The Beast in Heat (1977)

Oh boy, it's Nazisploitation sleaze time! The Beast in Heat delivers on the sleaze, but in uneven doses that are good enough to wake you up if you fall asleep during the long stretches of Italian peasants vs. Nazi soldiers.

The Beast in Heat is about two things: a boring group of Italian peasants who are resisting Nazi occupation by blowing up strategic bridges and such; and the experiments of a sexy, sadistic, Nazi scientist chick who has made a neanderthal with a superpower: supervirility! What use is such a superpower for Germany, one might ask? Why, screwing female prisoners to death, of course. And what good is that? Making sleaze scenes for us. Or maybe it's symbolic of how people have lost faith in good human morals and are no longer kind to one another. Anyway, these two subplots meet up in a grand stroke of narrative when the scientist and her caged neanderthal are sent to teach the peasants' women a lesson in sharing.

A lot of dull scenes ensue discussing strategy, the religious views of one of the peasants, the mistreatment of an Italian woman who has become a mistress to the Nazi commander for information, and some shooting and conniving with Nazis. In between these are scenes of Nazis shooting old women and babies. And finally, an hour into the film, the sleaze begins, with a female Nazi raping an Italian man, cutting off a man's genitals, throwing women to the neanderthal, electrocuting vaginas with jumper cables, shooting vaginas with pistols, ripping out pubic hair by the roots, and that sort of thing.

The neanderthal himself is nothing more than a burly man who hops on the women naked and generally humps any part of them that's between his legs at the moment. Since we see everything, it's clear he never gets an erection; which is remarkable, considering he's grappling with beautiful, naked ladies. His wordless growls mid-hump resonate with the frustration of human desires. Or maybe he's just enjoying himself.

There's lots of full frontal nudity, of both men and women. With both genders, some are decent to look at and some aren't. A big problem is the positions they're put in. It's hard to find a lady attractive when her vagina is being electrocuted and she looks in serious need of a bath. It's also hard to find it erotic to see a burly man humping at a woman like a dog with a pillow.

The Beast in Heat is a dull movie, though a bona fide sleazy one. The sleaze is too stupid and goofy to make you feel that sleazy, dirty feeling, that feeling where you have to take a shower after watching the movie. It's more likely to make you laugh and cringe a little. For that matter, the movie tries to have a message about non-violence, too, ending on an emotional moment with a father and his dead daughter. This is an inept picture for die-hard sleaze-fans or Nazisploitation fans only.

Bonus points:
Neanderthal eating pubic hair