Welcome back to the world of long, lost VHS
tapes. For this second installment,
let’s take a look at Magnum Entertainment’s The DESERT TIGERS (1977),
a rather mundane WWII film with a few sleazy surprises.
Beginning rather abruptly, Maj. Lexman (Richard
Harrison) and British Lt. Keller (Isarco Ravaioli) command a joint squadron to
destroy an oil refinery in the North African desert. They accomplish their mission perfectly, but
unfortunately, they are captured and sent to a German POW camp overseen by
Kommandant Von Stulzen (Gordon Mitchell) and Dr. Lessing (Lea Lander). However, it isn’t very long before Lexman and
Keller begin organizing the other prisoners for a daring escape, which once
again lands them the desert and the Germans hot on their trail.
Partially modeled after The GREAT ESCAPE (1965), this cut-rate effort from Z-grade
filmmaker Luigi Batzella (using his Ivan Kathansky pseudonym) is a fairly
uninteresting WWII potboiler but, like his infamous SS HELL CAMP (aka The BEAST
IN HEAT, 1977), The DESERT TIGERS
also features a number sleazy moments interspersed with “borrowed” action scenes*. Despite the innocuous cover of Magnum’s tape,
the film features all the requisite nudity, torture and flogging during the
central “chamber of sensual horrors” sequence, which wouldn’t be out of place
in any number of Italian naziploitation efforts of the time. In a typical scene, Von Stulzen and his
drunken troops grope topless Bedouin women while a cross-dressing belly dancer
moves to the strains of some generic Arabic melodies. Over-acting wildly, Mitchell as Von Stulzen
exclaims, “Even with an army of perverts, we shall win the war” in one of the
film’s most memorable lines. For the
most part though, The DESERT TIGERS
stays firmly within the usual WWII norms and ends just as abruptly as it began.
Released in 1986, Magnum’s tape actually sports a
decent, although somewhat dark transfer and looks to be uncut, which even includes a
rather startling castration. This was
also released with the same bland cover on Classic Family Entertainment, which
would certainly raise a few eyebrows if some oblivious parents rented this for
their kids. The video generated title
card is most likely replacing the film’s original export title of ACHTUNG! THE DESERT TIGERS, which seems
rather unnecessary.
Obviously, this tape is long out-of-print, but the
film was released on Italian DVD under its original title of KAPUT
LAGER: GLI ULTIMI GIORNI DELLE SS on Perseo in a nice (and brighter) 1.85:1
anamorphic transfer and, despite what Amazon Italy claims,
it’s only in Italian. You can order it here.
* The entire battle
sequence at the desert oasis is taken from Alfredo Rizzo’s HEROES WITHOUT GLORY (aka I
Giardini del Diavolo, 1970), which was also pilfered by Eurociné for many
of their in-house productions including Pierre Chevalier’s EAST OF BERLIN (aka Convoi de
Femmes, 1978) and A.M. Frank’s OASIS
OF THE ZOMBIES (aka L’Abime des
Morts-Vivants, 1981). Some of the
action scenes from The DESERT TIGERS
subsequently turned up in Batzella’s BLACK
GOLD (aka Strategia per une Missione
di morte, 1979). Whew!
I remember seeing Mitchell and Harrison in "Kathansky"/Batzella's BLACK GOLD / aka STRATEGIA PER UNA MISSIONE DI MORTE (1977) way back when. I was just thinking when I started reading this that some of the footage would have to have been reused in it, and sure enough, you confirm it! I haven't seen DESERT TIGERS, but I can remember how much of a cheapo BLACK GOLD was, so I can well imagine how this thing must look!
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