A MYSTERY TO SOLVE

Salon Kitty was supposed to have been released in Italy in December 1975, but wasn’t. As noted above, the censor demanded cuts, and the studio obliged by making those cuts in the camera negative and master tapes and discarding the resulting trims. This had all occurred without Brass’s knowledge, and as soon as he found out he sued, arguing author’s rights.

Now here’s what’s strange. It seems that though the negative had been cut to a mere 112 ½ minutes, the release prints were made from an earlier uncut internegative, which was then sloppily censored via hastily made splices, resulitng in jumps in the soundtrack. But these cuts did not always correspond to the cuts made in the camera negative, and this version ran 129 minutes (at cinema speed, 24 frames/second). Once the legal conflict had been settled and a compromise reached, the movie premièred on 2 March 1976 and instantly became one of the highest grossers of the season. You can see the Italian release version on these home videos (about 123 minutes at PAL speed, 25 frames/second). It might be good to bear in mind that even though all but one or two of the actors spoke English on camera, the Italian dub was prepared before the English postsynching.

This version, too, was censored. And though the cuts are similar to those in the Italian release version, they are not exactly the same. This includes a few snippets that never made it to Italian screens. So, think about it. If this included footage that was deleted from the earlier Italian release, that could only be because it derived from a submaster that was longer than the Italian release, surely one that was uncut. But since it was missing some pieces that had been shown in Italy, it was obviously the French censors and/or distributor who did some cutting of their own. And when they censored it, they carefully re-edited the sound to match, covering the cuts perfectly. The result runs about 128 ½ minutes (at 24fps, or about 123 min at 25fps).

Despite claims to the contrary, the entire uncut, uncensored version of the movie had been postsynched and mixed in English prior to the censoring. In all likelihood the English recording had been conducted under Tinto Brass’s direction at the Fono Roma Studio in Rome, but I can’t swear to that. The version released to England (and presumably Denmark, the Netherlands, and Australia) had censor cuts that were identical to those in the French edition. Since the movie was a French co-production, it is reasonable to assume that the French producer made the cuts to the submasters prior to sending them out to England and elsewhere. But there’s no way to be sure of the exact sequence of events without unearthing the studio records. These videotapes represent the UK version. By the way, for those who might be interested, the British Film Institute has in its archive several 35mm prints of the UK release version.

Thenceforward, new prints would be made from the censored camera neg (and accompanying master tapes), which was a mere 112 ½ minutes (at 24fps). Surprisingly, this included a few bits and pieces missing from the previous releases. Opening and closing credits were in English, but the caption about the declaration of war was now unalterably in Italian (which means that the camera neg for this particular shot probably no longer exists, and was replaced by an interneg that incorporated the caption). This much-shortened version can be seen in these videos.

The Blue Underground DVD release was an attempted restoration, which used as its main source the 112 ½-minute negative, and the gaps were filled in from Tinto’s personal 35mm print of the uncensored Italian dub, which is the only known surviving copy of the complete film. Strangely, several sections with missing soundtrack, such as “Orpheus in the Underworld,” were filled in by repeated sections. Why this was done I’m not sure, since the “Orpheus in the Underworld” sequence had no dialogue and survived intact in the Italian version which can be heard on Audio Track 2. In the medical-theatre scene, one portion of a missing line was pulled from the earlier Australian VHS. Though most of the other missing audio sections could likewise have been pulled from the earlier English-language VHS editions, they weren’t, and so now they’re in Italian with English subtitles.)

This is where the story gets really strange. If we are to judge only from the materials above, we would conclude that it is unlikely that an uncut interneg or interpositive, or master or submaster audiotapes, survived intact past February 1976. But then we look at the version released in Germany. Despite being the most drastically shortened of all, running a mere 105 minutes, it includes snippets of nearly all the footage missing from the Italian and French/British versions! These prints were created AFTER the negative had been censored. So that settles the issue. The Italian, French, and German release editions were each derived from uncensored submasters, which may consequently have been cut up in the process. If there were three uncut submasters, there is a fair chance that there were more, as back-ups and for further international releases. Further, the trims from at least one of those three submasters might well still exist somewhere! (And if you watch all the different versions, you’ll be amused to see that no two censors can agree on which materials are objectionable.) So why were there at least three uncensored submasters floating around AFTER the camera negative and master tapes had been cut to pieces? The answer is probably the simplest and most obvious one: Salon Kitty was a co-production by Coralta Cinematografica of Rome, Les Productions Fox Europa of Paris, and Cinema Seven Film Gmbh of Munich. So by contract the other two producers probably each got a set of uncensored submasters prior to the censorship problems in Italy. It would probably be a good guess that the entire film was dubbed into German prior to the censoring. (The tape pictured here is a Greek-subtitled edition of the German dub.)

Hmmmm. It’s now on DVD in Germany. Will this help us to sort things out? Frustratingly, it won’t. This is taken from the Blue Underground edition, though it was not a straightforward conversion; it was speed-corrected to 25 frames per second to accommodate the PAL system, and thus runs about 128 minutes. (Such a speed correction, though anathema to many purists, eliminates the problems of duplicated, dropped, and synthesized frames, which are the inevitable results of more conventional conversions.) When we choose to listen to the German dub, we discover that it’s not all there. The parts that had not previously been released in Germany are now in Italian with German subtitles. Interestingly, there are two subtitle options: German and English (taken from the Blue Underground version). There are also three audio options: German, Italian, and English (taken from the Blue Underground reconstruction).

