This is a low-budget effort with a
meandering story which takes place during the Germany of the Weimar
Republic. "The Tigress" leaves Berlin because of her dangerous mobster
boyfriend. She teams up with an American grifter, and when they reach
Karlsbad, the two concoct a scheme to fleece a Texas oil millionaire,
played by Hannibal from the A-Team. Meanwhile, the mobster boyfriend
picks up her trail.
The acting in this film is sometimes
"expressionistic," to be charitable. The mobster boyfriend is straight
out of a Jean Rollin movie. Imagine that you got a bunch of sixth
graders together and told them to act like an evil mobster - well, the
guy who played this role wouldn't be one of the most subtle in the
class. In fact he'd probably be the least subtle unless he went to
school with F. Murray Abraham.
Before the ending it's just another
uninspired B film, and at least it has a compass bearing on reality,
but get this ...
(spoilers,
of course)
Tigress and the American have gone
their separate ways. The American skips out on his hotel bill, so he
is now fleeing from both the police and the mobster - on foot - and
finally escapes by grabbing a freight train in the train yard. Well,
he gets into a little contretemps on the train with some hobos who
want to steal his clothing, so he has to jump from the speeding train
to avoid being overpowered. He doesn't know where he is, but it's a
desolate area somewhere halfway between Marienbad and Prague. Weary
and battered, he pulls himself out of the trackside ditch and stumbles
to the nearby road.
Well, guess who is parked there in
the new Bugatti she fleeced from the oil millionaire?
And guess who doesn't seem surprised
to see her?
Oh, by the way, she didn't know he
was on that train, and he had no idea what had happened to her. They
just happened to run into one another randomly, and were not surprised
to do so.
Because , hey, Europe is a small
continent.
(end
spoilers)
There is quite a bit of nudity,
including the full frontal variety, from earthy Valentina Vargas, who
is probably best known as The Girl in The Name of the Rose. The only
other strength of the movie is a genuine sense of visual style, and an
appreciation for the styles and fashions of the 20's.