If you are going to dive headfirst into the sleazy, sun-dappled depths of Euro-exploitation, you need a maestro at the helm. Enter Joseph W. Sarno, the undisputed auteur of adult cinema who treated trashy premises like high art. With 1972’s Swedish Wildcats, Sarno takes us across the Atlantic for a film that’s part sleazy melodrama, part theatrical sex-circus.
At the center is the sadistic Madam Margareta (Diane Dors), who commands the screen as the ringleader of a live sex-tease show and upscale cathouse. Naturally, Margareta keeps the family business thriving by roping in her stunning nieces, Susanna (Cia Löwgren) and Karen (Solveig Andersson), to headline everything from high-kick stripteases to heavy-handed S&M routines.
Karen breaks free from the Madam’s clutches by running off with a loaded trust-fund guy, leaving the compound behind for good. Meanwhile, Susanna falls head over heels for a shady airport cargo handler who is hiding his own massive web of deceit. Interspersed with an endless parade of kinky live-show segments and dreamy soft-core interludes, Susanna is left to discover that her man’s lies are just as toxic as her aunt’s operation.
This movie has the balls to start with a scene where Margareta makes her girls paint their bodies like panthers, leopards and lions and then, dressed as a lion tamer, parades them for much older men to bid on and catch with butterfly nets. That’s how the movie starts, guys. In real life, Dors got her husband, Alan Lake, a small part in this, and he replied by strangling her on set.
Christina Lindberg shows up and is wearing BDSM gear. I mean, stop reading this now and go watch that.