Variety, Wednesday, 10 July 1974, p 26:

Oceania producer Giulio Sbarigia has offered “Salon Kitty” to Sidney Lumet. Project was originally set for director Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, who is now actively prepping “The Divine Nymph” for Titanus.

Variety, Wednesday, 29 January 1975, p 38:

Tinto Brass and scripter Ken Adam are in Germany selecting locations for the Coralta project “Salon Kitty.”

Variety, Wednesday, 2 April 1975, p 44:

Ingrid Thulin has femme lead under the direction of Tinto Brass in “Salon Kitty”—Coralta’s big budgeter starting April 24 on location in Germany.

Variety, Wednesday, 7 May 1975, p 140:

Last month Giovanni Tinto Brass took “Salon Kitty” before cameras with Helmut Berger, Ingrid Thulin and Beckim Fehmiu heading a cameo-studded cast. In the Ken Adams production design pic rolls three weeks in Berlin and ten weeks at Dear Studios in filming story of espionage and prostitution in Berlin during W.W. II.

Variety, Wednesday, 18 June 1975, p 32:

Richard Crenna arrived to join cast of “Salon Kitty,” midway through production with Tinto Brass directing.

Variety, Wednesday, 2 July 1975, p 38:

John Ireland moved over from a costarring role in “We’re No Angels” to a guest spot in Coralta’s “Salon Kitty.”

Variety, Wednesday, 6 August 1975, p 30:

SALON KITTY (May 12 start in Germany and Dear Studios)....

Variety, Wednesday, 28 January 1976, p 32:

Also in the censor eye, Tinto Brass—director of the banned Coralta production, “Salon Kitty,” has gone on the warpath against producer acceptance of 30 cuts or trims requested by the Censor board before authorizing release.

“Ich”—Helmut Berger’s Autobiography:

Many people only see me as an extravagant scandal-guy. But I am an actor. I show my feelings so that people can read them like a book. I have learned from great directors like Visconti, Tinto Brass, de Sica. They have changed me.

Variety, Wednesday, 19 January 1977, p 22:

“Madam Kitty” is a piece of elegant, often amusing, sometimes repulsive pornography about sordid doings in a World War II Nazi brothel where the girls spy on SS men for commandant Helmut Berger and madam Ingrid Thulin. Production values are excellent. Director Giovanni Tinto Brass gets more sophisticated entertainment mileage from the sordid material than the low-brow sell would indicate....

“Madam Kitty” sidesteps much of the offensiveness of its subject matter through its campy tone. Thulin entertains brothel patrons with ludicrous Dietrich-like song interludes, while Berger’s Nazi routine is getting to be a complete joke. He acts and sounds more like Peter Lorre all the time....

First-class tech credits include superlative orchestration of Viennese waltzes and period tunes by Fiorenzo Carpi, inventive lensing by Silvano Ippoliti, and stylish production design by Ken Adam....

Archer Winsten, New York Post, 22 January 1977, p 33:

...It may be argued that the picture is simplistic, wholly lacking in subtleties and kicking the Nazis around with what amounts to caricature. The fact remains, however, that much of the Nazi pomp and ceremony lends itself to that interpretation. This picture has much to recommend it if you can view it without revulsion and with some memory of the time, place and people involved.

To my great wonder and delight, I discovered that there was once an entirely favorable review, by a critic who perfectly understood the movie and its intentions. Significantly, the critic, Doug de Lisle, was primarily an actor and director; hence his critiques were noted for their incisiveness. After discovering his review, in May 2008, I desperately wanted to contact him, but discovered to my agonized sadness that he had died only shortly before, on 1 February 2008. You can see his obituary by clicking here. His column in the Troy, New York, newspaper, The Times Record, was cleverly entitled “Doug de Lisle — On the Aisle.” This particular review, published on Thursday, 27 January 1977, p 15, was actually a review of multiple arts events, and hence was entitled “A Masterful Violin Performance.” Here it is:

SLEAZY ADS, GREAT PICTURE.... American International Pictures, that wonderful company that has brought us such films as Blacula and A Matter of Time, has never been noted for class or taste, but occasionally even the grossest of swine stumble into something other than garbage, which is the case with Madam Kitty.

American International didn’t make the film, but has released it through a subsidiary arm in this country. What sin they have committed is releasing a classic, powerful, even brilliant film in conjunction with a sleazy advertising campaign that would have the public believe that Madam Kitty is a film which ranks somewhere with Ilse, She Wolf of the SS.

Not so. I can’t remember the last time a film wiped me out with such devastating skill and artistry. Director Tinto Brass has conjured a nightmare vision of Nazi Germany that is simply overpowering. Nudity and simulated sex along with the portrayed decadence earn the film its X rating, but to reiterate reviewer Michael Adler’s comments, there is nothing pornographic about the film itself.

Don’t let the ad campaign turn you off — do see Madam Kitty. A warning is in order. Much of the film could offend some straighter sensibilities. The film is kinky, but never in a cheap or exploitive way. What director Brass does is reveal, probe and strip the pornography and depravity of Nazi Germany more lucidly than even Luchino Visconti in his The Damned. The experience is worth it....