Can anyone give me any info on this company that I think tried to rival Color Climax in the 1970's.
I have some of their material, and its very good
Herzog 1970s films
Herzog 1970s films
The West London of my youth is now on dvd
I've met the man on the street............and he's a cunt
I've met the man on the street............and he's a cunt
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beutelwolf
- Posts: 1210
- Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:40 am
Re: Herzog 1970s films
Herzog was run by Gunther Otto, who originally worked as a cinematographer in softporn. His wife, Eva Astor, is an actress and singer who appeared in small walk-on parts in those softporn flicks, typically for interval folkore. She often did voice-overs for Herzog film, even on some of the new Herzog productions. These days the company is run by Marcus Otto, their son.
In the 1970s the company was involved with two large and fairly successful movie ventures: the Lass jucken Kumpel series, and the Liebesgr?sse aus der Lederhose series. Their biggest success in hardcore was the first Josefine Mutzenbacher film. After falling out with director Hans Billian, Otto directed 5 sequels himself whilst Billian was continuing independently.
Controversial was part 5 of the Lass jucken Kumpel series. Otto had private contractual arrangements with some members of the cast, and filmed hardcore scenes with them after hours. Apparently, the director and several other cast members were unaware of that, and when Otto released a hardcore version in the 1980s it came as a big shock for them; there was a court case, and Otto lost - the film was confiscated. This is the reason why this has never made it to DVD.
Not all the 1970s material Herzog now releases is their own stuff; apart from some French and some American films, some of their German DVD releases were orginally produced by Tabu/Starlight, or Imperial, or Alois Brummer.
In the 1970s the company was involved with two large and fairly successful movie ventures: the Lass jucken Kumpel series, and the Liebesgr?sse aus der Lederhose series. Their biggest success in hardcore was the first Josefine Mutzenbacher film. After falling out with director Hans Billian, Otto directed 5 sequels himself whilst Billian was continuing independently.
Controversial was part 5 of the Lass jucken Kumpel series. Otto had private contractual arrangements with some members of the cast, and filmed hardcore scenes with them after hours. Apparently, the director and several other cast members were unaware of that, and when Otto released a hardcore version in the 1980s it came as a big shock for them; there was a court case, and Otto lost - the film was confiscated. This is the reason why this has never made it to DVD.
Not all the 1970s material Herzog now releases is their own stuff; apart from some French and some American films, some of their German DVD releases were orginally produced by Tabu/Starlight, or Imperial, or Alois Brummer.
Re: Herzog 1970s films
Thank you for that sir!
I have some of their films, and I have to admit, it is almost as good as Color Climax, and far superior to the US Swedish Erotica series!
I have some of their films, and I have to admit, it is almost as good as Color Climax, and far superior to the US Swedish Erotica series!
The West London of my youth is now on dvd
I've met the man on the street............and he's a cunt
I've met the man on the street............and he's a cunt
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mrporter51
- Posts: 55
- Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:40 am
Re: Herzog 1970s films
Josefine Mutzenbacher is up there as one of the best porn films ever made.
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beutelwolf
- Posts: 1210
- Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:40 am
Re: Herzog 1970s films
Just adding one more detail: Herzog has announced the release of an audio version of the Mutzenbacher story, narrated by the dubbing voice of Josephine Mutzenbacher, so it says. Listening to one of the samples on their web page, I would say that it's indeed Eva Astor. The good woman is already in her 60ies...
BTW the Mutzenbacher story is (in Germany) still classified as jugendgef?hrdend (corrupting the youth) and thus even audio and print versions of the material are limited in the way they can be distributed. In the early seventies Christine Schuberth, who played the Mutzenbacher part in Nachmann's softcore films, got into trouble (and indeed prison) for the despicable act of narrating the story on vinyl.
BTW the Mutzenbacher story is (in Germany) still classified as jugendgef?hrdend (corrupting the youth) and thus even audio and print versions of the material are limited in the way they can be distributed. In the early seventies Christine Schuberth, who played the Mutzenbacher part in Nachmann's softcore films, got into trouble (and indeed prison) for the despicable act of narrating the story on vinyl.
Re: Herzog 1970s films
Here in the UK 'concerned citizens' [or Government busybodies] would probably raise a hue and cry lest motorists listening to such 'audio-porn' be 'distracted', and cause an accident :- ))
"a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the
signification...."
signification...."
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beutelwolf
- Posts: 1210
- Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:40 am
Re: Herzog 1970s films
> Here in the UK 'concerned citizens' [or Government busybodies]
> would probably raise a hue and cry lest motorists listening to
> such 'audio-porn' be 'distracted', and cause an accident :- ))
perhaps in the 1980s...
The issue with the (first) Mutzenbacher novel is not really that it's porn: there is incest, endorsement of prostitution, and in particular there is child porn, because the Josefine Mutzenbacher character is under age throughout the book. In comparison, most actresses having played her in the movies were about 15 year older than the character in the book.
For example, the episode with the abusive priest which we find in both Billian's and Nachmann's Mutzenbacher film is in the novel an incident Josefine experiences as a child of 8 or 9. In the movies, Josefine appears complicit in the episode, because she's played by an adult woman, but that complicity was not there in the novel.