Salon Kitty

Artist: Other
Format: UK Quad (30"x 40")
Condition: Very Good
Year: 1976

Description

Co-produced by Italian,  France and West Germany studios, “Salon Kitty”, made in 1976, was released to a storm of controversy and is considered one of the precursors of the Nazisploitation genre that merged sexploitation with Nazi themes (particularly popular in Italy for some reason). The film covers the real events that took place at the Salon Kitty, a World War II Berlin brothel that was used by Heydrich's SD, who had it wire tapped and replaced the prostitutes with trained spies in order to gather information on the Nazi party. Directed by Italian Tinto Brass, famed for his work in the erotic genre of filmmaking, the film was perhaps one of his most controversial works and was released in a time of political unrest in the UK.

The controversy surrounding the film remained in its marketing with the UK Quad shown here causing some outrage. Given the Swastika and nude women performing the "Sieg Heil" salute, it is not hard to see why cinema managers balked at the idea of displaying the poster. A different and tamer design (shown below courtesy of emovieposter.com) which erased the naked "Sieg Heil" performers was released instead. Both versions are still more risqué than the film’s US 1-Sheet (shown below courtesy of emovieposter.com) which features ‘dressed’ women and no prominent images of the swastika. The recalled original Quad is rarer and more collectable than the ‘censored’ version and arguably remains the best poster for the film, clearly controversial but eye-catching as any good cinema poster should be.