Nathalie rescapée de l’enfer (1978)

Traveling doctor and professional Lea Thompson lookalike Nathalie (Patrizia Gori) gets involved in a kerfuffle between Nazi officers and Russian partisans which leads her on a one way trip to the local nick “but if you send me away who will look after the sick?” cut to Nazi’s shooting the sick, d’oh! Meanwhile at the ministry of silly facial hair a Scotsman, an Englishman and a Russian listen to bagpipe music and smoke pipes, this little brain trust are a group of high ranking officers apparently and the topic under discussion is the correct temperature at which an Irish coffee should be served, oh and one of our Russian agents has gone missing. Looks like the missing spy, Ingrid, is being held at Stilberg Castle. Lucky for them that’s exactly where Nathalie is about to be shipped so “Nathalie, you must free Ingrid…or kill her!”

In charge of Stilberg is Colonel Gunther, well he would be if he wasn’t rat-arsed drunk all day. Unfortunately second in command is Frau Hortz, an unstable dominatrix with rubber undergarments and a predilection for, you guessed it, whipping and maniacal laughter. Lucky for Nathalie however one of the guards, Lt. Erik Muller, just so happens to be the officer she saved in aforementioned kerfuffle and he’s a pretty decent bloke, well, for a Nazi anyway. So Nathalie gets to be the facility’s doctor rather than another of it’s poor prisoners; women forced to service the Nazi officers suffering from ‘war fatigue’. Frau Hortz doesn’t like this special treatment one bit though and does all she can to make things difficult for Nathalie, including being a bit of a sex pest and trying to give her away to a drunken Nazi in a hand of poker. Lt Muller is shocked by this behavior “Since when have German officers taken advantage of women against their will!” apparently he thinks he’s in a proper WWII film or something. Anyway Nathalie buys it and she’s in love. Frau Hortz on the other hand is making like Nomi in Showgirls and pushing her professional rival down a tall flight of stairs, look out Colonel Gunther, oh too late! And guess who she’s framing for the murder….yup. How will Nathalie get out of this one? And more importantly will she remember she’s supposed to be looking for a spy called Ingrid? I won’t spoil it for you, I’ll just say there will be a flogging!

As low budget Nazisploitation goes this one was very entertaining! The sadism was at a minimum relatively speaking, the acting ridiculously over the top; Frau Hortz coming off like an insane evil Lynda Carter Wonder Woman with a whip. The internal politics of a Nazi whorehouse/prison played for laughs almost. However it’s quite an odd experience watching this one directly after Elsa Fraulein SS, Helga She Wolf Of Stilberg & Special Train For Hitler due to Eurocine reusing sets, costumes, locations, vehicles and even whole sequences from those films; in this case the champagne orgy and a few of the kinky encounters from Special Train make an appearance. Patrizia Gori was the victim/heroine in both Elsa and Helga. The extras, costumed exactly the same, are becoming very familiar to me; ginger John Lennon actually gets some lines this time and goes on a heroic suicide mission while monacled baldy SS guy plays a major role at the beginning of the film. Also making a reappearance are Vogel (public enemy No 1 from Helga) and his spy John, both playing what appear to be the exact same characters, as well as the countess from Special Train as Ingrid the Russian spy! Oh and of course Stilberg Castle itself is back from Helga She Wolf Of Stilberg.

Alternate Titles
Nathalie Escapa Del Infierno Nazi
Nathalie Escapes from Hell
Nathalie Escape from Hell
Nathalie, rescapee de l’enfer