly laughing that it lasted for about two minutes, while theatrical
Wurlitzer music swirled. Talk about a dichotomy!
After
the film, wait a bit as there are some deleted scenes from the original print,
mostly due to either restrictions by censors or just bad quality negatives. The
only other extra is the film in its original French (which I did not watch).
As
these kinds of films go, while harsh to the naïve viewer, compared to many of
its subgenre mates, it’s actually quite mild. The Linda Blair 1974 television
film Born Innocent was more shocking.
Yeah, this is vile and violent, but in a matter of degrees, it’s not as
hardcore as many of the others.
But
was it fun to watch? Well, honestly, rape scenarios have never been a fave, though
quite prevalent in this oeuvre to justify the actions of the last act, but as a
whole, this was a good viewing. As this is the first time this film has been
released on DVD in North America, adding this to the canon is the historically
right thing to do, as well.
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