Erwin C. Dietrich Movies

Can a working-class wife find happiness through the discipline of sumo wrestling? After half-bright layabout Kenny (Lee Ross) loses his job, he tries to persuade his wife Daisy (Charlotte Brittain) to bring in some extra income by posing for nude photos. Daisy, who is more than a bit overweight, hardly regards this as either amusing or practical, and instead takes a position at a canning plant. Daisy doesn't much care for the work, but dutifully does her job until her boss Marlene (Annette Badland) approaches her with an unusual request. It seems Marlene is a member of a group of women who are fascinated with Japanese culture, and they've taken it upon themselves to secretly found Britain's first female sumo wrestling society. Marlene is convinced Daisy is just the sort of woman they need, and while she's not certain at first, Daisy plays along and soon finds she quite enjoys her new hobby; she's even given an appropriate new nickname, "Mistress Great White Jellyfish." While Daisy is enthusiastically learning the "way of the warrior" without telling her husband, Kenny starts to think something funny is going on, coming to the conclusion that his wife's mind had been overtaken by space aliens. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Popular Swiss comedian Walter Roderer reprises his stage role for this situation comedy. Josef Notzli is a timid bookkeeper who has worked for 26 years in a West Berlin chemical plant. By mistake, he receives a letter intended for the relative of the big boss and is quickly given the position of executive director. Josef's ideas that were once laughed at are implemented and proven to be immensely successful for the company. For once, the little guy wins out over the callous corporate executives that have ignored him for years. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

In this actioner, a band of Vietnam veterans return to the jungle to save their leader from a POW camp. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The Swedish sex comedy Sechs Schwedinnen Von Der Tankstelle centers on a half-dozen attractive woman who become major figures in their town when they start their own business. They engage in a number of behaviors above and beyond the call of duty in order to keep their customers returning time and time again. They end up becoming enemies with the mayor's wife, whose dislike of the group may stem more from jealousy than anything else. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Jesus Franco directed this Ilsa outing, in which the character (Dyanne Thorne) is now a women's prison warden. Also known as both Greta the Mad Butcher and Ilsa--Absolute Power. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

One of cult director Jesus Franco's best-known efforts, this Swiss-West German co-production was his first collaboration with producer Erwin C. Dietrich, who would release numerous Franco efforts through his Elite Film studio. It seems like a standard women's prison tale, with Lina Romay as Maria, jailed for life after killing her father when he tried to rape her. There's a lesbian warden, more rape, torture, insanity, and so forth, with the obligatory conspiracy and a downbeat twist ending to round out the formula. What makes this film different from many others in the subgenre is its unremitting atmosphere of despair and sleaziness, a quality Franco and Dietrich also brought to the similar Greta, Haus Ohne Maenner two years later. Monica Swinn co-stars with Paul Muller, Ramon Ardid, and -- in an expectedly tacky bit of casting -- the director himself as Maria's lecherous father. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

With Soviet forces advancing and Hitler's power slipping, the lusty frauleins recruited to pleasure Nazi soldiers on the front lines discover that no one can please a woman like another woman. Elisabeth Felchner, Renate Kasche, and Karin Heske star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Jesus Franco's campy women's prison film, though both stereotypical and rare to find in its original version, is worthwhile for genre devotees primarily due to an outstanding cast. Mercedes McCambridge is unintentionally hilarious as sadistic lesbian warden Thelma Diaz, spitting tacky dialogue with exuberant venom in a performance so overbearing that it verges on classic. The plot is standard for the genre, as three women (Maria Rohm, Elisa Montes, Luciana Paluzzi) are sentenced to an island prison off the Panamanian coast, only to encounter torture, rape, and lesbianism. When sympathetic Warden Caroll (Maria Schell) replaces Diaz, the prisoners assume that conditions will improve, but their agony only worsens until they decide to escape. Rosalba Neri co-stars, and Herbert Lom runs the corrupt men's prison nearby. 99 Mujeres was heavily censored in various prints, with versions running anywhere between 70 and 108 minutes. Edits running 84, 86, and 94 minutes are most commonly available. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

This preposterous sex melodrama stars pretty Edwige Fenech as a prostitute hired by the overbearing mother (Maud de Belleroche) of a shy, mentally-retarded 20-year old named Tony. Fenech is meant to claim Tony's virginity on a sea cruise, also attended by sexy Paula (Rosalba Neri) and her slimy husband Aldo, who incessantly try to curry the wealthy mother's favor. Ewa Aulin (Candy) shows up as an island girl who dies when the dull-witted Tony accidentally strangles her, leading her husband to board the ship, where he is quickly dispatched by the rifle-toting Neri. Bodies are exploded with dynamite, Neri models a leather bikini, and there is much sexual byplay, both straight and lesbian. Cult buffs will appreciate seeing two of the most famous sex symbols in Italian genre film, Fenech and Neri, sharing the screen in revealing costumes, but anyone looking for high drama would be best served elsewhere. Exploitation master Jerry Gross released the film in America. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Gene Pitney's hit title song for this courtroom drama became a bigger and more enduring success than the film in which it was repeatedly sung. The story takes place in postwar Germany in the village of Neustadt. A group of four drunken American soldiers come upon a teenage girl, Karin Steinhof (Christine Kaufmann), in the woods outside town. She had been trying to seduce her boyfriend, Frank Borgmann (Gerhart Lippert), but the inexperienced young man got flustered and left. The soldiers take advantage of the situation and are charged with rape. Karin's father Herr Steinhof (Hans Nielsen) wants the death penalty. Major Steve Garrett (Kirk Douglas), the attorney whom the military brings in to handle the defense, bullies Karin's parents, warning that he will put her on the stand. He also talks to townspeople and finds out that Karin has a reputation for standing undressed in front of windows as people pass by. Garrett builds a strong case, leading to a dramatic trial and a shocking conclusion. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi