Women in Bondage - Gail Patrick

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Hitler's Women" or "Hitler's Captive Women")

directed by Steve Sekely
USA 1943

With her husband ordered to the Russian front, Margot Bracken (Gail Patrick) returns to Hitler's Germany for the first time in 10 years. Appointed section leader of the local youth movement, she finds herself responsible for the Nazification of a group of teenaged girls. Bearing witness to mercy killings, suicides, torture and pagan baptisms, Margot seeks to stop the atrocities before the SS puts an end to both her and her plans. A lurid exposé of the Reich's subjugation of women, Women in Bondage was one of Monogram's more elaborate productions, featuring inventive direction by Steve Sekely (Hollow Triumph) and a stellar cast that included Patrick (My Favorite Wife), Nancy Kelly (The Bad Seed) and H.B. Warner (Lost Horizon). Retiring from the screen in 1948, Patrick would later gain fame as the executive producer of Perry Mason, one of the most successful and longest-running courtroom mystery series in television history.

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Theatrical Release: 16 November 1943 (USA)

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DVD Review: Warner Home Video (Warner Archive Collection) - Region 0 - NTSC

Big thanks to Gregory Meshman for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Warner Home Video Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime	1:10:33
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 7.67 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	Dolby Digital Mono (English)
Subtitles	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Warner Home Video Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • None DVD Release Date: June 11th, 2013 Keep Case Chapters 8

Comments

The title Women in Bondage would make you think it's some kind of lost 1970's "Women in Prison" exploitation flick starring Pam Grier that belongs in Women in Cages Shout! Factory collection. Instead, this is a 1943 anti-Nazi propaganda from poverty row studio Monogram starring Gail Patrick, an underrated actress mostly remembered for "the other woman in a screwball comedy" roles (My Man Godfrey, My Favorite Wife, The Doctor Takes a Wife) and producing Perry Mason TV series. Gail Patrick plays a woman returning to Nazi Germany after 10 years abroad and seeing the changes her homeland underwent after Hitler came to power. Nancy Kelly (The Bad Seed) is a young girl unable to marry her SS officer boyfriend for some superficial reasons and she is the one to experience bondage from the film's title. Other roles are played by mostly unknown cast (except H.B. Warner of silent The King of Kings) and many scenes are filmed on a very busy city street stage, which is something we usually don't expect from a low budget picture. The direction is by Steve Sekely (Hollow Triumph) with a very noir-like atmosphere and some inventive shots.

The film was released under different titles - Hitler's Women and Hitler's Captive Women (on a double bill with Slaves of a Soviet - there is a fascinating trailer for this double feature from Dwain Esper on YouTube circa 1951), but the print used for this made-on-demand disc from Warner Archives has original title card. It is the first authorized release of this rare film on home video and the remastered print does have some damaged framed (see second capture) and some marks (including cue marks) and specs. The contrast is fine, but some scenes are soft. This is still a very presentable quality transfer and the English mono audio is decent. There are no extras provided for the film and the feature gets 8 chapters, a chapter every 10 minutes. A very welcome release for a rare exploitation flick.

- Gregory Meshman

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