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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: May 26, 2015.
Director: John Hayes
Cast: Jay Scott, E.J. Walsh, William Guhl, Uschi Digard
Year: 1969
Purchase From Vinegar Syndrome
The Movie:
Written and directed by John Hayes, the same man who gave us Grave Of The Vampire, 1969's The Cut-Throats mixes up trashy Nazisploitation style high jinks, softcore sex and poorly staged action scenes all in a California doubling (rather unconvincingly) for WWII era Europe. He gets an A for effort at least. The movie was also released as Cut Throat Kommandos.
The story opens as a sad country and western tune called The Ballad Of Jimmy Johnson plays over the opening credits, all of which appear over some strangely illustrated artwork. Once that's over with, we see a German soldier (an uncredited Michael Pataki) confront and then rape a village woman holding a painting in the middle of 'the woods.' From there? We meet Captain Kohler (E.J. Walsh), a tough American solider leading his group of equally tough G.I.'s through Nazi occupied Europe (California) for one purpose - to get inside a castle and steal some top secret battle plans. Or something. Things get befuddled very quickly when it turns out that what these guys thought was a German stronghold is actually a whorehouse of sorts, complete with a bizarre burlesque show and dancing girls aplenty.
From here the plot it put on hold for a bit as each of our tough, ruggedly handsome, all American soldier boys finds a Euro-babe and gets his wick wet. While this is going on, a buxom female Nazi (Uschi Digard, of course), is letting some other German guy pour what looks like red wine down between her ass cheeks. All in a day's work. If WWII were really this randy, it wouldn't have lasted a week. But really, there's more to this than that - see, Kohler knows that somewhere in the area is stashed a whole lot of Nazi gold, and he intends to get a piece of that. After he bangs some chicks, of course. Once that's done, a dude will find a naked lady in a shower and then everyone will shot at everyone else - but will Kohler get his hands on the gold or not????
The suspense will kill ya.
This isn't a very good war movie but it is a weird enough softcore sex film that fans of softcore sex films will probably get a kick out of it. It's weird and amusing to see Pataki show up in the opening scene, a rape scene that is much darker and which plays out with a considerably more serious tone than anything else in the rest of the movie (including the finale, which we can safely assume was supposed to be downbeat). The tone is all over the place but the film really does spend most of its time showing off its naked female cast. And that's fine, particularly when Frauline Digard is involved. Her scene is a highlight of the film, as it's just sort of crammed in there and thankfully adds nothing to the plot. It's an excuse to show giant hooters and a naked ass and on that level and that level alone, it's a rousing success.
The Cut-Throats is erratic in its pacing and its tone. At times it feels like maybe it's supposed to be funny and at times it feels like maybe it's supposed to be serious - viewers can make up their own minds as to Hayes' intentions here (they were likely to cash in on the success of Love Camp 7 made around the same time - or did this come first? I don't know!!!????) but the movie remains an enjoyable slice of trashy drive-in style cinematic sex and violence. It's filled to the brim with plot holes, historical inaccuracies and wonderful breasts. As such, it's worth seeing. Oh and if that weren't enough, Sandy Carey pops up here too.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Cut-Throats arrives on DVD from Vinegar Syndrome in a new 2k scan from the original 35mm negative framed at 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen. Colors look excellent here and detail is quite strong. Some of the stock footage inserts stick out a bit but that's to be expected and is hardly a strike against the disc. Skin tones look nice and lifelike and black levels are strong. The image is typically quite clean, there are only a few minor specks throughout and a couple of scratches evident in the first few minutes. Overall the movie looks great, fans should be quite pleased.
The English language Dolby Digital Mono sound mix, the only one available on the disc, sounds fine. You might notice the occasional pop in the mix if you're listening for it but aside from that the levels are properly balanced, dialogue is easy to understand and the score and sound effects are mixed in effectively enough. There are no subtitles provided on this DVD.
Extras are limited to a trailer for the feature and a still gallery. Static menus and chapter selection are also included.
The Final Word:
Cheap, stupid and trashy The Cut-Throats delivers pretty much exactly what you'd want it to deliver: naked ladies, bad action scenes, a plot that comes in second place to the aforementioned ladies and plenty of weird late sixties sleazy atmosphere. Vinegar Syndrome's DVD release is light on extras but it sure does look and sound nice - and it's available only from their website.
