"A German prison camp is transformed into a chamber of sensual horrors."
Although based on Magnum Entertainment's rather mundane cover art, THE DESERT TIGERS (1977) seems like nothing more than your typical low-budget WWII film, but stick with it as includes a few sleazy surprises.
Major Lexman (Richard
Harrison) and British Lt. Keller (Isarco Ravaioli) command a joint squadron to
destroy an oil refinery in the North African desert, which they accomplish without any issues, but they are soon 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 with the Germans hot on their trail...
Partially modeled after The GREAT ESCAPE (1965) on 2% of that film's budget, this cut-rate effort from Z-grade
filmmaker Luigi Batzella (using his Ivan Kathansky pseudonym) is, for the most part, a fairly
uninteresting WWII potboiler, which even includes a number of borrowed action scenes.* However, given that this was helmed by the same team who also put together the infamous Naziploitation film THE BEAST
IN HEAT (a.k.a. SS HELL CAMP, 1977), it's not surprising that THE DESERT TIGERS also features several graphic bits of torture and nudity that rival anything seen in other Naziploitation efforts of the time. Both Lea Lander and the unscrupulous Gordon Mitchell give truly clammy scene-stealing performances that definitely fit the film's squalid origins.
Released in 1986, Magnum’s tape actually sports a
decent, although somewhat dark transfer, which looks to be uncut. This was
also released by Classic Family Entertainment (!) with the same bland cover art, which no doubt 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.
An Italian DVD was released by Perseo in 2008, which included a nice anamorphic transfer, but the disc was unfortunately in Italian only.
* 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), which was released on U.S. videotape in the '80s as SABOTAGE by All American. 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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