Unidentified movies, cut and banned before the November 1971 liberalisation of the Australian censorship system.
The decade and country of production are an educated guess. Do not rely on either to help identify a title, as they may be incorrect.
Contact us if you can provide more information about any of these titles.
More unidentified films can be found on the corresponding pages in Film Censorship Database No. 1.
The Bad Women of Perra
aka E Dieftharmeni Tou Perran
Produced by Kulup Films / 19?? / Turkey / IMDb link required
Date: 10-1970 / Rated: SOA / Length: 8061 feet / Time: 89:34 / Censored by 00:06 / Reason: violence
Current information
Mike reports
None of the Kulup Films on IMDb look at all promising. However, KADIN DUSMANI (1967) drew my attention. It is sometimes described as an early Turkish giallo, but it’s more inspired by the Krimis.
The Censorship Board made 00:06 of cuts. KADIN DUSMANI has three moments of violence, two stabbings and someone being hit over the head with a hammer, which each last 00:02.
The title means woman-hater or misogynist, and one of the English language titles is WOMAN DESPISER. This refers to the male killer who definitely hates women. The Greek title means THE BAD WOMAN OF PERRA, or more accurately something like THE CORRUPT WOMAN OF PERRA.
Pera is the old Greek name for the Beyoglu district of Istanbul. In KADIN DUSMANI, there is definitely a corrupt woman who lives in Pera – the murderer’s mother. She is fully aware of his killings and doesn’t go to the police, tries to rationalise them and eventually commits a murder herself. The aim is to clear her son of suspicion since this is one murder he couldn’t have committed as he’s in police custody for something else at the time. So she’s pretty complicit.
One further point about linguistics – in the Greek title, the last word should technically be PERAN with one R, meaning of Pera. I’m told that it’s very unlikely that a Greek speaker would use a double R by mistake as it’s not just a typo and completely changes the meaning of a word. But you might double the R if you were trying to convey a sense of mystery or strangeness, and that’s exactly the kind of place Pera seems to be in the film.
And the English title, THE BAD WOMEN OF PERRA. Why women rather than woman? Could be a mistranslation, or possibly it just sounded more exciting that way. One point in favour of the mistranslation theory is that to be strictly accurate, when translating back to English, it should have been PERA rather than PERRA.
We’d have to get round the fact that IMDb says that Engin Films produced it, with Ilhan Engin directing, rather than Kulup Films. Sometimes one company would produce a film and another would buy the overseas rights, but there’s no evidence that happened in this case.
La Mort
Produced by Finos Films / 19?? / Greece / IMDb link required
Date: 04-1971 / Rated: A / Length: 8821 feet / Time: 98:01 / Censored by 02:09 / Reason: violence
Current information
Mike reports
The Finos Films submissions in Australia reached a peak in 1970 to 1973. During this period they were releasing films almost always in the same order as they were made and roughly twelve months after they premiered in Greece. If we follow that pattern then LA MORT really ought to be AFTOI POU MILISAN ME TON THANATO (1970) which translates as THOSE WHO SPEAK TO DEATH.
The runtime is perfect and if we look at the synopsis on IMDb and the images it certainly seems like there would have been some violence which would have troubled the Film Censorship Board.
Another part of the pattern seems to be that for titles which might have broader appeal Finos Films translated the Australian release title to English, otherwise they used the original Greek one. I guess since this is a war film it might have been seen as marketable beyond the Greek community so it was translated. I can sort of imagine someone thinking that THOSE WHO SPEAK TO DEATH might not be a great title as you might think it’s a film about clairvoyants, and the English title DEATH is not that informative either and a bit too direct. LA MORT has different connotations from DEATH as it suggests something more metaphorical, and the film seems to be about people who face death rather than who necessarily actually die. It’s all speculation of course and you still have a French title being used for a film which isn’t being targeted at a French audience.
There’s no trace of AFTOI POU MILISAN ME TON THANATO online and apparently its only release was long ago on Greek VHS although there are reports of occasional screenings on Greek TV.
I’d also be inclined to rule out the possibility that there is a Finos Films production out there somewhere that was actually called LA MORT and which has been forgotten. They seem to be very much in control of their release history and catalogue all their films on their website, and apparently remove them quickly if unauthorised copies appear online.
Naked to Hell
Producer Vass-Fischer / 196? / West Germany / IMDb link required
Date: 09-1970 / Rated: SOA / Length: 8051 feet / Time: 89:27 / Censored by 02:01 / Reason: violence and indecency
The daybill lists the distributor as Chesterman International.
Current information
The Film Censorship Bulletin lists the Producer as Vass-Fishcer. The IMDb has a listing for Vass & Fischer, who are credited for one film, VULKAN DER HÖLLISCHEN TRIEBE(1968).
It appears to have played in the USA as NAKED TO HELL.
In 1969, NAKED TO HELL was banned in Hong Kong. The reason given was ‘Corrupt morals, cause deep shock or disgust, encourage crime, particularly crimes of violence’.
Mike reports
There are ads in the Canadian press between June 1971 in Toronto to November 1973 in Calgary.
The actress on the daybill appears to be Heidrun Kussin. If it is, then it narrows it down to her five colour films in 1969.
- DIE NEFFEN DES HERRN GENERAL (1969)
- OSWALT KOLLE: DEINE FRAU, DAS UNBEKANNTE WESEN (1969)
- OSWALT KOLLE – ZUM BEISPEIL: EREBUCH (1969)
- SEVERAL TIMES DAILY (1969)
- THE SWINGIN’ PUSSYCATS (1969)
Of these, the extremely obscure and apparently almost completely forgotten DIE NEFFEN DES HERRN GENERAL looks by far the most likely candidate. The difficulty is that there’s so little information about this film and no evidence I can find of any release after the original cinema showings.